Barkley Jacob

The Lord commands His believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Why is this? There are different views of how salvation occurs and what it means to be saved. It is my understanding that salvation should be recognized as the primary gift of the Lord and that without being saved one suffers the ultimate punishment for their sins. Given the paramount importance of salvation, the question of whether or not one can lose their salvation is begged to be asked. I consider that though there be theologians with answers to this question that differ, that ultimately there is not a creature that is an authority on speaking on salvation. I consider also that salvation that comes by having believed upon Jesus Christ still remains a mystery to the believer in the Lord as does those that were once saved and are no longer saved.

Salvation includes the believer in the Lord having been saved from the kingdom of darkness and the fate the wicked suffer: that fate being eternal damnation. Salvation should therefore be seen as of paramount importance to the believer. The Bible is clear on salvation being of utmost importance to man. Jesus Christ taught, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The believer is instructed to fear the Lord and only the Lord. It is my understanding that to be saved by the Son of God by having believed upon Jesus Christ’s sinless blood is the greatest gift a man can receive. 

I consider that, “Can one lose their salvation?” is a question that has been asked by at least many a believer. Consider what Paul wrote regarding the rest of creation not being able to separate the believer from the Lord. In the book of Romans, chapter 8 verses 35 to 39, Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Given what Paul wrote, it sounds definite to me that there is not that in creation, be it another creature or any other aspect of the creation that is not a creature, that can take away salvation from a believer in the Lord. Now consider though, what about the believer himself? Though the rest of creation cannot separate him from the Lord, can the believer himself lose salvation? The Bible spoke of what to me sounded to be people who were once saved but then were no longer saved. Hebrews 6:4-6 reads, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” So much for the ‘once saved always saved’ teaching!

In chapter 10 verses 26-29 of the book of Hebrews the Bible goes on to teach, “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remained no more sacrifice for sins, But a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.”

Again, it sounds to me like there has definitely been those that had been saved and were later considered to be no longer saved. Does that mean they lost their salvation? If so was it done by sinning willfully? Consider though, how could one possibly lose salvation if salvation is of the Lord and one is to boast only in the Lord. If one could lose salvation and did not, is it or is it not that one could therefore boast that they did not lose their salvation because of that which they did and/or did not do and therefore their salvation rest on their own work or works? I know this to not be so, for again, salvation is of the Lord and one is to boast only in the Lord.

Is it by mystery that there has been some to have believed upon God and thereby were saved and others did not believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thereby were not saved? Is it also of mystery that there were those that were once saved and at a later time they were no longer saved? Is it that the Lord cancelled their salvation and how and why He did so remains a mystery and how salvation occurs once one has believed upon the Holy Christ remains a mystery as well? Methinks this be the case. Is it for those that were no longer saved were deemed to be as such by the Lord Himself? How is it other than this for, once again I say, the Bible teaches that salvation is of the Lord. 

I consider that the Lord Himself is always, at least to some degree, a mystery to His creaturehood for His depths are unsearchable. That one in and of oneself cannot lose salvation is, in my mind, scripturally sound. That the Lord has cancelled salvation for some believers in the past appears to me to be scripturally sound as well. I consider that there be that of salvation and the once saved that are no longer saved that still remain a mystery to the believer. Could this be related to why one is called to work out one’s salvation with both fear and trembling? Methinks it is, for the state of one being saved is always in the hands of the Almighty, who can cancel it at any time.

That one has believed upon the Christ and thereby is saved holds mystery to me in more than one form. How is it that some believed upon the Lord and others did not? How is it that one could be saved and then later no longer be saved? What were the particulars involved? My consideration here is that only the Holy Lord knows all there is to know about salvation. Is it therefore that salvation remaining to be at least somewhat a mystery to the believer is therefore no mystery?

The Christ taught His disciples to love their enemies. Why is this? The Christ also taught that His yolk was light. How can that be if one is to love one’s enemies? In this work, I explore the concept of the believer in the Lord called to love the nonbeliever, being the wicked. I consider Christ speaking on loving one’s enemies by examining some examples of Christ and His disciple Stephen loving the wicked. I also consider that a person can soundly reason that, given the Lord’s gospel, they truly should love their enemy.

