Holy Hormones Bible Study: If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
MY TAXI DRIVER BELIEVED I WAS INSANE
Eternal Security #2
Indulge me while I tell a true story.
When I worked for a living there was once a Muslim taxi driver who was incredulous that I would be naïve enough to believe that the Spirit of God was actually living within me, to direct me, and had promised that He would welcome me into Paradise if I trusted Him to keep that promise. When I explained that, while Allah expected me to send my son to die for him, Elohim had sent His Son to die for me, the subject of naïveté resurfaced. He also said that ALL infidels deserved to die because we are polytheists believing in the Trinity; God, Mary and Jesus. I didn’t give him a tip — calling on mass slaughter of my family may well be a contextual issue at Harvard, UPenn and MIT but not in a taxi under my hire.
I mention this for a few reasons:-
• That incident happened more than 20 years ago. It shows that there is no new news — only old news happening to new people. (Perhaps the driver was a graduate of Harvard?)
• It shows how difficult it is for the mental capacity of mere mortals to grasp the expanse of the Grace of God.
Catching up on where we leave off last time?
° The question of loss of Salvation is redundant.
a. If you’re not a Saint you haven’t got it to lose.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT, IMMEDIATELY!
YOU ARE ONLY ONE BREATH AWAY FROM ETERNITY.
b. If you are a Saint you did nothing to get it so you can’t give it away.
° As a Saint you are griped by a hand of the Father AND a hand of the Son.
NO ONE, NOT EVEN YOU, CAN BREAK AWAY.
An encouraging verse
It is written in Romans 8:31 || If God is for us, who can be against us?
But often it is us who is against us.
What are you on about?
Becoming more familiar with the narrative of the OT shows that Yehovah often switched between the names Israel and Jacob when addressing the Nation. It took me a long time to wake up that Israel is used when they are obedient and Jacob when disobedient. When He uses both Israel and Jacob it is everyone, both the obedient and disobedient.
It doesn’t take me to tell you that God came to the rescue whenever Jacob shot itself in the foot. It encourages me to know that God never said He would make Israel the best. He just said He would let them win.
So now comes the Greek. Try some. You might like the taste.
Don’t panic that you actually have to learn all this stuff.
It is presented only as evidence that what is said later is not trying to bamboozle you with some sophist guile. It will fall into place — Pinkie Promise.
Blue Letter Bible (or another) does all the heavy lifting. I only have to know enough to understand the answers that are provided — and I can carry a cheat-sheet.
Another story about my misspent youth: In days of yore, well before satellite dishes — only long-wave radio — I spent several years working on an isolated place deep in the desert. It was so boring but there was the trace of a library; one shelf of Zane Gray westerns and a few stray titles. The last book left to read was, “Teach Yourself Calculus.” I had no idea what Calculus was. Yes, it is possible to be that bored. I finally opened it at page 1 and started doing every exercise from the very beginning. I finished the book and had a bit of an idea what Calculus was about but it didn’t change my life. After that episode I ended up back in school as a mature (older would be a better word) student to study Engineering. When I got there I found that, in my ignorance, I had learned Calculus before I knew it was hard. The bright young things came in carrying the load of negative expectations, because they had been warned, and smarter kids than I buckled under the load.
The same could happen with Greek Grammar to someone reading this.
Now, back to the present.
Immediately before hearing that God is for you (Romans 8:31) comes Romans 8:30 which is plump with Industrial Strength Theology for a Saint, || Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Obviously, the highlighted are verbs — action words. Every Greek verb has a number of properties.
We are interested in three.
Aorist tense: We don’t have this part of speech in English. Simply, it means an action has been completed and can’t be changed. One analogy is that of a photograph. It is a snapshot in time. You can take another snapshot but that is of a different moment.
Indicative mood means a simple statement of fact. In our case here, it has happened — no lie.
Active voice indicates that the subject of the sentence is the one who did the action. (Passive voice means the action was done to the subject.) In this case the subject of the verse is God so He is doing the doing.
Every one of those highlighted verbs are Active voice, Indicative mood, Aorist tense. [Don’t worry if you don’t understand the technicalities. They are just proof that the next statement is not a lie — in case anyone wants to argue.]
Pay attention!
GOD DID ALL THOSE THINGS; IT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE THAT HE DID THEM; HE HAS COMPLETED THE TASKS AND THEY CAN’T BE UNDONE.
• No other opinion matters!
• He said what He meant and meant what He said!
• There is no doubt!
There are lots of verbs in the verse
All of them are already completed and can’t be changed but, in this case, the verbs of concern for us are Justified and Glorified.
As you are aware, Justification is being declared Righteous (the Pass to enter Heaven), and Glorification is entering Heaven.
Because they are Active voice, Indicative mood, Aorist tense (and God is the Do-er) there were two pictures taken the instant the Father declared you Justified that are as good as hanging on the wall of the Mansion that is waiting for you.
° Graduation (Justification) and
° Entering the Pearly Gates (Glorification).
The simple rules of syntax make it emphatically clear that the Saint (not one who just identifies with a Saint) is Eternally Secure — Yehovah’s Reputation depends on it.
But the Grammar keeps bursting out with glad tidings
Back to Romans 8:31.
It is a conditional if/then statement of argument where Paul is persuading his readers. If (God is for us) then (who can be against us). When the then part is true, the if part is also true. The statement no longer carries doubt. For the Saint the translation is “BECAUSE God is for us, who can be against us?”
HE HAS SET THE SAINTS UP TO WIN
However . . .
And there is always a BUT.
The unspoken verb between Justified and Glorified is Sanctified. There are actually three stages of Salvation; Justification, Sanctification, Glorification. God loves you so much that He will accept you as you are. But He loves you too much to let you stay that way. This will be expanded upon in the next issue.
(To be continued . . . )
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime. If you have seen something you like, I encourage plagiarism. So, always check everything I say first, then please re-cycle, re-brand, re-structure, re-issue, re-label, or re-gurgitate in any manner you please. No need to acknowledge me because the Holy Spirit Who holds the Intellectual Rights.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
