INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone.
First thing's first: This is a LONG post.
I have wrestled over and over about breaking it up into multiple posts, and...
I can't.
The reason is that, much like with sharing the Gospel, I have to talk about apparent 'bad news' before I can talk about 'good news'.
Otherwise, the good news misses its foundation.
And with this post, if I broke it up at any time, it would sound like horrible theology. Much like convicting people of their sinful nature and how the wages of sin is death, and then leaving out the Gospel of Jesus until next
time.
It can't be done, so I've had to do one VERY long post. Stick with it. There's some heavy stuff in here, but stay with me until the end, so I can explain what I'm trying to say in full.
--Secondly, I took some of my previous blog posts and turned them into a Kindle ebook recently, which got to number 9 on Amazon's free philosophy chart, while the book was available for free.
It was a rush job, but did validate my writing, which was nice. I have since sold a whopping TWO copies, so I've made about $4 U.S.
With the time it took me to write all the posts, I worked out that I'm worth about 20 cents an hour.
Winning.
--1-WEEKEND
My lifegroup (cell group) had our annual weekend away recently, which we call '1 Weekend'.
(Remember that name. It's gonna be huge.)
We had some great times of community, worship, and teachings.
I was asked to deliver the Sunday morning message, and, frankly, it didn't go very well. I chose a difficult topic and didn't spend the kind of time I usually would on a sermon.
I learned two lessons:
1) Don't wing it unless you really know what you're talking about
2) You probably don't know what you're talking about, so don't wing it.
This blog post is on the topic I spoke about on the Sunday morning. It fits in with the theme of this blog, which is to tackle difficult theological topics, but it is also partly a response to my lifegroup; a way to go back and
address things that I felt need to be clarified.
It has been a good lesson for me. My friend Phil recently posted a fantastic blog post about walking in the supernatural, and we had an encounter evening/healing service at Antioch last night. Both of these have served to
remind me that there is an entire realm which, for a lot of people, is completely normal, of which I have barely scratched the surface.
So, I don't know everything.
But my aim as a teacher is to try to understand. And, more than that, to live it out.
--PART 1 - STRIVE FOR HOLINESS
Anyway, today I want to talk about sanctification; the ongoing process of becoming more Christ-like, of being '...transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.' (2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV)
It's the process of becoming more holy. Of 'bearing fruit' in your walk with God.
What I have struggled with in the past, though, and the area that I want to look at, is the tension between my understanding of Grace - God's mercy and forgiveness, regardless of anything we do - and how the Bible seems to
say that without holiness and striving we will not see the Lord:
'Strive for...the holiness without which no-one will see the Lord' (Hebrews 12:14 ESV)
Now Grace '...is [not] on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.' (Romans 11:6 ESV)
Grace is only Grace if it has nothing to do with how we act. Otherwise it is merely our wages, our due. And as we saved by GRACE, through faith, our salvation cannot be on the basis of performance.
But, somehow, without holiness - for which we STRIVE - we won't see the Lord.
Huh??
--Now, you could interpret that to mean that we just won't see the Lord - as in, experience His presence - here and now, on earth, and say that Hebrews 12:14 has nothing to do with what happens after we die.
That's a good point. But I struggle to accept that the Bible would be full of commandments that actually have no bearing on eternity.
That when Jesus said in Matthew 5:7 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy', actually it doesn't matter if you aren't merciful. You won't receive mercy now on earth, but after you die it's all yours.
I could go on and on, but my belief is that the commandments we are given have a direct impact on how we will spend eternity. Otherwise you might as well disobey every commandment.
--So, when we are told that without holiness we won't see the Lord, I take it to mean that it refers to eternity as well as the temporal.
A few more verses to make the point that the Bible commands holiness:
'...if, by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.' (Romans 8:13 ESV)
'...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling...' (Philippians 2:12 ESV)
'...in all your conduct, be holy, as I am holy.' (1 Peter 1:16 ESV)

So, here's the tension: either salvation is by grace, or do we actually have to do something to be saved? Do we have to strive for holiness, working out our own salvation? What IF we don't put to the death the deeds of the
body? Will we therefore die?
I'm not the best person to teach on Grace, but when Paul talks about Grace, he anticipates what people will say: "Well, if Grace is a gift of God, and independent of action, why don't we keep on sinning? Surely every time
we sin and are forgiven it just magnifies the Grace of God, doesn't it? So let's keep on sinning so that God gets more glory."
Um...no.
(That's pretty much Paul's response.)
1 John 3:9 gives us the reason why - "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God'sseed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." (ESV)
In other words, if one has been truly born again,he cannot keep on sinning. He is born of God and is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ lives in him (Galatians 2:20), and he no longer lives.
So, where I go from here is, to sum up part 1 of the message on holiness:

The faith that justifies also sanctifies.