Jesus Christ taught, “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat”. How is it that Christ’s teaching to love one’s enemies doesn’t fall on foreign ears regardless of who the listener is? How radical of a teaching is it and does the Christ mean it to be taken literally? If so, are there examples in Scripture of one loving one’s enemies? 

We see an example of Jesus Christ loving His enemy when He corrected Peter for having cut off the ear of Malchus. We learned from the Scripture that the Christ prayed to His Father three times that the cup that was given to Him be taken from Him but it wasn’t. Surely Malchus was working in the capacity of an enemy to Christ by looking to have Him taken into captivity and punished. Why would the Lord have Him healed him in the manner in which He did if He was not being loving to His enemy? The Scripture taught, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Was it that Malchus was a member of the world that God had intended to be saved through the Christ and had yet to come to believe upon him as Lord and Saviour? 

An example of one of Christ’s disciples loving his enemies can be seen with the stoning of Stephen. The Holy Ghost had been speaking through Stephen and the people’s response was to behave as enemies towards Stephen as …”they were cut to their heart, and gnashed on him with their teeth.” Is it that Stephen loved them when he, “being filled with the Holy Ghost,” said,”Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God,”? The enemies to Stephen and the Lord would not listen anymore to them and mobbed Stephen, casting him out of the city and stoning him. The Bible reports that Stephen “…cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Is it that Stephen both knew very well why to have love for his enemies and did love his enemies unto death? 

Why should a believer love his enemies? The obvious answer to this is because the good Lord has commanded him too. Is there reasoning behind loving one’s enemies though? Is it that, at first notion, one might consider the idea of loving one’s enemies as being radical to the point of perverse and going hand in hand with being an enemy to oneself. Is it that many believers hear that it is for them to love their enemies but fail to take this command literally for they see no reasoning behind it and look to shrug off the command as though it doesn’t apply to them? Do they consider they sense it to be too heavy a burden? Could it be that it doesn’t make sense to the believer?

Is it that to appreciate the teaching that one is to love one’s enemy one is best to take into consideration salvation? Consider the salvation of the saved and the condition of the lost with respect to eternity. For instance, someone who has believed upon the sinless blood of Jesus Christ and thus has been saved is no longer of the lost. The person who has been saved is a person of the greatest privilege for they have come to believe upon the life of God’s only begotten Son who willingly gave His sinless life on the cross and one reason for which being that the sins of the world could be forgiven. If someone be lost, they have yet to believe upon the Lord, if ever they will, and while lost they are in danger of eternal damnation. Is it for the believer to recognize this and think and behave accordingly? Methinks it is.

Christ taught to fear not thy enemy but rather to fear God who has the power to cast one’s soul and body into the fire of hell. Salvation is of utmost importance to the believer yet how many believers have truly considered their salvation with fear and trembling? How many believers give daily thanks for the salvation that only the Holy Lord can provide? How many believers recognize that they are saved by God’s grace and love and that there is not one believer that is worthy of Jesus Christ and the sinless life that He lived? Is it for he that doesn’t appreciate salvation that to love one’s enemy makes no sense whatsoever?

For the believer, the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ has shined into him thereby giving him the gift of eternal life. The wicked, on the other hand, have yet to receive that light, if ever they will. If one is to realize this, would it be that one’s enemy takes on a different dimension? That is to say, is it that one’s enemy appears to be different than they had previously appeared to be? Could it be that the enemy appears now to be a person in the gravest of dangers and thereby a person of the gravest of misfortunes? Is it for the believer to have feelings of true sympathy for all of those humans that have not come to believe upon the risen Lord Jesus Christ?

To love thy enemy is a teaching of Jesus Christ. The teaching can sound radical and at times how is it that it doesn’t appear to be the last thing a person can or wants to do? Given a richer appreciation of what it means to be a believer in the Lord’s gospel can help one overcome these hurdles to fulfilling Christ’s command of loving one’s enemy. By abiding by the command of working out, “your own salvation with fear and trembling.” one can possibly get this richer appreciation and thereby come to a deeper understanding of what their enemy truly is and how they should be accordingly treated.

