Salvation Issues |

“Well, it’s not a salvation issue.” I have heard this statement many times over the course of my life and honestly I am hearing it now more than ever. The point – there is a difference between matters of faith and matters of opinion. On some level, this notion is well taken. There are certain God-given traditions that are binding (2 Thessalonians 2:15), and then there are human traditions that many people may tie to their faith which in reality are nothing more than an expediency or an accepted norm (Matthew 15:3).

But we need to be very careful with how far we are willing to go with Christian liberty. This past week in our local paper a self-proclaimed “man of the cloth” wrote an article entitled, “Worship God, not a Book.” The entire diatribe was an effort to discredit the Bible. The writer actually had the arrogance to proclaim that we can understand what God wants in the 21^st century world of human advancement better than writers of the Bible themselves, who had been directed by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). This is another example of the exaltation of human wisdom over the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:21). This attitude is the common and yet ancient recipe for how to teach a generation to walk away from the Creator of the universe.

Whenever we begin to take a lower view of the Bible we are headed for spiritual disaster. That’s why on some level we must consider every matter a matter of salvation. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith originates with God’s holy standard. It is not subjective. It is not open to human whims or emotions or feelings of what individuals may prefer. The only true and Biblical faith is derived from an understanding of God’s divine revelation. As the Bible becomes a part of us, we submit to God’s greater will, and every thought and action is filtered by our knowledge of the will of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). This is the very same will which He has once for all delivered to the church (Jude 3).

God from the beginning ordained that two entities be the primary guides for human spirituality. The first is what God has spoken. The second is the human conscience, which rightly should be shaped by what God has said. In this context, Paul pointed out that, “Whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). In other words, do not engage in any activity that would violate your conscience, for your conscience has been shaped by the higher will of God. Therefore for every Christian, if one cannot in word and deed do something in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17), then there exists no God-given authority for its practice.

If there is a problem with where our world is heading spiritually, the problem lies with a lack of respect for what the Scriptures teach. It goes far beyond a lack of knowing WHAT the Bible says. It involves not caring what it says, and feeling that we have a right to insert human opinion. This is where we are as a people, no longer being shaped by the will of God, but deciding for God that we know better than He does. And since so many believe that everything is open to private interpretation, then the argument continues to be made that what each person does, in actuality, does not matter.

The end of this type of thinking leads to a place where no absolute truth exists. There is no right or wrong in such a land. There is no blame or shame for what any person decides or does (Jeremiah 6:15). There is no hell or consequence for sin. Everybody just does what they want to do (Judges 21:25). In the meantime, “tolerance” is shouted from the mountaintops while “peace” is heard in the valley (Jeremiah 6:14).

While there are always going to be matters of faith and matters of opinion, we need to remember that if we truly love God we will allow every thought to be shaped by His divine will. If we take a relaxed attitude concerning the eternal word that saves, judges, and binds us to God, we will find that we have orphaned ourselves from the very instrument God delivered through His Holy Spirit for the sake of our adoption.

For the saved, every matter is a matter of salvation. Once we have been bought, we are owned. And if God in reality owns us, He owns us all the time.

“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” – Philippians 3:8-9

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