Let's try to summarize what it means to be "saved" for many Westernized Christians (mostly, in the United States):
To be saved is to repent of one’s sins and to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for our salvation. As a Christian, one’s life is marked by growth in the knowledge and love of God, service to God and others in His name, and hope for the future when Jesus will come back to reward His faithful followers.
If you would have asked me a little more than a year ago if I agreed with the summary above, I might have mostly agreed, at least in part. However, the last year of the Lord taking me more deeply into his word that I ever thought possible has changed all of that, but before addressing the meat of this article in light of the summary above, perhaps it would be helpful to add another prop to this scene.
The additional prop on the stage is the state of the church in America. You see, there are many people who call themselves Christians, but they don’t live like Christians. They don’t go to church, they don’t read the Bible, they don’t pray, they don’t witness, they don’t obey God. They are Christians in name only, but not in reality.
Now, you may think this is exaggerating, but it's not. We have some statistics to back the assertion. According to different studies, only about 18% to 22% of American Christians go to church at least once a week . That means that more than three-fourths of them are missing out on the blessings of God’s house, the fellowship of God’s people, the preaching of God’s word, the worship of God’s glory, and the power of God’s spirit. And that’s not all. About 31% to 67% of them say they never go to church at all. That means that they are living in darkness, ignorance, sin, and rebellion against God. They are headed for peril, unless someone reaches them with the solid and real gospel of Jesus Christ.
Cotton candy gospel
For many American Christians (and perhaps many westernized people), the so-called gospel they hear is a sweet version. It's sugared out with promises, health, wealth, feeling good, eternal bliss, heaven, and rewards. It generally is shy and skirts difficult matters and issues and comes across more like a soft cradle than it does the trench warfare that it was for the first century church and even for the persecuted church today in many countries around the world.
And it is quite easy for westernized pastors and leaders to preach such messages because those 18% to 22% who do attend are generally not hurting very much and they are generally not under any kind of outward assault, certainly not the literal and physical assaults and attacks of their fellow Christians around the world each day. There, Christians are squarely in the sights of everything from roving bands of violent men to governments and courts.
It ought to be obvious to anyone paying attention that something more than sugar-coated sermons and gift-boxes to poor kids filled with shoes and candy at Christmas is needed to save the eternal lives of people everywhere, even in the prestigious America.
Shifting our view to the first century
The New Testament scriptures are wholly the product of the first century. They were not written today and ought not be read with the mind of today and certainly not the mind of a pampered American. It might be reasonable to read with the modern mind of a Christian in Iran or China, but even then, a lot of historical context is lost in both translation and in time and culture. Without the original worldview, drawing a proper bead on what the gospel is all about is nearly impossible.
There are a series of phrases and words that most fully capture the essence of the gospel as it was understood in the first century. In other articles, we have looked rather carefully and closely at a few, but to capture the entire scope it is needful to write them out here once more:
- Ancient Rebels and Rebellions
- Jesus, the Christ (God, Man, Second Adam, Messiah, et al)
- Cross (and suffering)
- Resurrection
- Enthronement (fully vested with all power/authority)
- King and Kingdom
- Mercy (compassion, kindness, gentleness, et al)
- Hope
- Judge and Judgment
- Condemnation
- Eternal Life
- Eternity (either destruction in fire or life with Jesus)
What has already been covered in many other articles are the overall topics found in items A to F (Rebels to King). What remains are items G and H, as well as I through L (Judge to Eternity).
Summing: Rebels to King
The fastest way to summarize these items is to tell a simple story.
Once upon a time there were these fantastic heavenly creatures (sons of God) who watched and applauded God (Jesus, the Prince of Heaven) as he created our realm and us, both man (Adam) and woman (Eve). God clearly commanded these heavenly hosts to keep their place in the heavenlies.
However, when they saw the women (they were male), they lusted after them and rebelled, leaving the heavenly realms, coming to this realm in three separate rebellions, and wreaking such violence on the earth and upon humanity. As a result, they had giant children with the married women they raped, who after the flood to destroy it all except Noah, became what we now call demons or unclean spirits. The giants also had children by human beings further defiling humanity both spiritually and physically.