After the Christ healed the man at Bethesda, the Jews sought to slay the Lord because He had “…done these things on the sabbath day.” Jesus had been doing His Father’s work and the Jews looking to slay Jesus Christ were moving according to their father, the Devil. The Christ taught that Satan is a liar, murderer, and thief. The Jews persecuting Jesus were fools functioning as liars, murderers, and thieves. Christ has called His believers to be distinctly different than the children of Satan. 

Jesus Christ taught that there was no truth in Satan from the beginning and that he is a liar. Jesus Christ spoke that Satan, “abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Satan does not work with truth and neither do his children. The truth is not with them. The Jews were clearly deluded in their thinking as they sought to murder He who had just made whole the man at Bethesda. Had they no good question to ask the man about the miraculous healing the Lord had just performed? Had they no sound thinking with respect to the fact that the man could walk on his own?

The Christ also taught that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning,”. Christ also spoke of Satan’s children as, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” The Jews sought all the more to kill Jesus because Christ spoke truth when He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Is it that the Jews lusted to kill Jesus and did so with a fool’s thirst for blood over what they truly knew not. God had previously commanded “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Jews, children of Lucifer, sought to murder the Christ who is the sabbath for His children and who is always holy… what fools!

How is it the Jews, like Satan, were not functioning in a capacity of thieves as well? By trying to slay Jesus Christ how is it they weren’t trying to rob the people of hope? Christ had just made whole the man at Bethesda and how many more people was He willing to heal? How is it the Jews weren’t trying to rob the people of knowledge? What is it they did not know about Satan and how many people the Christ was going to instruct about the “…god of this world.” The Jews, in their delusion, were also seeking to rob from others “…the light of the world.” Christ taught, “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The Jews were of darkness in their effort to keep others from experiencing Christ.

In contrast to Satan’s children are what Christ’s believers are called to live as. Instead of being those who have no truth, a believer of God is called to love truth and grow in knowledge of it. Jesus taught, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:”. The Word of the Lord teaches, “ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” With that said, what is more paramount for the child of Jesus Christ than love of the truth? What could possibly be greater for a man than to have passion for the truth?

As opposed to being murderers, we are called to be persons of love. We are called to be “…as harmless as doves.” We are instructed that if we love the Lord we will keep his commands. We are commanded with the first and greatest commandment to “…love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:”. That is, we are called to love love for “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” As like the first and greatest commandment, the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbour as ourself. Is it that with these two commandments the yolk of the believer in the Lord is light and that the believer be thereby free to a life lived with passion for the Christ? As well, is it that the believer be changed with respect to others, for what was once wicked has been changed to be righteous and commanded to love others, even if they be enemies. How different than the Jews is this?

As opposed to functioning as thieves, as the Jews were, the Christian is called to let their light shine before men. The believer is called to be the salt of the earth and to share the light of Christ with others. How is it then that the believer isn’t called to be a being that is to give freely to others and to do so with passion? The good Lord’s Word teaches, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 

Satan lived as the enemy of Christ and his children, the Jews, lived in that manner as well. The wicked are those that have no truth in them. They are the children of the Devil and as Christ taught, they will do the lusts of their father, who is Satan. They truly are fools in their words and deeds and their lives are lived in vain. The children of God are called to be better than the wicked. We are called to be holy, as our Father is. The believer is called to be a person of truth, to love others, and to give of the Christ freely.

The scene at Bethesda occurs after Jesus performed His second miracle of His gospel. The scene itself can be seen as symbolic. Symbolism can be seen in the multitude which can be looked at as mankind. This ‘mankind’ can form a backdrop to the interacting between Christ and the man at Bethesda. The man himself can be seen as a symbol for some of what man is, some of what man needs, and who man needs it from. What the Christ gives the man of Bethesda can also be looked at from more than one perspective. 

The backdrop of the scene can be looked at as being the multitude which in turn can be looked at as being symbolic of mankind. The Scripture reports that the multitude be “great” and of “impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered” and “waiting”. Is it not that this multitude with affirmaties can represent mankind under curse and suffering a number of different afflictions. Is it that each member of the multitude ‘waits’ for opportunity to be healed of what ails them?

