潘霍华(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)在他那划时代的巨著《追随基督》(The Cost of Discipleship)一书中说:“当基督呼召一个人,他要人来死。”作主的门徒必须背十字架,必须死,这是作主门徒要付的代价。在书中作者也论及两种恩典。一种他称为“廉价的恩典”:不需要悔改就能获得赦免,不必遵从教会的纪律就可以受洗,不需彼此认罪也能彼此相交。简言之,廉价的恩典是只受恩不受教。另一种恩典,作者称之为“重价的恩典”。这种恩典是说,“人必须寻求才能寻见的福音,必须祈求才能得到的恩赐,必须敲叩才能开启的门……是昂贵的,因为人必须为之付上自己的生命。是恩典,因为它赐与人独一无二、真正的生命。”这恩典不是论救恩,而是作门徒。如果我们想要得到这种真正的生命,想要作主的门徒,我们必须预备自己,来背起十字架,与主同死。
史坦利钟斯(E. Stanley Jones)在《凯旋的降服》(Victory through Surrender )一书中叙述哈玛绍(Hammarskjold) 遭难的经过时,这样写道:“我所搭乘的小飞机经过非洲的桑比亚的上空,正是哈玛绍遇难的地方。这位住在桑比亚的飞行员告诉我,他们在那架联合国的飞机残骸中找到一张摊开的地图,指向刚果首都雷堡市附近的小镇那多罗。可是那架飞机的目的地原是桑比亚的那多拉。根据那张那多罗的地图,飞行员尚有一千里才需降落。可是那多拉的地势比那多罗高,于是飞机在黑夜里失事,因为飞行员误以为他还有一千里的航程。”
今天在教会里,有许多牧师和教师,布道家与宣教士,长老与执事,神的恩赐在他们身上是明显的。但仔细看看他们里面的“自我”,那是令人不敢想像的。钟斯牧师说,有些人在工场上已有多年了,但仍不能碰他(Touch him he is stilltouchy)。人对“自我”,不是过分保护,就是过分宣扬。两者都令人感觉难受。
2)Matt. 7:21-23 is not about living for the Lord. Nor is it about OSAS. It’s about believing that His death paid the full price for our sins. Also, from Matt. 7:15-20 we know it is directed toward false prophets, and therefore is not meant for general application to believers and teachers.
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First of all we have to understand that Matt. 7:21-23 is not about living for the Lord. Nor is it about OSAS. It’s about believing that His death paid the full price for our sins. (Also, from Matt. 7:15-20 we know it is directed toward false prophets, and therefore is not meant for general application.) We know these things because in Matt. 7:21 Jesus said that only those who do His Father’s will can enter the kingdom. John 6:38-40 tells us what His Father’s will is.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. A few verses earlier Jesus said that’s all the Father requires of us (John 6:28-29). The same is true of John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7 and others. Trusting fully and exclusively in the Lord’s completed work on the cross is the only condition for salvation. Apart from that nothing will suffice, even the claim by those from Matt. 7:21-23 that they had done miraculous work in His name. The fact that He said He never knew them (Matt. 7:23) means they had never fully believed in Him in the first place and were depending upon their good works to finish the job they thought He had only begun.
OSAS works like this. Belief in Him is the only requirement for salvation, and once we believe our salvation is guaranteed (Ephesians 1:13-14). God Himself has set His seal of ownership on us and placed His Spirit in our hearts to make sure of this (2 Cor. 1:21-22). No one can ever take us out of His hands (John 10:27-30) and nothing can ever separate us from Him (Romans 8:38-39).
The Bible is abundantly clear in saying it’s what we believe that saves us, not how we behave. Our behavior is the way we demonstrate our gratitude for the free gift of salvation. It can do nothing to help us earn it or keep it.
First of all we have to understand that Matt. 7:21-23 is not about living for the Lord. Nor is it about OSAS. It’s about believing that His death paid the full price for our sins. (Also, from Matt. 7:15-20 we know it is directed toward false prophets, and therefore is not meant for general application.) We know these things because in Matt. 7:21 Jesus said that only those who do His Father’s will can enter the kingdom. John 6:38-40 tells us what His Father’s will is.
