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The Kindness and Severity of God

by Jon von Ernst
8/22/2023 / Bible Studies

Many Christians have the idea that once you are born again, your destiny is assured, and when you die or when the Lord returns, you will go to heaven and spend eternity in the Lord’s presence in the kingdom of God. Many seem to think that what they do between being born again and when they go to meet the Lord is not really that important. But what do the Scriptures say?

In Romans 11, Paul writes to the believers in Rome warning them not to be conceited, or arrogant. He reminds them of how some of the natural olive branches, the children of Israel, were broken off from the natural olive tree because of their unbelief. These natural branches were broken off that we, the Gentiles, the wild olive branches, might be grafted in.

He warned that we need to fear that if God broke off the natural branches because of their unbelief, He will break us off if we fail to continue steadfast in the faith. To those that continue to stand firm in their faith, God reveals His kindness. To those that fall into unbelief and disobedience, God reveals His severity. If God did not spare the natural branches, you can be sure He will not spare us if we are disobedient and unfaithful.

Romans 11:17-22 says, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.”

Jesus said in John 15:4-11 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

Notice that Jesus says that if we abide, or remain, in Him, He will abide, or remain, in us. He said that if anyone does not remain in Him, that person would be cut off as a branch and is cast into the fire and is burned. However, He says if we remain in Him, we will bear much fruit. If we keep His commandments, we will remain in His love. According to Jesus, our destiny is contingent on whether we are faithful to remain in Him. If we are disobedient and unfaithful, He will break us off as branches, just as Paul warned, and cast us into the fire to be burned.

Paul, in Colossians 1:21-23, tells the believers in Colossae, that Christ reconciled you through His death, “in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” Notice again the contingency here. We will be presented before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach, if. If what? If we continue in the faith, firmly established and not moved away from the hope of the gospel.

Paul again writes in 2 Timothy 2:10-13, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

He makes it very clear that, as believers, our destiny is very much dependent on our actions. Paul endured all things for the sake of the elect, the chosen, so they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. Paul had seen that there was much more to believing in Jesus than just being born again.

It was for this goal, this desire to attain unto this full salvation that was available in Christ Jesus, that He was pressing toward in Philippians 3:12-13. “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”

It was for this goal that he endured all things for the sake of the elect. He desired that the elect would attain unto, would obtain, this full salvation; which is in Christ Jesus, and with it eternal glory.

He did not want the elect to miss out on all that was available to them in Christ. Therefore, he reminded them, if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him. He was also warning them that if we deny Him, He will deny us. He wanted them to understand that if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

Some Christians seem to think that, “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself,” means that no matter how we live, God will take care of everything and make sure we make it safely to heaven to spend eternity with Him. This is not at all what it means. “He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself,” means that He is going to keep His word. He is going to be faithful to do exactly what He has promised. If we are unfaithful, He will remain faithful to His word; He will cut us off. If we deny Him, He will be faithful to keep His word; He will deny us. He cannot deny Himself. He must fulfill His promise.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 says, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.”

In Galatians 6:7-10, Paul makes it very clear, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” You do not want to mess with God. He takes His word, His promises, very seriously. He has every intention of doing exactly what He promised He would do. He is not a respecter of persons; He is a respecter of the integrity of His word.

Our confidence must not be in our faith, but rather in God’s faithfulness. Our faith may waver, our faith may be weak, but God remains faithful. To say that God remains faithful does not mean that even if we are faithless and deny God and choose to walk according to the flesh, that it is okay with God because He will be faithful to give us everything He promised anyway. No, for God to remain faithful means simply that God will keep His word. What He has said, He will do. Our disobedience will not change God’s faithfulness. Whether we remain faithful or not will have no effect on God’s faithfulness. God will still keep His word. God will continue to be faithful to fulfill what He has promised.

If we are faithful and obedient, we will experience God’s kindness. If we are disobedient and unfaithful, we will experience God’s severity and righteous judgment.

In Hebrews 10:26-39, the writer stresses this point again saying, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the 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. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’

“It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

“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. For, ‘In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.’ And, ‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.’ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

Jesus says in Matthew 10:37-39, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” Jesus expects, yes, He demands the preeminence, the first place, in the believer’s life. He will settle for nothing less.

Jesus tells His disciples this parable in Matthew 13:17-23, “Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

“The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

Notice that Jesus mentions four things that can keep a believer from bearing fruit. Affliction, persecution, the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth can choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. We need to be on guard. We need to be watchful, lest any of these things causes the word in us to be unfruitful. We are also warned in I John 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

We need to be careful not to be seduced by the deceitfulness of riches or be drawn away by a love of the world or the things of the world. We must continually guard our heart. We must continually reaffirm that Jesus Christ our Lord is really our Lord and is the most precious thing in our life.

Again, Jesus says in Mark 8:34-38, “And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.’”

In I Corinthians 15:1-2 Paul writes, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” Paul reminds them that they heard and received the gospel in which they stand and by which they are saved, if they hold fast to it, unless they believed in vain.

In Acts 14:21-22, Paul encourages the believers to continue in the faith saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” We need to understand that there will be trials, there will be difficult times; but if in the midst of them, we remain faithful and steadfast in our faith, God will remain faithful to keep His word and grant us grace sufficient for every situation.

Hebrews 12:14-17 says, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” Let us not be those that, like Esau, despise our birthright. Rather, let us be those that understand the importance of valuing the birthright of every believer, our inheritance of the promises of God.

God has promised blessings upon those that remain faithful, for those that obey Him. God has promised cursings upon those that are unfaithful, for those that rebel against Him. If we do not continue faithful and endure to the end, we will not inherit the blessings, but God will faithfully bring judgement upon us just as He promised. If we continue faithful and endure to the end, we will inherit the blessings just as God has promised.

God remains faithful. God spoke to Abraham, and Abraham believed Him and it was counted as righteousness to him. We need to believe God because He is faithful. Whatever He promises, He will do. God, in His kindness and mercy, has saved us and grafted us into the true vine. God, in His severity and righteousness, will cut us off because of our unbelief. We stand by faith; but we will be cut off if we fall into unbelief.

May we each endure to the end, loving nothing or no one more than our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might reign with Him and inherit all the blessings that God has promised to the faithful and the victorious!

Writings By Jon von Ernst

The Lord of All Things Series - A Trilogy of Truth
Books in this series:
Book 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom
Book 2- The Victorious Christian
Book 3 - Walking in the Light - Following in His Steps

*- Audio of these books are available free of charge at thepureword.net.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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