In the third and final rebellion at the Tower of Babel, God separated himself from rebellious humanity, dividing them into nations with lands and languages, and giving them over to be temporarily shepherded by 70 of his still faithful heavenly hosts. These 70 very soon rebelled themselves, and being joined by now dead giant demon spirits, they wreaked further havoc upon both creation and humanity. It is at this point God labors to raise up his own nation to himself through Abraham.
The culmination of this is the arrival of Jesus through Mary and her conception through the overshadowing Spirit of God; a virgin conception and birth. Jesus is perfect in his upbringing, and then in his ministry. He trains twelve young men as his disciples who will carry on after his resurrection and ascension as King, who is presently seated with all power and authority in full compassion and mercy for all who respond to his call through the declaring and proclaiming of the gospel.
Mercy and Hope
So—here we are: We now know who the enemy is into whose kingdoms and power and authority we are born, held there by our blindness and the passions and lusts of our flesh to keep our allegiance unwittingly given to them. Our blindness and ignorance is so complete and so gripping and in alignment with our own brokenness and fallen condition that we are completely unaware of it until it is pointed out.
Thus, it is not simply the proclaiming of the resurrection and enthronement of Jesus Christ as King of all that walks us toward Christ, but that he is a King of mercy, compassion, help, healing, and wonderful promises stacked against the realities of sin, death, the grave and all that follows without him.
But to fully understand mercy and hope and our connection to Jesus Christ, the King of all through his perfect allegiance and loyalty in love to us, and through our reciprocated allegiance to him, which is proven to him and others through it being lived out just as he lived out his for us—we must understand both of these in direct view of Jesus Christ as Judge and Judgment, which has consequences which are eternal. And this is where we finally cross over the bridge to the topic of this article.
Judge to Eternity
A surface-level analysis with Bible software gives a rough approximation of around 100 unique occurrences of keywords that indicate notions of "judgment". These may include righteous judgment, divine judgment, judge, judging, and different forms of the same notion as seen in different translations of the Bible.
A corresponding word to take note of is the word "hope" (elpis, which means expectation, trust, and confidence), which is found about 50 times in the New Testament overall. And we would be remiss if we did not include the word "mercy" (eleos). An approximate count of the word mercy as it appears in its Greek lemma and derivatives in the New Testament books is around 60 times. However, this does not include other words that may also convey the concept of mercy, such as oiktirmos, which means mercy, pity, or compassion, and is derived from oikteiro, which means to pity or have compassion on.
One noteworthy passage including both judgment and mercy in context to each other is found in James, chapter 2:
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Within this one verse is captured the very essence to communicate in this article. James is writing to people who are in some way open to trying to express their faith (allegiance to Jesus) in words only. In the modern century we might call this "lip-service" and in like manner, the audience being written to by James is starting to be taught that they can somehow be excused from living out their allegiance to Jesus through being merciful, compassionate, loving, and giving to the needs of their fellow human beings. James even provides the hypothetical scene of a brother or sister being in need of food and someone giving them words without actually providing food.
This sets the stage for the famous verse 14: "Faith (allegiance in word only) without works (mercy in action) is dead" and dead faith (allegiance in word only) will not save you. But—save you when? To understand that, we simply do a close and careful read of verses 12 and 13 above.
Verse 12 is a call to action—to have actions that match the words spoken ("So speak and so act"). It could not be clearer, but in case one is still confused, James follows it up with two juxtaposed statements, each with consequences, which is where the notion of hope will come in.
On one side is the person giving lip-service: "judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy". This is pretty clear. If there is no mercy at judgment, then there is one fatal and lethal conclusion for that soul: condemnation and eternity in a lake of fire together with the ancient rebels and their demon bastard children.
Yet, the message of hope is the final sentence of verse 13: "Mercy triumphs over judgment". Thus, the living out of our faith is demonstrated in our actually having mercy on others. Our life and trajectory of lived-out mercy to other people as we are connected to Jesus by our allegiance results in him, as final and just Judge over us, giving us his mercy, which opens up to his righteousness, which will then (at that time) cover our sin, which in turn opens the pathway to eternal life and not condemnation.
All this talk of hope
All of this living for Jesus Christ as the merciful and compassionate King of all heaven and earth must be done in clear view of the entire matter. Herein is the essence of the notion of "Now, but not yet". The call of Jesus to us comes through the announcement of him as King and what that means to humanity.
