Considering the Bible

Matthew 12:31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Matthew 12:32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

This is a difficult passage and to consider it under the topic of conditional security may at first be difficult to justify. Let me give you my thoughts on why this passage may be addressing this topic.

I am of the opinion that this particular passage is very specific to the time frame in which it was spoken. Consider the audience and the hingepoint of history we find it spoken in.

Jesus, The Messiah, the Gift of God to all mankind is again discussing God’s truth with those Pharisees. By the time we get to this morning’s interaction with the Pharisees, Jesus has dealt with them a number of times.

• Interaction with the money changers – John 2:12-25
• Interaction with Nicodemus (a Pharisee) – John 3:1-21
• Interaction, rejection and attempt to murder Jesus in Nazareth – Luke 4:16-30
• Interaction and rejection of Jesus claims of equality with God -John 5:16-47
• Interaction on Sabbath importance – Matthew 12:1-8
• Interaction concerning John the Baptist – Matthew 11:2-24
• Interaction based on the Pharisees claiming His power is from the devil – Matthew 12:22-32

We are seeing from this brief list that things are getting very tense from the standpoint of the Pharisees. To pull out the non-logical argument that this Rabbi is depending on Satan to perform His life giving, healing ministry is a stretch by any account.

And Jesus does not mince words.

He openly confesses that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. Did you get that? Will be forgiven, not may be forgiven! He is telling these religious men that all sins will be forgiven. That must have tied their knickers in a knot!

He did place a caveat though as he addressed these men who would deny the obvious work of God through this Rabbi. If you will defame and lie against the work of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in God’s Messiah, there is no hope for you. You see, He continues in his address to these men, declaring the sin of speaking against the Holy Spirit as being applicable in two ages. This age, or in the age to come.

I have often wondered what the “age to come” refers to, for it is not necessarily the next age, though it may be. I do not struggle when the Lord mentions “this age”. He is referring to the time in which he was living and breathing, talking to the men who opposed Him.

So here is how I understand this passage. Jesus is seeing the Pharisees becoming more and more desperate in denying His rightful place as Messiah, going to the incredible extreme of associating Him with Satan! As the people of God during the age of Moses, (prior to the resurrection and the wide spread explosive dispersion of the Spirit amongst the Gentiles) these Pharisee’s knew the truth of the Messiah, and understood that Jesus fit many, many of the required prophecies regarding the coming Savior.

As a matter of fact, there have been many studies revealing that the generation Jesus appeared in was the last generation a Messiah could appear to the people of Israel.

One specific prophecy that the Pharisees surely studied was that found in Daniel 9. A very detained and definite prophecy of the Messiah’s appearance within a certain time frame based on the captivity of the Jewish nation. Jesus was right on time. The Pharisees would not have it. He wasn’t working with them on their plans and objectives!

Nevertheless, the Pharisees knew Jesus was the Messiah, but out of envy and a refusal to submit to truth, refused Him and the witness of the Spirit!

Now as I mentioned earlier, these men were amongst the people of God, but at this point, it appears that all privilege assigned to the faithful Jew, though rejecting the message of the Spirit, would not receive forgiveness! In a word, privilege would be revoked from those who would not submit to truth!

Prior to this interaction, where did the Pharisees stand with God? Classed as of the Jewish nation, and as such, in the age of Moses, these men were in covenant with the God of Israel. Yet in this age, these men would be cast out, even as spoken of in numerous parables later in Jesus ministry!

Matthew 22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew 25:30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

In our next post, Jesus continues with His message to the Pharisees, speaking of fruit and trees, hopefully understanding the message we find in Matthew 12.

Let me know your thoughts.

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Philippians 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing,
Philippians 2:15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
Philippians 2:16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

In our last post on this passage, we discussed (with some tongue in cheek language) of a better motivator for the saint if we are eternally secure. We spoke of replacing “fear and trembling” with an alternate motivator, since being eternally secure removes any concern over the quality of our relationship with the Father. We spoke of a silly option Paul may have used to motivate the Philippians. He chose not to!

I may have been a bit crass. I hope it made at least one of my readers think about the text, and reconsider the possibility that Paul’s message may mean more than we currently understand.

Paul continues with the Philippians in our passage this morning, speaking of the characteristics of the believer, of refraining from grumbling and disputing, and of the believers life exhibiting a character that is blameless and innocent. We have previously addressed what it means to be blameless and innocent in this blog (See Philippian Bits – 2:15.01 & Philippian Bits – 2:15.02), so I will not repeat it here.

What I would like to consider is the last verse, where Paul speaks of his labor in the ministry. The topic of this last phrase is the effect of the Philippians obedience on the potential vanity of Paul’s ministry.

If the Philippians were not obedient, Paul’s ministry, at least in relation to the Philippians would be in vain. Now to say something is vain is difficult for our modern society since we are so immersed in it. So much of our society is a chasing after vanity, of emptiness, of smoke and mirrors. For you see, for something to be “vain” is stating that it is devoid of truth, empty, full of nothing. It is of no purpose, without fruit and of no lasting value.