When you are born again, and united to Christ through faith, you will start the process of becoming more sanctified, more like Him.
Here's the controversial bit. I'm going to be very careful about defending this:
Because becoming holy happens when you are born of God (i.e. born again), your holiness is evidence that your faith is genuine, and so it is necessary, in order for you to be finally saved.
Now, please stick with me here. It is important.
Look at 1 John 3:9 here. No-one - NO-ONE - who is born of God makes a practice of sinning.
So if you make a PRACTICE of sinning, you are not born of God.
I can hear a million fantastic arguments for and about Grace. And, BTW, I am for extravagant grace.
(I mean, I lean towards Calvinism for goodness sake!)
And you can throw every one of those million arguments at me.
But if I come across ONE Bible verse that teaches the opposite, then that argument is wrong, and the Bible gets my vote. And that's how I'm going to be. I'm aware that verses can be interpreted differentways, absolutely.
But no matter how expertly we can argue that Grace covers every sin, every time, if 1 John says that a practice of sinning means that one is not born of God....then what John says is correct.
'Wait a second!'
Isn't that just a contradiction in the Bible though? Paul says that salvation is not of works, and John says that works are an indication of whether we are saved.
I affirm the belief that there are no contradictions in Scripture - God is not the author of confusion, so if we see an apparent contradiction, we just don't fully understand it yet.
Side note - people may object that what I said above (that John is talking about salvation) is taking it too far, and all I can definitively say is that he is talking about being born of God.
Well, Jesus said 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God' (John 3:3 ESV)
So, when 1 John (by the same author as John's Gospel) talks about being born of God, he is talking about a prerequisite for being saved. If you're not born again, you're not saved.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but that's what Jesus is saying. If you are not born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
---

Another side note: This is difficult for me to write about because all of this is actually incidental to the topic of holiness. But I can't talk about holiness without talking about this stuff first. So there seems to be very little
grace or love on my part here.
But it is coming. My main point is very much about the love of God.
--So, let's recap so far (I'm not even close to being done here): Grace is free and independent of works, but the Bible seems to contain commandments for holiness, which sounds like works.
The answer is that holiness - the end of the practice of sinning - starts when you are born again. As such, holiness is evidence that you have been born again, and so it is necessary for final salvation.
So what is "final salvation"?
The Bible talks about the judgment seat of Christ. In simple terms, when you die, you face judgment. And you will either be accepted into Heaven, or cast away into Hell.
And 'it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.' (Hebrews 9:27 ESV).
There is no disconnection with what you do here on earth, because that is the basis for your eternal destiny. Everyone faces judgment for how they have lived. And so our holiness will be judged, and on the basis of our
holiness, we will either be welcomed or turned away.
Strive for the holiness without which no-one will see the Lord.
Now do you see why I'm compelled to talk about stuff like this? Grace is scandalous, yes, but God's Grace covers those who are born again (?????).
There may be some who will fly the flag of unconditional grace, and be convinced that it excuses practices of sinning because 'grace is not based on anything we do.' There may be people who are not under the grace of God
but think that they are.
2 Corinthians 5:10 says that '...we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.' (ESV, italics mine).
If these interpretations of Scripture are right - and I'm not trying to distort anything to make a point - then:

We must be born of God in order to be saved

If we are born of God, we cannot make a practice of sinning

Whether we have made a practice of sinning (our holiness) is evidence, therefore, of being born of God

We appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive our due for what we have done in the body (our actions - either sinful, or holy)

Therefore, our holiness is what decides whether we will be finally saved.

I have tried over and over, while writing this post, to argue the way against this conclusion, but I cannot avoid the texts, or reasonably see another way to interpret them. I am, therefore, led to this conclusion, regardless of
how it clashes with what I think, logically or philosophically or emotionally, about Grace.

HOWEVER.....

This is not the whole story.

