Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
From a letter from Jenny in Australia
Pastor John:
I have a question . . . What does it mean when it says, “If salt loses its saltiness, it cannot be made salty again”?
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By that phrase, Jenny, Jesus was warning his disciples about wandering so far away from righteousness that they become permanently useless to both God and man. A servant of God in that case will be cast out of the kingdom of God “to be trodden under the foot of men.” It need not be that these fallen saints commit the “unforgivable sin” either; it may be simply that they loose their zeal for righteousness and become swallowed up again by the world and its attractions.
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Oh, right. Does it really mean that if you go back from the truth to the world, that you can’t repent again? What if someone does? Surely God would be merciful. But then, I do recall something in the NT about such a thing as “crucifying Christ again.”
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God will be merciful, Jenny. There must be forgiveness for sin after being born again if “the righteous man falls seven times”, as Solomon said. The “unforgivable sin” happens when those who, like Judas, are close enough to God, even anointed by God, and know better than to do the evil they do, and do it anyway.
In the book of Hebrews, we learn that such an ultimate sin can be committed only by those who “have tasted of the powers of the world to come” and “have been enlightened.” You need not be concerned about that, not now and for a long time to come.
As I have said before, not many of God’s children qualify to be a Judas. He was one of Jesus’ closest companions, intimate with him as a friend, one with whom Jesus said he took “sweet counsel”. To be in that kind of relationship with the Lord and then to turn on him is unforgivable, as Judas sadly discovered.
Pastor John