To be vain is to be empty. Maybe our world will wake up some day to the vanity of living for themselves, but I fear not, for this is a vain, vain world we live in!

But Paul uses it in relation to the souls of the Philippians, of his work amongst them. Now remembering the thoughts in our last post on this passage, if the saved are eternally secure, that to be once save always saved is the way to understand the Word, why would Paul be concerned about the emptiness of his ministry, especially since the Philippians have exhibited a previous fruitfulness. Surely the Philippians were a saved people, exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit and worshipping in truth. Even a few verse earlier, Paul confessed to the reality of their identity in the Messiah.

All is well Paul, for they could not fall away, they could not apostatize! Have no concerns Paul. Your ministry work is also secure, for the past fruit of the Philippians has proven your work. The possibility of your work amongst the Philippians being in vain is impossible, for the souls you reached are destined for glory, no matter what they do. Oh they may loose some rewards, but they will be before the throne, and prove your effectiveness in converting lost souls.

My friends, I think I have been excessively sarcastic, even crass in these last two posts. Forgive me. But if there is truth amongst my words of harshness, and something is stirring in you, consider your standing before the Lord. Confession and repentance of sin before the Lord is never rebuffed by the One who has proven us His love.

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Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

Sorting through my past posts on this topic and was quite surprised that I hadn’t dedicated a posting to the verse above. How could I have missed a passage that provides support for the conditional security such as this one?

Consider the verse, and try to understand the heart Paul had in writing it. He loved this church, likely more than any other church he had birthed. He sought the best for them, and even in this verse, he expresses confidence that the saints were obeying. Note that he does not say that he was confident that the saints were believing. No no no.

If Paul was to encourage a saint, he looked to the fruit of obedience for topic matter. Believing can be so “malleable”, but acts of faith, of service and of spiritual worship are forged in the indelible framework of time and can not be revised, edited or interpretated with alternate understandings. The works that are past are fixed in time and provide proof of what is important to the one being examined.

Paul had examined these saints while he was amongst them, and saw that their obedience was giving evidence of the faith they espoused.

Now he seeks their continued obedience, as he encourages them with the challenge to work out their salvation. With fear and trembling.

Now I can not tell you what was going on in the recesses of Paul’s mind at the time of this writing, but a guess would be that there was something to fear if these saints did not work out their salvation.

Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Of course my Calvinistic brothers would refer to the very next verse to remind us that it is God who is working in the believer, and for that I am eternally thankful. God is a faithful God, a loving and caring God who seeks our best.

But the passage does not say that God forces His work into our lives, or that we have no choice in the matter. God is present, He is powerful, and He seeks our best, but as I and my Calvinist friends agree on, we are a sinful people – a people that tends to walk away, to ignore the whispers of God, to forget His promises and take the easy road to often.

God is working in our lives and as we obey we have many many blessings in our lives, most of which is the knowledge of the Living God being active and personal in our own soul. This is an incredible truth, and one which we should treasure.

So why did Paul mention fear and trembling? Let’s think about this for a moment.

If we are a people that are eternally secure, disobedience causes the loss of eternal rewards. I cannot number the times I used this reasoning in my former belief was that. I simply did not entertain the thought that disobedience would potentially strain or fracture a relationship with the Father and Son. No – that did not fit my thinking at that time, for I was committed to a salvation that was of a contractual nature, and not of the relational nature.

But let’s suppose I am incorrect in my current understanding, and salvation includes the teaching of eternal security. Once saved always saved! Let’s assume OSAS is true for a moment. If so, I suppose one way Paul might have motivated the saints in Philippi would be to instruct him to work out his salvation with self interest and a “godly” desire.

Paul could remind the believer of his rewards! Admittedly the loss of rewards would bring shame on the believer before the throne, but wouldn’t Paul’s message resonate with the faithful Philippian saint by appealing to the rewards as opposed to the fear and trembling of loosing that relationship with the Father. It is in the interest of the saint to gain more rewards!!

I know – that is crass, vulgar and not called for. But you get my point.

We are to work out our salvation with a fear and a trembling that is settled in our soul, a fear that our old nature may rear it’s ugly head and we pay attention to it. We are a people that are easily distracted by the the lusts of the flesh, the world and the pride of life!

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life–is not from the Father but is from the world.

We are a people who are to fear, even tremble at the thought of not pleasing the One who calls us to Him. Is this a debilitating fear, a trembling of heart that cripples us into inaction? If this is your continual experience, I dare say the fear and trembling you are experiencing is not of the Father. Yes – there may come times when the realization of how great He is knocks us down, floors us before Him. The prophets of old experienced this often. (See Psalms for Psome – Ps 36.00 for a discussion on men of old facing God and falling down!)

Yet they rose up and did mighty things. His is the invitation to a life of adventure, of listening to His will and walking in obedience.

Who cares about rewards when we can walk with the Almighty, and experience His loving care.

