Q&A – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “SAVED?” - 5

WBS.267

Q&A – WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “SAVED?” - 5

Mark 13:13  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

                

I have attempted, these past four posts, to make a case for the difference between the western mindset and the mindset of the writers of the Scripture.  The “Christian” church has made a product of salvation; something that is received and held as an acquired item via a specific event…generally, the “magic prayer.”  Once prayed, a person is deemed to be “saved.”  Not so in the mind of the writers of the New Testament epistles, the very ones who initially propagated the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). To them, being saved meant to be delivered from the conditions and circumstances that had prevented them from obeying the commandments of IAUE.  That was their rescue.  It was being set free from darkness unto a life of righteousness brought to them by the light of IAUE through His son, Yahushua Messiah.  A “believer” who was continuing to walk in sin was by no means thought to be “saved” by the early apostles and disciples; and they were not deemed worthy of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven at the return of the Messiah.  Like Paul said in Romans 6:12-16, our King is identified by the one we serve.  If we are serving the flesh and unrighteousness, when the Master returns, we shall have no part in His kingdom. He will assign us the portion designated to our king and all his followers.

Though I think commenting on the following passages of Scripture might be helpful to the reader; I prefer to think leaving you at the mercy of the Holy Spirit will be even more helpful.  Following are a LOT of verses in the New Testament that, though clearly removed from the larger context of the letters from which they are extracted, demonstrate a better sense of how the early disciples thought about being saved and of salvation.

2 Corinthians 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Yahushua Messiah is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Galatians 5:4  Messiah is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim: for it is not subject to the law of Elohim, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please Elohim.

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of Elohim, they are the sons of Elohim.

1 Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of Elohim? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of Elohim.

Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Elohim.

Ephesians 5:5  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Messiah and of Elohim.

Hebrews 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Master:

15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of Elohim; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Hebrews 12:7  If ye endure chastening, Elohim dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of Elohim:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of Elohim, and joint-heirs with Messiah; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

21 For if Elohim spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of Elohim: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

Galatians 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

2 Timothy 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Hebrews 3:6 But Messiah as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Hebrews 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living Elohim.

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Messiah, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 

Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Hebrews 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

5 And have tasted the good word of Elohim, and the powers of the world to come,

6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of Elohim afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Hebrews 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Hebrews 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

James 2: 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

James 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify Elohim on this behalf.

17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of Elohim: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of Elohim?

18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of Elohim commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

2 Peter 1:10  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

¹¹ For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Master and Saviour Yahushua Messiah, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Revelation 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his Elohim, and he shall be my son.

8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

As much as I wanted this to be the last post dealing with this question, there is yet one more passage of Scripture that is imperative that we analyze to fully understand the mechanics of our salvation.