We learn from the Scripture that the man of Bethesda had an affirmity for 38 years and was being ‘stepped in upon’ by others before he himself could receive healing. Is it not for us to infer that the ‘others’ may not have had an affirmity as severe or for as long as the man? The man doesn’t make mention of waiting for a ‘turn’ agreed upon by him and the multitude. Is it that as the multitude waited for healing they did so in an unGodly manner? Could it be that the multitude was being governed by no good rule?

I consider here the notion of the multitude representing the flesh of one man ruling over the flesh of another. Was it that those with the affirmities were being governed by what Lucifer  considered to govern man when he was making reference to Job? I refer to the book of Job chapter 2 verses 4 to 5 where Satan speaks, “Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” Was it that the multitude at Bethesda was essentially functioning no better than what Satan expected man to be?

The man himself can be looked upon as though he represents some of what man is. It can be seen in Scripture that the man of Bethesda was frustrated in his effort to be made whole. Given  his condition near the pool of Bethesda and when asked by the Lord, “Wilt thou be made whole?” the man at Bethesda replied, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” How is it that man in and of himself isn’t frustrated without the Lord in his life? Is it not that all of man’s works are under the curses issued unto Adam and man’s best efforts at trying to be accomplished are always curtailed by that he is bound to be frustrated by aging unto death? Is it not that the very essence of what man without Christ is be a form of frustration and that death calls out to his most inner recesses of person? 

The man at Bethesda can also be seen as being symbolic of some of what man needs. In this case the man is wanting his affirmity to be healed. He is without a man to lower him into the water at the correct time for him to receive healing. Some of what the man clearly needs, therefor, is the charity of another person. Without charity for the frustrated man what is there? Is it the man sits through the days and sleeps restlessly through the nights waiting for another vain effort to get healed. Was it that he learned of his fellow man, and more of the evil nature of man in the process as day after day his hopes of being healed were dashed by an unspoken rule of the multitude: and that rule being ‘every man for himself’?

The Christ gives the man at Bethesda the charity the man needs in order to be healed. He also gives the man more of what he needs. Note what happens: The man at Bethesda refers to Christ as “sir.” I infer here this is his first encounter with the Lord. If I have inferred correctly, the Lord has entered into the man’s life both in the flesh and with the question “Wilt thou be made whole?” Upon expressing his frustration to the Christ, the Lord issues three commands does He or does He not? The first being that the man is commanded to “Rise,”. The second command is to “…take up thy bed,” and the third command is “and walk.” The creation needs the Creator, of this there should be no doubt. In this case the creation needing its Creator is man. The man’s Creator, the Christ, appears to the man at Bethesda as man, though He is not a man. Man receives more of what he needs from his Creator. This included commands. Since Adam, there is not a man in existence that does not exist without existing under commands from Jesus Christ.

Is it we can see that the Christ gave the man what he needed in way of charity so he could be made whole? We can also glean, can we or can we not, that the Lord has given to the man at Bethesda greater than the man could think he wanted? Did he or did he not think that he had to be lowered in the pool to receive healing? Jesus Christ is Lord over all, including all of spirit and flesh. Given Christ’s commands, the man was made immediately whole. How is it not that, by healing the man in such a manner, the Christ has unbound the man from how he had previously been bound. Had he not been physically bound to be with ailment? Had he not been mentally bound to think the best he could do was be near the pool at Bethesda in hopes that one day his effort to be whole would not be frustrated? Had he never imagined, and I think he didn’t, that his Creator would enter into his life in such a manner and free him in the manner in which He did?

Christ and the man at Bethesda can be considered from more than one perspective. By doing so one may consider more about what may have been happening with the scene. From considering a backdrop of mankind functioning according to its own evil manner to a man trying to escape what ails him, the reader can possibly get a better appreciation of the Lord come into the man’s life. By trying to see more of what the Christ gave the man outside of the physical healing itself, the student of the Scripture can possibly come to learn more about the potency of dwelling on the Holy’s Word, asking questions about the Scripture, and considering answers.