OSAS works like this. Belief in Him is the only requirement for salvation, and once we believe our salvation is guaranteed (Ephesians 1:13-14). God Himself has set His seal of ownership on us and placed His Spirit in our hearts to make sure of this (2 Cor. 1:21-22). No one can ever take us out of His hands (John 10:27-30) and nothing can ever separate us from Him (Romans 8:38-39).
The Bible is abundantly clear in saying it’s what we believe that saves us, not how we behave. Our behavior is the way we demonstrate our gratitude for the free gift of salvation. It can do nothing to help us earn it or keep it.
First of all we have to understand that Matt. 7:21-23 is not about living for the Lord. Nor is it about OSAS. It’s about believing that His death paid the full price for our sins. (Also, from Matt. 7:15-20 we know it is directed toward false prophets, and therefore is not meant for general application.) We know these things because in Matt. 7:21 Jesus said that only those who do His Father’s will can enter the kingdom. John 6:38-40 tells us what His Father’s will is.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. A few verses earlier Jesus said that’s all the Father requires of us (John 6:28-29). The same is true of John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7 and others. Trusting fully and exclusively in the Lord’s completed work on the cross is the only condition for salvation. Apart from that nothing will suffice, even the claim by those from Matt. 7:21-23 that they had done miraculous work in His name. The fact that He said He never knew them (Matt. 7:23) means they had never fully believed in Him in the first place and were depending upon their good works to finish the job they thought He had only begun.
OSAS works like this. Belief in Him is the only requirement for salvation, and once we believe our salvation is guaranteed (Ephesians 1:13-14). God Himself has set His seal of ownership on us and placed His Spirit in our hearts to make sure of this (2 Cor. 1:21-22). No one can ever take us out of His hands (John 10:27-30) and nothing can ever separate us from Him (Romans 8:38-39).
The Bible is abundantly clear in saying it’s what we believe that saves us, not how we behave. Our behavior is the way we demonstrate our gratitude for the free gift of salvation. It can do nothing to help us earn it or keep it.
Q: Please explain how OSAS and Matthew 7 verse 21 – 23 are different. Why do preachers use these verses to say if you are not living for the Lord and only the Lord knows your heart, then you may be headed for hell. And please help me understand how OSAS works, even for a Christian who is not living for the Lord.
A. First of all we have to understand that Matt. 7:21-23 is not about living for the Lord. Nor is it about OSAS. It’s about believing that His death paid the full price for our sins. (Also, from Matt. 7:15-20 we know it is directed toward false prophets, and therefore is not meant for general application.) We know these things because in Matt. 7:21 Jesus said that only those who do His Father’s will can enter the kingdom. John 6:38-40 tells us what His Father’s will is.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
The Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. A few verses earlier Jesus said that’s all the Father requires of us (John 6:28-29). The same is true of John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7 and others. Trusting fully and exclusively in the Lord’s completed work on the cross is the only condition for salvation. Apart from that nothing will suffice, even the claim by those from Matt. 7:21-23 that they had done miraculous work in His name. The fact that He said He never knew them (Matt. 7:23) means they had never fully believed in Him in the first place and were depending upon their good works to finish the job they thought He had only begun.
OSAS works like this. Belief in Him is the only requirement for salvation, and once we believe our salvation is guaranteed (Ephesians 1:13-14). God Himself has set His seal of ownership on us and placed His Spirit in our hearts to make sure of this (2 Cor. 1:21-22). No one can ever take us out of His hands (John 10:27-30) and nothing can ever separate us from Him (Romans 8:38-39).
The Bible is abundantly clear in saying it’s what we believe that saves us, not how we behave. Our behavior is the way we demonstrate our gratitude for the free gift of salvation. It can do nothing to help us earn it or keep it.