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Revelation 14:9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,
Revelation 14:10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Revelation 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Revelation is a difficult book to understand. There – I said the obvious.

In my early years, I was of the mind that John had written the book of Revelation, his magnum opus of apocalyptic Scripture, for the saints in our modern times. I was so selfish, so self centered that I was convinced John must be speaking of the 21st century, and of the conditions believers would face over 2000 years after his death!

That is until I realized the incredible impact the Old Testament had on John as he wrote the Book of Revelation. Of all the New Testament books, none is so dense with allusions, references and quotations from the Old Testament as is this book we are reading this morning.

A case in point to consider.

John refers to a mark on the head or hand. Is John possibly thinking his readers may know the Old Testament well enough that this reference reminds them of an earlier time, a time that may have similar characteristics?

My first thought would be the mark God called for on the mantle of each Israelites home on the night of the first passover.

Exodus 12:7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
Exodus 12:23 For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

The Israelites definitely understood the idea of marking, and that it was a representation of protection. But Ezekiel goes even further, and I think John may be reaching back to this prophet for his context!

Ezekiel 9:3 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist.
Ezekiel 9:4 And the LORD said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”
Ezekiel 9:5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.

After this man clothed in linen performed his task of identification, judgement fell! But note the very next verse, where those who were to show no pity were to begin the killing!

Ezekiel 9:6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.

At God’s sanctuary! The killing was to begin at the very location where those who have the appearance of godliness congregate. And what was the mark identifying? The mark was on all those who mourned and groaned over the apostacy in the nation, over the abominations the Israelites performed, even in the sanctuary of God.

An incredible judgement of God occurred during Ezekiel’s time.

Is John using this message, and applying it to believers in relation to the taking of a mark, instead of simply accepting a mark of identification? After all, believers are already marked!

Revelation 22:4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

John clearly brings in hints of Ezekiel in this passage, and it may be instructive that Ezekiel’s judgement started in the sanctuary. In the very house of God!

In Ezekiel’s passage, the mark was provided for protection, for those who mourned the condition of the temple and the sanctuary, the religious state of the nation. In Revelation, this mark is accepted by those who chose allegiance against God and Jesus.

Ok – I can hear the question even now. Is it a physical mark we are to fear?

If it gets to that point where a believer is to make a decision of receiving a mark, (whatever that may be), I am afraid we may be too far gone.

You see, for as those in the Ezekiel passage are described, the mark identifies the type of person it is placed on, and it is not the result of a single decision of accepting a mark. As believers, our allegiance is to the Christ today, and though fundamentally this is not an external condition, it is also not simply the absence of a mark, or the absence of a laser imprint, or the absence of a chip inserted into a hand or on your forehead.

Our allegiance, that which “marks us” even today, should be seen in our good works which glorify our Father. These exterior “marks” are sourced from an internal faith buried deep in our minds and hearts. Our faith in the Risen One produces decisions of the mind (represented by the forehead in our passage) and actions in our lives (represented by the right hand in our passage) that reflects a living faith!

We already have His mark on us! We are marked as sons and daughters of the Most High God by the Messiah, and unless some other mark is more appealing, more satisfying, or more desirable in the eye of the beholder, we will not desire any other!

Yet the passage in Revelation does not simply state what I have described and walked away. John continues with a statement that should be accepted for what it is, a challenge that needs to be overcome in the faith.

Revelation 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

His call for endurance is not an idle statement, for their may be days ahead when the enemy makes threats, when the enemy seeks to feed our fears, when the enemy will challenge our resolve to follow the Crucified One.

Story Time

One such time for this family was a few years back, when the world was in the deep confusion of Covid, when all was falling apart and ignorance and misinformation was rampant. There were forces that sought to have control over this family, to take advantage of this condition of fear and confusion.

The threat I speak of for my wife and I was the loss of my career. We are fundamentally a one income family, and when I was challenged to take a jab, I humbly refused. Many temptations and justifications tumbled through my mind, with my boss seeking to help me change my mind. He truly meant well, and at the time, it seemed abundantly clear that the loss of my income would have an immediate impact on my family, causing the loss of home, health and happiness. (That was the pitch!)

Yet the very intensity of the threat was telling, and the continual effort to have everyone take it seemed out of order. As a family, we were convinced this was God’s will for us, stuck to our guns, and refused the jab.

We waited on the Lord.

Not one in our family lost our careers, although a few of us experienced the sickness. Dang I lost almost 30 lbs. to that sickness. (Don’t worry – I found it again!)

The Lord provided a minor test for this family during those days of confusion, and for that I am thankful. He provided us a history of standing up for bodily freedom, for not accepting any demand on our person that we are not convinced of, and of giving us the strength to wait on the mercy of the Lord.

There will be days ahead my friend, when additional challenges may fall onto our lives, impacting our families and loved ones. Take a message from the apostle John, for he knew the way of the believer.

Revelation 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus

Be the marked of the Messiah, for if you are not fully devoted to the One who died for you, you will accept another mark.

Without His life, you have no hope.

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