Jesus has conquered the ancient enemies and rebels. The father has taken their power and all of the power and authority of both heaven and earth and vested it in his Son, who has proven himself fully and perfectly worthy in his loyalty to the father and to us. His mission towards the cross and ultimate sinless death without a single spot of betrayal is complete.
Because of his resurrection and installment as King (and ultimate Judge) has paved the way for the gospel to be proclaimed, for people to hear, and for people to be translated from the power of the kingdoms of hell to the Kingdom of his dear Son, Jesus Christ. The translation is by his power. The capacity to live out our allegiance to him without failure is by his power and spirit residing in us and us responding in obedience to his living command (law of liberty).
Moreover, it is highly helpful for us to understand that there are a few critical facts for us to understand.
- The Allegiance of Jesus: His allegiance to us is the source of his power being provided to us for everything we need and to carry out obedience following of the law of liberty.
- Our Allegiance to Jesus: Our response of growing loyalty to him by disciplined obedience is his goal. The living out of this is found not only in our seeing more of Jesus and obeying him, but is expressed through us being like him in mercy, compassion, help, healing, and provision to others, who are his body and those who are hearing the gospel and becoming his body.
- The Power Circuit: You can think of this shared bond of allegiance in two ways. First, it is like a circuit of power, where Jesus is the source and our lived out allegiance back to him is the completion of the circuit. The stronger our loyalty becomes, the more power flows. This is not only true of our lives, but through our lives to other people, which is an increase in ministry. Second, it is like a marriage, where Christ is husband and we are his bride. The stronger our demonstrated loyalty to him as he is perfectly loyal to us, we grow in our beauty to him just as he is perfectly beautiful to us.
- Not About Us: Just like Jesus lowered himself to a servant of all (including abject sinners), we too must lower ourselves, lifting others higher in service, suffering, and sacrifice. It is the raw mark of our loyalty to Jesus lived out in our words and actions directed to other people, starting with the household of faith and reaching out into human beings needing to be saved and rescued both now and at the judgment seat! Remember: They will also be judged. We are their answer in Christ. They have nothing else!
Pulling it all together
Together with God, we have an ancient and powerful enemy. That enemy wrought havoc, violence, and extreme damage to not only us, but our home as well. Until Jesus came as fully-man, they could not damage God, but they did unspeakable violent damage to humanity and our home. When Jesus did come, they tried to damage him in the ultimate way of death and the grave (Sheol), but they failed because Jesus walked out his love and allegiance to subservient mercy without even a trace of betrayal or treachery to either his father, to us, or to our home.
Once he was raised up, he ascended, where the Ancient of Days (the father) vested him with all power and all authority in all the heavenly realms and all of the earthly realms, giving him the throne of mercy at the fathers side and crowning him in all glory and majesty. He also gave him all power and authority to ultimately judge the allegiance and loyalty of every human being. This judgment will be unquestionable by all and as such—every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess to the glory, power, authority, majesty, might, and worthiness of both the father and the son.
For this life, we must not only know the gospel (resurrection and enthronement and empowerment of Jesus Christ), but respond. We will either respond in asking the Lord to translate us from the kingdoms of darkness to the kingdom of light and Christ, or we will rebel and seal our condemnation together with those we unwittingly and blindly serve from birth.
Choosing Jesus Christ as King means disavowal of our former allegiances and the taking up of a life of growing loyalty to our only hope and our only means of salvation on the Judgment of the Day of the Lord: A growing loyalty to Jesus Christ and living that loyalty out by his power (Spirit) in us, where we lay down our lives and take up the mission of being a disciplined follower of our Lord—being merciful like himself as well as compassionate, loving, serving, giving, and even suffering and sacrificing of our own lives and bodies if we must.
Therefore, as James writes by the Spirit of God, we must be merciful to all as he was merciful and will be merciful to us on the Day of days because mercy triumphs over judgment! From now on, we are all called to keep judgment properly framed so that we dare not forget it and constantly place our hope in the loyalty of our Lord to us and ours returned to him, working it out by his power that is open to us by means of our perseverance in loyalty to him!