Everyday our lives are in great danger and yet most of us are unaware of this imminent threat. All around us, it seems like business as usual - a typical laissez-aller attitude that can explode in our faces anytime. It is dangerous because our enemy, Satan, is in a fit of rage against believers, particularly those who confess Jesus as their Saviour.
We are threatened from every angle whether we see the magnitude of the problem or not. The reason is simply because Satan is condemned and is running out of time. He is relentlessly seeking to execute his genocide plan. Would you let him? None will be spared except those who are saved by the blood of Jesus.
Anyone who takes cover under a tree during a storm is doing so out of ignorance. If lightning strikes that is the likely place it will hit. Ignorance is our greatest enemy. An informed person, under such circumstances, will seek shelter elsewhere other than under a tree. The written word of God, the Bible, provides such information for abundant life. What the world offers may be fanciful, but it is only skin-deep and does not last.
Our Lord Jesus ensures us that no one who knows the truth will be lost; the reason why He wants “… all men saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1Timothy 2:4) It is not His desire for even just one of us to perish and go to hell.
Our Lord Jesus came to this world “… to save sinners.” But they rejected Him. The world rejects Him more vehemently today than did the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes of His day. Yet, He stands as the only door by which we can enter heaven. He declared: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Objects of His Grace
God in His infinite mercy has accorded us His grace which is favour that we do not deserve. This He did so we would not be justly punished for our disobedience. We are living in an era of grace therefore; after which, it will be judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) Would you turn your back on God’s saving grace?
To everything there is a limit, and that is true also of God’s patience and tolerance. There comes a time when grace ceases to work in our favour; that is, when we change the grace of God into licence to sin unhindered, without remorse. We must remember that grace is given so that we would keep the law not to break it. “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4) When that happens there is no other option.
The writer of Hebrews puts it thus: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:26) Punishment awaits all those who have “… trampled the Son of God under foot, who have treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace.” (Hebrews 10:29)
Jude in his epistle describes as godless those “… who change the grace of our God into licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (Jude 4) There is a danger; danger of living the rest of our lives away from the presence of the Lamb of God – who paid the price of sin that we may have life and have it more abundantly.
Luke warmness
Nothing could be as annoying as our indecisiveness; when we do not know which foot goes first. It is not new, sadly enough. Some laissez-faire attitude was evident in Loadicea - one of the early churches. The Lord had this to say about their lukewarmness: “So because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16) There is a danger also that we can be labelled for our lukewarnness and be disqualified.
Unsaved?
What should I do to obtain salvation? A jailer asked Paul and Silas a similar question when he imagined what his fate would be following the presumed escape of some prisoners under his guard. They replied: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31) In the book of Romans chapter 10 and verse 9, Paul writes; “… if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Furthermore, Paul in the book of Acts confirms: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
There is a danger to believe that there are multiple sources of salvation on the menu. God is not the author of confusion. (1 Corinthians 14:33) He sent His Son so that “… whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
A rich young ruler came to our Lord Jesus and asked for the formula to inherit eternal life. The Lord told him to go and sell all that he had and give to the poor, after which he could come and follow Him. The questioner left sad. It sounded hard to accomplish because he had other gods making claims on his life. He chose to turn his back on his opportunity to access this God-kind of life. There is an even greater danger to have come so close and then miss it altogether. The danger is real.
