Must I Endure?

Mike Leake

Our church is tackling Colossians 1:15-23 this week. One of the questions that will come up in our Life Groups is how Colossians 1:23 relates to our eternal security in Jesus. Does our hope of “seeing God” rest on conditional promises? What does Paul mean in Colossians 1:23 if he says, “If indeed you…”?

There are at least four views to this question*:

The loss of salvation view:

An adherent of the loss of salvation view would take Paul’s warning here as absolutely legit and completely literal. Paul means what he says. If you continue in the faith then you will be ultimately saved and all of these promises are yours. If you do not continue in the faith then you will have lost your salvation. This is no mere hypothetical situation either. People have lost their salvation (1 Timothy 1:19 and 2 Timothy 4:10) Paul is serious in Colossians 1:23, if you do not endure to the end you will not see God, we cannot be certain that any believer will endure to the end; therefore we ought to be careful to heed this warning.

The loss of rewards view:

Adherents to this view will put a ton of weight on other places in Scripture which speak of the eternal security of the believer (like John 6:37-44 and 10:28-30). To say that one must do good works to enter into heaven, or one must persevere until the end to obtain eternal life, is contrary to the message of grace which permeates the whole New Testament. If salvation is truly by grace through faith, then works can play no role in the outcome.

The presentation in view in verse 22 is not speaking of our ultimate judgment; it is speaking of the believer standing before Jesus in what is known as the Bema Judgment. What is at stake is not salvation and entrance into the Kingdom. What Paul is saying in this text is that if the believer continues in the faith then he will hear a well done good and faithful servant from Jesus. If he does not continue then he will be stripped of his rewards but will not forfeit entrance into the Kingdom because that, as we have seen from the above verses is not possible; once you are saved you are always saved.

Test of genuineness view:

This view partially agrees with both the above views. It agrees that those that are truly saved cannot lose their salvation. But it also agrees that if you do not persevere to the end you will not be saved. Such a view will look at 1 John 2:19 as proof. The reason why anyone does not endure is because they were never genuinely saved in the first place. And so it is every time in Scripture that we see someone “fall away”. All true believers will be empowered by God and endure to the end and thus be saved, if someone appears to fall away it is because they were not saved in the first place.

Means of salvation view:

This view is very similar to the third view, but in places like Colossians 1:23 an adherent to this view would say that the test of genuineness view does not give full weight to what Paul is saying.

The error that you make is assuming that Colossians 1:21-23 should be understood retrospectively. What I mean by that is that you are assuming that Colossians is something we look back upon after we have already endured or fallen away. If you endure then you look back at Colossians and say, “see my faith was genuine”, or you look back after falling away and say, “well I guess it must have been gas”. The truth of the matter though, is that Colossians 1:21-23 is prospective. Paul is not saying this looking backwards, he is looking forward.

Therefore, “it is precisely by taking the warnings seriously that we avoid eternal destruction”. These warnings are the means that God uses to keep us continuing in the faith.

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As you might have picked up my preferred view is the means of salvation view. I believe it does the most justice to the biblical text. It does justice to the texts that clearly show that we will endure to the end. Yet it also does justice to the texts that cry out “You must endure to the end”!

Must you endure to the end to be saved? Absolutely. And because of the work of Christ Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit those that are believers will endure to the end by heeding such warnings.

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*This is adapted material from a previous sermon that I preached. As such my thought here is probably indebted to many resources. I know for sure that I’m indebted to Tom Schreiner in his book with A.B. Caneday, The Race Set Before Us.

Traded Everything for Love?

Mike Leake

I stumbled across this photo last week and it captivated me. There is beauty in the simplicity of it.

Here is Jesus. Homeless. Tattered clothes. With the reason for his condition scrawled out on a dirty piece of cardboard: “Traded everything for love”.

The passerby would be left to wonder—what did this guy trade? How marvelous must this beauty be that he would make himself homeless to have her be his? What magnificent love must this man have…

When you fill in the details of the story with the gospel narrative the passerby would be even more astonished. To realize that the one he traded everything for isn’t some captivating beauty but an unfaithful harlot that has made herself haggardly from her rebellion. Now the passerby begins to grasp the depth of His love and the glory of His character.

What a phenomenal picture of the Story behind all stories. 

But is it true?

In one sense it is an absolutely beautiful and true picture of the incarnation. When he walked the earth he had no place to lay his head. He was as a homeless man. And all of this was because of love—love for His bride and Love for His Father.

I believe that the statement “Traded Everything for Love” comes from Philippians 2:6-8

…who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Love compelled Jesus to “take the form of a servant” by “taking upon himself human flesh”. Do you notice what is missing from Philippians 2, though? He didn’t “trade everything in”. Yes he “made himself nothing”. But he did not stop being God when He became man. This is the wonder of the incarnation. God became flesh but He didn’t cease being Deity.

This isn’t a City of Angels type of story. The pre-existent Son of God did not drop this identity and become a mere human. He remained the pre-existent Son of God but he took upon human flesh.

This is good news.

Our redemption is tied up in the fact that Jesus did not “trade everything” for love. The incarnation is only a means to the greater end of “reconciling all things to himself”, creating a people for himself, overturning the works of the devil, and ultimately restoring everything in the new heavens and the new earth. He doesn’t do this simply by becoming a man. He does this because He is the God-man.

So did Jesus “trade everything for love”? Kind of…but not really.

Today in Blogworld 04.19.13

Mike Leake

Why Pastors Quit

Here are reasons that pastors quit. Along with some encouragement on each point.

The Light Does Shine in the Darkness

This is a moving story about a little baby that was almost aborted.

Jim Hamilton’s Moving Exhortation to Do Biblical Theology

Andy Naselli reflects on a chapter written by Dr. Hamilton. Be sure to also go here and watch the video.

Real Beauty

In response to the Dove Sketch ad, that is going viral, Tim Challies offers his thoughts on real beauty and areas of God’s grace in our lives.

A weak man’s testimony:

Review of the Boy and the Ocean by Max Lucado

Mike Leake

When you’re little everything looks big. Even as an adult there are some things that are breathtaking in their vastness. Max Lucado has captured this in his book, The Boy and the Ocean. Using the vastness of the ocean, the mountains, and the stars Lucado helps children (and adults) see that  God’s love is never ending.

The story is about a little boy that is captivated by the ocean. Then the mountains. Then the sky. It begins with the mother showing him how the ocean points to God’s love. Then dad joins in by showing him how the mountains point to God. At the end of the story the little boy has joined in proclaiming the depth of God’s love as he reflects upon the big sky.

The book is well written and the pictures are captivating. I’ve read it to my little boy (5) a couple of times and he loves it. It keeps his attention and the message of God’s love clearly gets across to him. My daughter (2) isn’t quite as entertained—the book is a little long for her at this point. But if your kid is around the ages of 3-7 this is a great book to help your child understand the depth of God’s love. It can even create conversation later as you take your child to look at the great things that God has created.

Isaiah wanted to help me review this book. His thoughts are below:

From Isaiah (5):

I really liked where the boy couldn’t see the end of the ocean. I also liked how they said everything was like God’s love. This book teached me how you can’t see the end of anything…like the ocean. And God’s love!! It helped me to see that God never ends and His love never ends. I just wanted to say this book is awesome! I loved all the pictures.

You can get the book here.