The strings of a grand piano are always strung tight with tension; they have to be, or there is no music. There is a tension in salvation: on the one hand there are Bible assurances of salvation, and on the other hand there are dire warnings about the tragedy of ultimately being lost. That tragedy would be ultimate; to lose eternal life--it's unimaginable. But Jesus plainly tells us that "many" who have thought they were His followers will say to Him in the final day as they stand before the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11, 12), "Lord! Lord! Haven't we done everything just right, cast out devils in Your name, done many wonderful works, etc. etc." and He will be forced to say to them, sadly, "I never knew you" (Matt. 7:21-23).
One thoughtful writer has said that the "many" will include "the great proportion" of those who now appear to be genuine. It's scary. And yet the tension is there: God wants us to stop worrying about our eternal salvation. Jesus says, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give YOU the kingdom!" (Luke 12:32). Paul says that He "wants all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:3, 4). Why will anyone, then, be lost if it is not His will that they should be? Calvinism says nobody CAN be lost if it is God's will that he/she be saved; but the Bible makes clear that by unbelief man/woman can "frustrate the grace of God."
A good answer to the tension is found in the story of Esau, the elder brother of Jacob. As the elder (if only by a few minutes!) the birthright was his; it could not be taken from him. But stupid-like, he "sold" it in a moment of sensual gratification, and never got it back "though he sought it carefully with tears." (Paul likens his gratification of appetite to committing fornication, and many do willingly "sell" their birthright to heaven for such a momentary thrill (see Heb. 12:15-17). When Esau was hungry he smelled the stew that Jacob was cooking and made the solemn, oath-bound choice to "despise" his birthright for it. And now Esau is the grand prototype of all the lost who will stand before the Great White Throne.
What will hurt them the worst will not be the extent of the Fahrenheit temperature of the "fire," but the painful, burning conviction in every cell of their being that the birthright to eternal life in the kingdom of God was GIVEN to them, they had it, but they threw it away for "the pleasures of sin for a season" (11:25). It's not God's arbitrary choice to shut them out; it's by their own unfitness for Heaven's companionship.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
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