Its a hot topic when you talk about the particulars of salvation though grace by faith. One one extreme, you have the folks that believe that if you, at any time in you life, called upon Jesus as Lord of your life and receive salvation then it is yours forever - no matter what. Even if you decide at some point you want to become a serial killer or take up an alternate religion. On the other extreme you have salvation as a free gift, but to redeem it, you must turn from your life of sin and love as God loves and if you fulfill these requirements to the day of judgement, then you will be saved from eternal punishment.
I will be posting scripture as I find it that I feel deals with this topic. Perhaps, one day, I will be able to make a firm conclusion from these findings.
Matt 18
32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
This is before Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Did He mean to say that this is how it is, or how it will be?
About Me
- Thom
- Edenton, NC, United States
- I owe God my life; I look forward to paying Him back for eternity.
5 comments:
i think the bigger point of this passage is about the nature of the kingdom. as the kingdom comes in fuller measure, forgiveness will be ubiquitous...
if this does not happen to you, then you're not kingdom material!
thanks craig, this is certainly something im looking for folks to chime in on. there seems to be a growing movement amongst the christian body against the once-saved-always-saved theology. im on a personal quest to find any and all clues that Jesus Himself left behind as to the particulars of who enters the Kingdom and who does not.
i suppose that what you may be saying is that He is not refering to forgiveness on earth as prerequisite for entering the Kingdom, but rather when living in the Kingdom, this is how the Heavenly Father deals with those in Heaven who do not forgive?
I should clarify my thoughts on "the kingdom"
I believe that there is a kingdom aspect to our current human experience --here on the earth now -- and that is what Jesus is talking about in these passages comparing things to the kingdom of God.
I believe that the kingdom is coming on this earth (cf. the lord's prayer) but it's not yet entirely here, since sin still exists. eventually the kingdom will be here in its entirety, and all tears will be wiped away, etc. For that to happen the earth will have to go through some serious upheaval, and believers will be whisked away, temporarily.
So, the kingdom is on the move, you could say, and a key aspect of it is forgiveness. If you do not forgive, then you will "be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed" -- maybe this just refers to the state of disrest (ie, a lack of kingdom-connection) felt by people who stubbornly refuse to forgive.
Whatever he means, the language here doesn't feel like eternal hellfire talk. Why would he suggest some hope that the unforgiving servant could "pay back all he owed"?
I guess this could be a literary trick, since debtor prisons of the time were notoriously hard to get out of, but at the same time isn't this exactly the kind of sin debt that Jesus' death paid in full?
"...but at the same time isn't this exactly the kind of sin debt that Jesus' death paid in full?"
This is exactly right. Jesus is the payment for our unpayable debt. The Heavenly Father paid our debt with His Son. Just as suggested in the passage from Matthew...
33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'
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