dhh712
Well-Known Member
High-sounding platitudes - we hear them constantly. Where once was powerfully preached and gladly heard echoed a plain "thus saith the Lord" is now filled with a cacophony of shallow religious colloquialisms and sound bites...and Christians of today's largely backslidden church "love to have it so" (Jeremiah 5:31 KJV). One of the most popular of these is "It's not about religion, but about relaaaaationship". Fine, then. What were perhaps the two most important things Jesus referred to in teaching us about what constitutes a proper relationship with God? about how He relates to us and how we are to Him?
Children and marriage.
So, what did God say was to be the fate of Israelite children who strike their parents? Stoned to death. Yet, somehow the OSAS crowd which makes up the majority of Christianity today ignores this divine revelation of God's uncompromising will that solemn reverence for parents be in the heart of every child, young or old, that by this they may also learn to reverence Him -- and instead, spit in their heavenly Father's face and "crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame" by willfully sinning against Him after receiving a knowledge of the truth (Hebrews 10:26 KJV). They believe grace somehow cripples His justice and makes His bark worse than His bite - that the fresh nails of sin they drive daily into the hands and feet of Jesus will go unnoticed in the day of Judgment.
So, what does the Bible say about the marital obligations of the husband and wife? That the man (or woman) who commits adultery is a fool who will end up lost (Proverbs 6:32 KJV). Yet, somehow the OSAS "faithful" think God is satisfied with presumptuous, deliberate, habitual unfaithfulness to His Ten Commandments, while they themselves will slap even a one-time unfaithful spouse with divorce papers and remarry before the ink has a chance to dry.
Sure, it's about "relationship" alright - one of double standards and selfish terms. Is that the kind of relationship we are to have with the One Who had every right to abandon us with that first bite of forbidden fruit, but instead at that moment began a long journey to what would be the ultimate, infinite sacrifice for our redemption - even if not a single soul would have been touched by His grace and surrendered their heart to Him?
While I do not adhere to the way that OSAS is applied most often (once you are saved you can willfully sin and it doesn't matter; what that does show is that you do not know God and are in fact not saved at all though you may have thought you were as Jesus explains in the parable of the sower). However, I understand it to be quite necessary to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus. If one is setting out to check off a list of do and don'ts to follow but does not walk daily with the Lord, striving to know him more and spend time with him, then that shows a lack in his or her spiritual life. It would appear then that such a person is relying upon his or her own righteousness to be reconciled to Our Heavenly Father and not the righteousness that is applied to them in Jesus.
Again, this requires a balance of regarding that righteousness that is applied because then the OSAS who actually have no knowledge or walk with God will say, "Well, I've got Jesus' righteousness, right so that means I can do whatever I want now!" But in reality, those who do know the Lord Jesus, the Spirit and Our Heavenly Father will not "want to do whatever I want". They want to be with the Lord, know him, and walk closer with him. They love his law and strive to be found righteous as he was (though our works are by no means perfect) out of a overwhelming love for God and desperate plea to be more and more like Jesus.
Thus I do not scoff at the term "relationship" with God as I do feel it is the most important thing in a Christian's life. But the OSAS saved, as it is typically regarded, is not Biblical in the slightest sense. Those people who adhere to such an idea are the seed which fell on the bad soils but not on the good soil which bears fruit unto God.
Let’s at least agree the majority of believers today are OSAS - try standing up in your church this weekend and say if we branches fail to continue abiding in the Vine “Jesus”, we’ll be cast into the Lake of Fire, and see how long you last.
Many ministers of my denomination preach about this. They also preach about the vitality of having a relationship with Jesus. The one pastor I'm listening to now on his series in Luke frequently mentions how it may be that life-long church goers may find themselves by their apathy toward Jesus in hell on the last day.
"If you are trying to be saved or sanctified by law..." That's your words, post #53...did someone hack into your account or are you mistaken?
Yes, but he was agreeing with you on that account. He was saying basically that striving to keep the law does not earn someone salvation, which is what you are saying too (that the works are not what earn salvation but are evidence of our belief in God, our choice to believe in Him). That's what I got from the conversation.
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