Ed and Patsy now live in Athens, Alabama and are members at the Pepper Road church. As administrator of this blog, he enjoys sharing thoughts about spiritual maters. Not only his thoughts but good articles from other authors. He is also thankful to have been able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for over sixty years.
As we were studying Revelation in our Wednesday night class we read from 2:21 where Jesus says that he was about to severely punish the immoral woman, Jezebel – but not before he had given her “time to repent.”
If God would give this woman “time to repent” don’t you know that God will give his children “time to repent” when they sin against Him. He did not specify how much time, but necessarily infers ample time. Because we teach that a Christian’s sins are charged against him and that he must repent of those sins to maintain fellowship with God and be saved eternally, we are charged with teaching that one constantly bounces between salvation and damnation or, to put it another way, the moment one sins he is separated from God’s fellowship and is lost at that moment. And because we teach that a Christian does not automatically have his sins forgiven, we are asked if a Christian’s breaking the speed limit (a sin), a car darts out in front of him provoking him to curse (a sin), he then hits another car head on and dies before he can repent of his sins – will he be lost?
All of this is an effort to create a straw man to try to show that those of us who teach that “once saved” does not mean “always saved” or teach that a child of God’s being forgiven of sin is always conditioned on repentance cannot be teaching the truth because it would make God out to be some kind of monster looking for a reason to sever fellowship and condemn His children to be lost – hence one could never feel secure about his salvation. They picture us as saying that at the moment one sins against God, fellowship with Him is automatically broken and we are lost. If this were an accurate portrayal things would be bleak.
But all of this does not consider the truly longsuffering nature of God. He is not going to sever our fellowship and condemn us without first giving us “time to repent.” How much time I may not know, but I need to take advantage of whatever time given to repent and ask His forgiveness. As a Christian, I can live my life in obedience to his will with confidence that when I “slip up” that I will be given the necessary time to repent.
But, one cannot “go on sinning willfully” (Heb. 10:26 NASB) without “insulting the Spirit of grace.”
Haven’t had time to comment on your post; but wanted to say AMEN to your thoughts.
Don’t know how many times I have had someone mention Isa.59:1-2 and say that sin is immediate in severing us from our Holy God. Yes, sin does separate us from God, but Isa.59:20 tells us that He will send a Redeemer! I’ve always used Lk.15 and the disposition of the Prodigal’s father! Your article brought to my mind the point that God giving “her time to repent” would be the same as that Lk.15 Father looking everyday down the road for the returning prodigal son!
Good points!
Gordon