James 2:14-17 NKJV
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
你們要常在我裡面,我也常在你們裡面。枝子若不常在葡萄樹上,自己就不能結果子;你們若不常在我裡面,也是這樣。 - 約翰福音15:3-5
“Put it all together and you can see that Hebrews 10:26-29 says that there’s no longer any acceptable sacrifice for sin in the Levitical system, and that looking for one is a sin that has the effect of “trampling the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of grace,” and that going back to the Law of Moses after Jesus had come to fulfill it was a worse insult to God than disobeying it before He came. ”
"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of truth,there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law will die without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace.”
The Bible clearly tells us that at the moment we first believed, we were given the seal of the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. This confirms that our salvation is assured (Ephes. 1:13-14). Paul confirmed this in 2 Cor. 1:21-22 adding that God has taken ownership of us and it is He who makes us stand firm in Christ. The Bible also says that we’re saved by faith alone, not by works (Ephes. 2:8-9). So the basis for our salvation is belief, not behavior, and it’s guaranteed right from the start. This is possible because all the sins of our life were forgiven at the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).
These are incredibly clear statements on the unconditional and durable nature of our salvation, and form the foundation for the OSAS view. To deny OSAS you have to believe that other statements in the Bible can rescind or contradict these promises. That means you believe that either God wasn’t sincere when He had Paul make them, or that He let Paul make a promise in His name that isn’t true, or that He changed His mind and revoked them.
Now let’s look at Hebrews 10:26-29. If the writer was referring to our salvation then the first phrase of that passage has disqualified everyone who has ever lived from ever going to Heaven because no Christian has ever lived a sin free life.
Even the mighty Paul confessed that he couldn’t keep himself from sinning. (Romans 7:18-20). The Apostle John agreed. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8-10) Both were writing to the Church, not to unbelievers.
Finally, look at the context in which the Hebrews passage was given. The whole letter is an argument against the tendency of Jewish believers to go back into the Levitical system, which required the sacrifice of a Lamb as the remedy for sin. Statements both before and after the passage you quoted confirm the confidence we have that Jesus paid the whole price for all the sins of our lives. He is the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29) once and for all and made us perfect forever (Hebrews 10:12-14).
Hebrews 10:19-23 says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
And Hebrews 10:35-36 says, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Jesus said that the will of God is that everyone Who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. (John 6:40)
Put it all together and you can see that Hebrews 10:26-29 says that there’s no longer any acceptable sacrifice for sin in the Levitical system, and that looking for one is a sin that has the effect of “trampling the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of grace,” and that going back to the Law of Moses after Jesus had come to fulfill it was a worse insult to God than disobeying it before He came.
Under the New Covenant the remedy for sin is 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Failure to confess our sins gives us no release from the guilt we feel for sinning. Over the years this guilt builds up into a “fearful expectation” of judgment, which is what Hebr. 10: 27 actually says. It’s not that we’ll wind up being treated like God’s enemies, because that would violate all the promises God has made to us. But the guilt we feel for all our sins will make us fearful that it could happen.
回复 'jesusmary' 的评论 : Most believers don’t live their lives in His will, but many of them appear to be successful at what they do. Jesus said the things they accomplish are like unfruitful branches that are cut off and burned in the fire. They have no value to the Kingdom, no matter how impressive what they appear to be on Earth.
insight777 发表评论于
回复 'jesusmary' 的评论 :
Remain In Me
Q. I’m an avid reader of your website and a firm believer in the sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross. However, I’m confused on John chapter 15, where in verse 2 Jesus says, ” He (The Father) cuts off every branch in me (Jesus) that bears no fruit…” Then in verse 6, Jesus goes on to say, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” This verse does not sound like a “fellowship” verse to me.
On the surface John 15:2 appears as a strong encouragement to the disciples to remain in fellowship with, or rather remain in Christ’s love.
But what are the consequences of not remaining in His love? Do we lose our salvation?
A. The Lord is speaking to believers here, and since He’s already promised that He will never lose or drive away any of those who come to Him (John 6:37-40) He can’t be talking about our salvation. The context is bearing fruit and how remaining in Him is necessary to bear fruit. Being saved is not the same as bearing fruit.
He’s saying that only those things we do in His strength will be considered valuable. Things we do in our own strength are not worth anything to Him, and those who insist on working in their own strength are like unproductive branches on a vine.