To be balanced, it is essential that at this stage I define what is meant by the PRACTICE of sinning.
The Bible does NOT say that those born of God do not sin.
It says that those born of God do not make a practice of sinning. I think that common usage of English would suggested that a practice of sinning is repeated sinning. You practice it. You do it over and over.
So where does this line exist?
There has to be a line - otherwise you would have to conclude that every time you sin you cast doubt on whether you are born again.
And one of the points of Grace is that we do sin. That's why we need Grace to cover us.
Sin has to be punished. It's a misconception to say that God just wipes away sin. He does, but that sin is punished. Jesus experienced death, because 'the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6:23 ESV). Sin has to be punished there are wages that are due for sin.
And the Gospel message is that Jesus took those wages in your place, for your sin, so that you don't have to.
So...where does Grace cover believers as they put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13) and merely struggle with their sinful flesh, and where does it become apparent that this struggle with sinful flesh shows that
the person is actually not born of God?

PART 2 - ACT THE MIRACLE

We are going to go back and look at two verses, and then find the answer - and the good news - in them. But my thesis for this section is this:
Grace does not excuse a lack of holiness;Grace causes holiness.
What exactly do we mean by Grace?
Whenever I have thought about Grace, I have commonly seen that people refer to it in two ways; we talk about Grace specifically in regards to our salvation. When Paul says that 'we might be to the praise of the glory of his
grace' (Ephesians ? ESV) he is talking specifically about the high point of the glory of God made manifest in the death of His son.
That's always true. We also see Grace talked about as God's day-to-day mercy and provision for us.
When we mess up, 'There isnow no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.' (Romans 8:1 ESV). There is daily Grace for us that means we are not condemned for the sins we made today and the sins we will make
tomorrow.
We refer to Grace in those two ways, but they are the same thing.
Because the Grace that is supremely demonstrated in the Cross is the same Grace that covers us every day. The Grace of the Cross of Jesus Christ is infinite. It flows out from the Cross and covers you today, tomorrow, and
forever.
The mercy of God to cover your sin today is the very same mercy of God to give His Son to die for you. Because the death of His Son is infinite - it saved you AND it will keep you until we see Him face-to-face.

So when we take a look at this journey of sanctification and the fight for holiness, the Grace of God is what turns this apparent contradiction in the Bible into an opportunity to praise the glory of His Grace.
Where this gets flipped on its head and becomes good news, is when we look at the word 'strive'.
To strive is to 'make great efforts to achieve or obtain something' or to 'struggle or fight vigorously.'
Doesn't sound very compatible with Grace does it?
Well.
Let's finish Philippians 2:12.
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (ESV)
There it is. In one fell swoop, the apparent tension between Grace and works is resolved.
O Joy!
It is GOD who is at WORK in me. I strive, yes; I am commanded to. But I do not do any of it under my own strength. The Grace of God works within me to produce the fruit that He commands.
Paul hammers this point home again in ..
'his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.' (ESV)
Paul worked. He WORKED. He fought. He strove. But it was not he that did it. It was the Grace of God.
Grace enables the works that we are commanded to do.
Works are the evidence of the Grace of God in our lives.
God works in you.
He does it all.
You act the miracle.
You still have to act. The commandments to strive and to work out are commandments. They are directives. We are required to fulfil those commandments, as they are evidence of the fruit of faith in our lives. When Jesus
called Lazarus from the dead in John's Gospel, Lazarus played no part in his awakening to life.
He was dead.
His awakening owed solely to the Grace of our Lord. But when Lazarus was commanded 'Lazarus, come out!' he still had to walk out of the tomb. The Grace of God that brought him back to life, enabled him to walk out of
the tomb.
Now, as I wrote that last bit I thought that maybe it was a bit of a jump. If Lazarus had the free will and the volition to choose whether or not to come out, isn't it a stretch to say that the Grace of God is what enabled that
walk?
Wellno. Think about it. Without the Grace of God, Lazarus would have still been dead. Every step that he took, he did under the power of the Grace that brought him back to life.
No Grace, no walking.
Remember what I said before? The Grace of God that saves us is the Grace of God that sustains us. We, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1 ESV), were called to life by the words of the Lord (the Gospel).
We walk out towards Him. And every second of that walk is sustained by the same Grace of God that allows us to walk at all.
By Grace, we are saved through faith.
The faith that saves us, is the faith that sustains us.
The faith that justifies also sanctifies.

[THOSE WHO DIE IMMEDIATELY]