Where Is The Line Drawn?
What constitutes saving faith? Is a person who mindlessly repeats a prayer after some preacher really born again? Those might be difficult questions to answer. What do we know with certainty?
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16)
We know that to believe on Jesus' person and His work has the promise of eternal life. To refuse the message about Jesus is to remain in the condemnation of sin plus the consequence of not believing in Jesus. We are told that this is true but we are not told exactly where the line in the sand is drawn. When does the Father consider a person to have believed and what is empty noise on the part of the fake Christian? He does not really tell us. Beside that, it is not our job anyway. What is our job?
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15)
And by the way, what is The Gospel? It is the message about Jesus dying in our place for our sin, that He was buried, and His being raised from the dead 3 days later (1 Cor 15:3-4).
Our job as a messenger of Christ is to announce the Gospel. We know that to believe on Jesus equals eternal life. To refuse to trust in Him means damnation. But we do not really know the heart of a listener. Did they actually receive our message? We give the message and, in a sense, our job is done. Of course, we may pray with them, disciple them, and help them but our responsibility in delivering the Gospel message has been fulfilled. We cannot give them assurance because we do not know their heart. (We know something of what is in their heart because of what they have said (Matt 12:34, Luke 6:45), good or bad.) To give assurance to someone who has not believed on Jesus is not our job and it is not right, anyway. To judge and determine if they truly have faith in Jesus is not our job, either. To give assurance is the job of the Holy Spirit. To determine if their faith or their confession is real is the job of the Judge (Acts 1:24) because He knows the hearts of all men. We do not.
Our job is to deliver the message entrusted to us. And so, of course, we must deliver that message as accurately as possible. We must not add our own ideas to it or take away any offense from it. Only God the just Judge can determine what the hearer has done with it.
Mar. 29, 2025