The relevance of this article to child sex abuse will become apparent as you approach the end. Please read, and be sure you understand what you are reading.
There seems to be a lot of confusion in Christendom these days about ‘works’. The Bible tells us explicitly, that we cannot earn our salvation, but two problems fall out of that:
1. Many people believe in their heads that it is true, but then go about trying to do that very thing.
2. Many people believe that works are not important and are completely unnecessary for salvation.
It is a difficult thing for us to believe that we don’t have to earn our salvation; that it’s God’s gift of grace to those who believe that Jesus Christ is Who He said He is and that He died on the cross to pay for our sins, and was resurrected to new life that He makes available to us.
Pride is very often at the root of the difficulty in believing that salvation is a gift; we want to believe that we deserve it. We have a hard time accepting that we are so vile that we deserve Hell – but we are.
Many of us were raised in a society where you had to earn most everything you received. Being given a free gift, an extremely valuable free gift that we’ve done nothing to deserve runs counter to our upbringing.
Some, in younger generations, may have no problem with that but it may turn into the opposite problem. It may result in presuming that salvation is a done-deal, irrevocable, no matter what. This, in turn, leads to licentiousness, laziness, and sloppiness – none of which are qualities that the Lord wants in Eternity.
This begs the question, “what happens to my bad character when I enter Heaven?” Does it just disappear with my old body? Character is not part of our bodies, it is part of our souls. Some may believe that our souls get an extreme makeover and all the bad parts are replaced by good, perfect parts.
I think CS Lewis believed something like that, however, he cautioned that there may be some unimaginable process occur between earth and heaven. My impression was that he thought it would probably not be a pleasant process.
John Wesley dealt with this question by believing that purification of the soul would happen in this lifetime through suffering from sickness or something else in our final hours, days, months, or years.
Watchman Nee took the stance that if there were undesirable characteristics in us when we entered Eternity that we would simply lose them. He didn’t elaborate on that point, but I take it to mean that if we are gluttons on earth, we would lose the ability or right to eat, or enjoy food, in Eternity.
I don’t know which one is right, if any of them are. Perhaps all three of them are right in some degree or another. What is clear by the extraordinary degree of suffering that Christians endure is that God wants us to be as pure and holy as we can be before we stand in judgment.
Dan 11:35 - "Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time;…”
Titus 2:14 - who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
2 Tom 2:12 - If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
Titus 1:16 - They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
We also have the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation. Each letter, introduced by John as being from the Lord Himself, began with, “I know your works”. Those are the first words of Christ to all 7 churches. Do you think works are important to the Lord?
Works cannot save you, but they can indicate whether or not there is something amiss in your relationship with Jesus. If you are incapable of ‘good works’ then you need to ‘reboot’ your relationship with the Lord; you are not in good standing and may be in ‘deep’ trouble.
Intercessory prayer is a ‘good work’. The intercessor expects nothing for himself in return for laboring in prayer for someone else. This is like the highest form of love – giving of yourself expecting nothing in return. This is how we glorify God – by manifesting His character.
I invite you to pray daily for sexually abused children and potential victims as an exercise in ‘good works’. It will not save you. It may store up some treasures in Heaven, but don’t do it for that; do it for the kids, because they need your prayers, and for God, because He expects you to do ‘good works’.
2 Cor 5:9,10a - Wherefore we labour, that... we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ... (KJV)
The suffering of a quarter of a billion children in this the 21st century is hardly believable, so let us labour in prayer for those who cannot protect themselves. Please visit Save A Child and/or my 3:15 PM prayer.
All glory be to God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
There seems to be a lot of confusion in Christendom these days about ‘works’. The Bible tells us explicitly, that we cannot earn our salvation, but two problems fall out of that:
1. Many people believe in their heads that it is true, but then go about trying to do that very thing.
2. Many people believe that works are not important and are completely unnecessary for salvation.
It is a difficult thing for us to believe that we don’t have to earn our salvation; that it’s God’s gift of grace to those who believe that Jesus Christ is Who He said He is and that He died on the cross to pay for our sins, and was resurrected to new life that He makes available to us.
Pride is very often at the root of the difficulty in believing that salvation is a gift; we want to believe that we deserve it. We have a hard time accepting that we are so vile that we deserve Hell – but we are.
Many of us were raised in a society where you had to earn most everything you received. Being given a free gift, an extremely valuable free gift that we’ve done nothing to deserve runs counter to our upbringing.
Some, in younger generations, may have no problem with that but it may turn into the opposite problem. It may result in presuming that salvation is a done-deal, irrevocable, no matter what. This, in turn, leads to licentiousness, laziness, and sloppiness – none of which are qualities that the Lord wants in Eternity.
This begs the question, “what happens to my bad character when I enter Heaven?” Does it just disappear with my old body? Character is not part of our bodies, it is part of our souls. Some may believe that our souls get an extreme makeover and all the bad parts are replaced by good, perfect parts.
I think CS Lewis believed something like that, however, he cautioned that there may be some unimaginable process occur between earth and heaven. My impression was that he thought it would probably not be a pleasant process.
John Wesley dealt with this question by believing that purification of the soul would happen in this lifetime through suffering from sickness or something else in our final hours, days, months, or years.
Watchman Nee took the stance that if there were undesirable characteristics in us when we entered Eternity that we would simply lose them. He didn’t elaborate on that point, but I take it to mean that if we are gluttons on earth, we would lose the ability or right to eat, or enjoy food, in Eternity.
I don’t know which one is right, if any of them are. Perhaps all three of them are right in some degree or another. What is clear by the extraordinary degree of suffering that Christians endure is that God wants us to be as pure and holy as we can be before we stand in judgment.
Dan 11:35 - "Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time;…”
Titus 2:14 - who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
2 Tom 2:12 - If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
Titus 1:16 - They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
We also have the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation. Each letter, introduced by John as being from the Lord Himself, began with, “I know your works”. Those are the first words of Christ to all 7 churches. Do you think works are important to the Lord?
Works cannot save you, but they can indicate whether or not there is something amiss in your relationship with Jesus. If you are incapable of ‘good works’ then you need to ‘reboot’ your relationship with the Lord; you are not in good standing and may be in ‘deep’ trouble.
Intercessory prayer is a ‘good work’. The intercessor expects nothing for himself in return for laboring in prayer for someone else. This is like the highest form of love – giving of yourself expecting nothing in return. This is how we glorify God – by manifesting His character.
I invite you to pray daily for sexually abused children and potential victims as an exercise in ‘good works’. It will not save you. It may store up some treasures in Heaven, but don’t do it for that; do it for the kids, because they need your prayers, and for God, because He expects you to do ‘good works’.
2 Cor 5:9,10a - Wherefore we labour, that... we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ... (KJV)
The suffering of a quarter of a billion children in this the 21st century is hardly believable, so let us labour in prayer for those who cannot protect themselves. Please visit Save A Child and/or my 3:15 PM prayer.
All glory be to God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
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