“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev. 2:10)
What if you are not faithful unto the end, what if in your final days here on earth the pain is too much to bear, the grief and sorrow too heavy, what if the persecutions cause you to deny Him whom you have served for so long with sincerity and love in your heart?
As much as the truth of the salvation of the thief on the cross by our Savior that day, far too many believe that an action, deed or word in their last moments of life can cause all that has been promised to us by the Almighty to disappear, to be removed from us, because we were not faithful to the end.
This is the foundation of every works for salvation cult, that the works must be maintained continuously, even until the last breath. It is why the Romanist needed to invent purgatory, denying fully Hebrews 9:27.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
“If you do not follow every commandment I have given you, continuously and without fail, you will lose all I have offered you. Even if you do, even for decades, but at the last moment of your life, if you do not remain faithful, I will deny you and take away your salvation.”
There are many that think that way my friends, and it is no less than saying to themselves that although they may firmly believe that they are saved by grace through faith, if they do not continue proving that faith by works, all will be lost.
I will leave it up to you to decide if these spoken of here are the perpetually weaker brother or sister in Christ, or those who are only professing Him with their lips. In either case, this would be a truth about them, they are seeking for a means to their own righteousness and not the righteousness of God.
One of the most difficult words in the Scriptures is one of the smallest, containing only two letters, but it is one of the most contemplated and discussed words there.
That word is “If.”
“If you love me,” “If you continue,” “If Jesus Christ is in you.”
Study the Book of Hebrews in relation to that word in many of the verses, and you will begin to understand why so many vehemently believe that the promises of the Living God in relation to our salvation, our assurance of salvation, are not true. And if they are, they are only for those who remain faithful.
Do you serve a god that says, if you do not continue? If you are faithful to the end, I will not remove my promises to you? Is it possible, in the last few days or moments of our lives, after faithful service with a sincere heart, to lose some or all of our rewards in heaven?
“I had all this waiting for you, but in the last few hours of your life, you did not remain faithful, so they are no longer yours to have.”
Many years ago, I did an intensive study on that word “If,” and to this day it still remains in my mind. Entire religious organizations, some of them actually Christ-centered, have built their ideologies around that one little two letter word.
It is a great cause of concern for millions of people. They believe that they must be faithful. Remain faithful. Or every promise will be removed from them. Every reward lost.
When you study that word “if,” what thoughts enter into your mind?