The word “like” is meant to show a comparison in value. Any branch of a vine that that doesn’t bear fruit is of no value to the gardener, so it’s cut off from its fruit producing source. So it is with us. Working in our own strength is of no value to Him. It makes us vulnerable to being cut off from His power, and apart from Him we can do nothing. But when we remain in Him, our lives can be filled with His power and we can accomplish anything we ask.
Think of the countless numbers of believers who go through life without giving anyone the slightest indication that they’re Christians either by word or deed. They never give the Lord a thought between Sundays and by the way they live and work it’s impossible to tell them from their pagan neighbors. Then they go to church and make loud and impassioned prayers for deliverance or healing or relief from their afflictions and blame God when nothing happens. The sad truth is that they haven’t remained in Him and are cut off from His power. They’re still saved, but they can bear no fruit, either in their own lives or the lives of others.
Paul described this same situation in 1 Cor. 3:10-15 where he said that while much of our work might be burned up in the judgment fire, we will still be saved. He was talking about things we do in our own strength or for our own glory. They don’t endanger our salvation but neither do they qualify us for any reward. They’re of no value.
雅各书 2:14-18 RCUVSS
我的弟兄们,若有人说自己有信心,却没有行为,有什么益处呢?这信心能救他吗? 若是弟兄或是姊妹没有衣服穿,又缺少日用的饮食; 你们中间有人对他们说:“平平安安地去吧!愿你们穿得暖,吃得饱”,却不给他们身体所需要的,这有什么益处呢? 信心也是这样,若没有行为是死的。 但是有人会说:“你有信心,我有行为。”把你没有行为的信心给我看,我就藉着我的行为把我的信心给你看。
James 2:14-17 NKJV
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
你們要常在我裡面,我也常在你們裡面。枝子若不常在葡萄樹上,自己就不能結果子;你們若不常在我裡面,也是這樣。 - 約翰福音15:3-5
哥林多前书 9:24 RCUVSS
你们不知道在运动场上赛跑的,大家都跑,但得奖赏的只有一人?你们也要这样跑,好使你们得着奖赏。
圣灵给我的光照和启示:
1)行为从信那时刻就开始有,它是信心的结果。信心的行为可以仅仅是意志,思想或情感的行为,也可以是语言和其他身体的行动。
2)有永恒价值的行为,是出于信心,是有圣灵感动的结果,就是结出永恒的果实,也就是哥林多前书第三章讲的用金 、 银 、宝石做的工作,经得起火的考验;没有永恒价值的行为,是出于信心和自我,就是用草木 , 禾秸建造的工作,经不起火的考验, 是没有永恒价值的行为 。
3) 在马太福音13章播种者的寓言里,第三种情形,就是有信心和行为,但没有神灵的感动,因为没有接受主为生命的主,所以没有结果,但能得救。(播种寓言里的第一种情形,完全没有接受福音的道,即在理智上心里没有任何接受神的道的土壤,头脑和心是硬的,完全是石头;第二种情形,理性上认识接受,但心是硬的,即上面是薄土,下面是硬石头,所以道不能扎根,不算信,也不能得救;第三种有土壤,神的道能扎根, 但不是好土壤,长有荆刺,即 世 上 的 思 虑 、 钱 财 的 迷 惑,即信以后没有接受主耶稣为生命之主, 只是认罪悔改接受祂为救主, 虽然灵得到重生与圣灵结合, 但还是自己做主,只信靠神为自己生命的祝福者保护者, 所以不能结永恒的果子,但能得救;第四种是神的道落在好土壤,理性上接受,心里扎根,接受主为救主和生命的主,又得救又结果,即在圣灵的引领下,行为有永恒价值。现代大部分基督徒属于第三和四种之间。)
4) 马太福音13章讲得葡萄树和枝子的寓言, 也是讲论得救以后如何结果的问题。
5) 哥林多前书 9:24讲的奖赏, 就是结果后得到的奖励, 即靠着圣灵的感动, 在主里面, 凭着信心, 努力做工, 得到永恒价值的行为, 结出圣灵果实的奖励。