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Continuing our discussion from part one, speaking from my own personal experience, I know for a fact that it is not always easy to remain on the path that God has chosen for us. After all, we are weak, pitiful human flesh, and we are simply no match for Satan. As a result, we will sometimes fail, and we will sometimes fall. I will candidly admit that over the decades, there have been times in my own life when I have failed the Lord, and have fallen back into worldly ways and habits. The good news, as I noted a moment ago, is that when such instances occur, God prefers a much better outcome for us, other than shame and everlasting contempt. Exactly what does the Lord prefer? The following verses provide us with a very clear answer:

"And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; BUT LET IT RATHER BE HEALED."


"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."


"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee."


So as we saw earlier, and as with the ancient Israelites, it seems that God's answer to our many failures and backsliding is not that we should suffer shame and everlasting contempt, but rather that we should be healed, so that we can return to fruitful service for Him, because He is married to us. Sadly, depending on the degree of our waywardness, the long road to recovery may not be one which we voluntarily choose to walk.

As I point out in other articles, such as "Beholding the Evil and the Good", "The Fruits of Disobedience" and "Love, Mercy, Forgiveness and Chastisement", if we foolishly and stubbornly insist on doing things our way, instead of God's way, quite often, the Lord is forced to pull out the Rod of Correction, administer Divine Chastisement, and give us a good whipping. As King Solomon was inspired to write:

"Open rebuke is better than secret love."


The Apostle Paul takes it a step further and informs us that if the Lord is forced to pull out His Rod of Correction and administer Divine Chastisement, we are not going to like it. However, in the end, if we submit to the Lord's dealings, it will yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in our lives, as we see by this group of verses:

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."


It is encouraging to note that in the previous verses from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are told that it is precisely because God considers us His own dear children, that He finds us worthy of His Divine Chastisement. In other words, if God did not love us, then like some worldly parents, He would not care what we do, and He would not even bother to chastise us. However, because He is truly concerned about our welfare, He will not hesitate to use the Rod of Correction when He deems it necessary. Furthermore, we see again that the purpose of the Lord's chastisements are that we may live, that we may profit by them, that we may be partakers of His Holiness, and that we may be healed. In short, God's Divine Chastisement is truly motivated by genuine love, and not simply by temporary wrath, as occurs with some worldly parents.

As I lay in my bed early this morning at 2:30 AM, pondering the contents of this current article, I was reminded of the following words of the Lord that are found in John chapter fifteen:

"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit . . . If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."


I will admit that for a number of years, I have been troubled by the previous verses; because according to some Christians, they indicate that we can lose our Salvation. They claim that this is what Jesus means when He talks about being cast into the fire; presumably hellfire, or the Lake of Fire. However, this morning as I lay in bed, I gained a new understanding of what the verses mean, which perfectly meshes with everything we have discussed thus far.

It seems to me that the main problem with those Believers who claim that Jesus is saying that we can lose our Salvation, is that they are taking the verses in a very literal sense, when that is not what Jesus may have intended whatsoever. If one takes the time to read this chapter from the beginning, he will see that the Lord is referring to Himself as the Vine, and we, His followers, as branches on the Vine, which bear fruit, probably grapes.

Now obviously, in a real world sense, Jesus is not actually a vine, anymore than we Believers are actually branches on a vine. Neither can we bear fruit, such as grapes, because we are not plants. Therefore, it seems to me that the Lord is speaking in a purely symbolic sense. In order to maintain continuity in the verses then, if the vine is symbolic, the branches are symbolic, and the fruit is also symbolic, then the fire must likewise be symbolic as well.

Assuming that this is indeed the case, then our next task is to determine what the fire represents. As I have stated many times before, the best way to understand God's Word is by allowing it to interpret itself. That is, by comparing one verse with another, until we arrive at a conclusion. In this particular case, based upon verses such as the following, I have determined that the fire which Jesus mentions in these verses isn't actually real fire, such as hellfire, or even the Lake of Fire, as some Christians erroneously assume, but that in reality, it actually represents Divine Chastisement. That is, personal trials and tribulation which the Lord will sometimes use to purify us -- like gold -- when we misbehave:

"But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."


"And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you."


"Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:"


"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God."


"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."


"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:"


"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified."


"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."


As the previous verses indicate, the primary purpose of being cast into the fiery furnace of Divine Chastisement is not so that we will be destroyed or lost, but rather so that we can be purified of our sins and rebellion -- the dross -- and be converted into even finer gold fit for the Master's use. In other words, as we saw earlier, "rather let it be healed".

And, as Jesus said in John 15, if due to our backsliding, we become unfruitful branches, and ineffective witnesses, we are cast into the fires of tribulation, not to be destroyed, but rather to be purged, in order that we might eventually bear even more fruit for the Kingdom of God. I have mentioned in previous articles that this very same process of falling away -- or backsliding -- and being purged of our sins, is likewise mentioned in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, as we see by these verses:

"And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed."


Earlier in this article, we saw clearly how Jesus said that once we come to Him, He will never cast us out, He will never leave us or forsake us, and no man will ever be able to pluck us out of His hand. If this is indeed true -- and I believe that it is -- then in John chapter fifteen, when Jesus says that men gather the unfruitful branches and cast them into the fire where they are burned, it simply cannot mean that we lose our Salvation; because no man -- not even the men that are mentioned in John 15 -- can pluck us out of His hand. It only stands to reason then, that people who interpret those verses as meaning that we can lose our Salvation are clearly wrong.

When personal tribulation does come our way, such as through Divine Chastisement, the real issue that we each need to consider is whether we allow ourselves to remain down and in a state of defeat, and constantly being kicked in the head by Satan, or whether we learn our lesson, and allow the Lord to pick us up by our bootstraps, and get us marching again for Him. Our biggest error is not in falling, it is in choosing to remain on the ground wallowing in self pity. It is in remaining mired in the clay of defeat. Consider this verse:

"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."


So how about you? Are you a real fighter for Jesus, or do you prefer to suffer shame and everlasting contempt due to your failures to the Lord? As the old axiom goes "Quitters never win, and winners never quit" . . . by the Grace of God. As the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."


In conclusion, if you personally haven't yet signed onto the Divine Agreement, I urge you to do so today. As Jesus tells us in the third chapter of the Book of Revelation, He stands at the symbolic door of our hearts, patiently waiting to enter into spiritual communion with us. Will you let Him in?

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."


And please remember that just because we accept the Lord into our lives does not mean that all of a sudden, everything will become a bed of roses. It won't suddenly become rainbows and unicorns. Let me tell you, dear friend, if you sincerely and faithfully serve the Lord in any capacity, sooner or later, you will have your share of battles to fight. Some of them may be a result of sins in your own life, while others may be persecution from worldly nonbelievers. So when that happens, just remember that Jesus is always there with an outstretched hand, ready to pick you up. Always, because He will never leave you nor forsake you. Remember Hebrews 13:5.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

All Are Given A Chance . . . But
Beholding the Evil and the Good
Do You Want Love and Light, or Rod and Wrath?
Free Will and Personal Choice
He Who Fights and Runs Away: Choose Your Battles Wisely
Is the Message of Salvation Meant for All Men?
Love, Mercy, Forgiveness and Chastisement
Message to the World
OSAS: Are We Once Saved, Always Saved?
Striving for Perfection: Are You a Sinless Saint?
The Battle is Not Yours Alone!
The Fruits of Disobedience
The Lord Will Lift You Up
What It Means to Repent

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