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We're Saved!
NCW 81, January-June 2004
"We are saved!" cried the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the dark days of Jeremiah's ministry (Jer.7:10, Living Bible) and continued living murderous, adulterous, lying and thieving lives. Why did they believe they were saved even though they were breaking practically every commandment there was? They had come to believe that because the Temple was standing that they would never suffer or be undelivered (v.8). For them the Temple of Yahweh had become a giant talisman. So long as it was there, they reasoned, Yahweh would be there to protect them no matter what they did, simply because it was the House where His Name lived. It did not seem to bother them that they had compromised with pagan religion, indulging in syncretism - the combination of true worship with false. It didn't seem to bother them that they were doing so much evil. Yet there they gathered and chanted, "We are saved!" Yahweh's response through His navi (prophet) Jeremiah was:
And He goes on to remind the people of what He did to Shiloh, where the Temple had been before, on account of the evil of the people at an earlier time.
The Jews in Yah'shua's (Jesus') time were similarly persuaded that Herod's magnificant Temple would guarantee their safety no matter what they did, even though they were under oppressive Roman occupation. I can hear them crying, "We are saved!" too. Yah'shua (Jesus) called the Temple vendors there a pack of robbers as Jeremiah did. Both Temples, along with the one at Shiloh, were destroyed. They were not saved. The people were ravaged and scattered.
What most troubles me is that Christians/Messianics are saying exactly the same thing today. "We're saved!" Because they believe in Yah'shua (Jesus) yet carry right on sinning in their lawless, Torahless lives. They have their rationalisations, 'once saved, always saved' being one of them. They have their excuses: "the Torah (Law) has been nailed to the Cross!" or "Christianity isn't about religion". And yet they continue to trade in the world's way to thinking, feeling and behaving as vendors in the Temple of Yahweh, the Messianic Community, the Body of Christ, dessicrating the Name of the Most High.
I hope that you, the reader, are not so naïve as to believe that you too are saved no matter how you live your life. If you believe that, sudden destruction will fall upon you and all that you held dear will be scattered. Yahweh-Elohim will not be mocked. The profession of your lips is meaningless if it is not matched by a true love-response to His undeserved loving-kindness to you, and that response is obedience to His mitzvot (commandments). They are your hedge and protection, as well as being the hedge and protection for the whole Messianic Community against the world system and Satan's demonic legions.
So before you proclaim your salvation in Yah'shua (Jesus) to your neighbour, or shout it on the hilltops, ask yourself: Is my salvation reflected in what I do? What have I been saved from? What am I saved to? Am I conformed to Torah? If you are not, your testimony is hollow, and when the day of your tribulation comes, and you are undelivered because of your lawlessness, what will your neighbour conclude? He will say, "There is no God!" or worse, "The God of the Christians/Messianics is not quick to save them." And he will leave believing that your testimony is worthless, which it is, for "emunah (faith) without works is dead" (Jas.2:20,26). And if your heart resists obeying Torah then the chances are, my friend, that you were never saved in the first place. For the heart which has received the salvation of Yah'shua (Jesus) is moved by ahavah (love) to obedience, whereas the person who has been touched in no more than the mind will only do so reluctanly and without real conviction. And if that is the case, please consider carefully your awful predicament, and take the right steps to remedy the situation. Ask Yah'shua (Jesus) into your heart to transform it into a heart like His, so that you may know of His love for you, and be led to obey Him joyfully. Then your mind and heart will be in agreement, and your mind will be sanctified. Then your testimony will shine like the noonday sun, and you will be able to genuinely say with the redeemed, "We are truly saved!"
This page was created on 10 June 2004
Last updated on 10 June 2004
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