Over the past few months I’ve been praying that I will be able to view sin, and especially my own sins, the way God does. This was not an easy request, and some of what I’ve begun to understand since I started praying this way has not been easy to accept. But I think it has paid off in many ways, and one of those ways is a deeper understanding of what the Holy Spirit is saying in a number of places in the Scriptures. One recent experience of this came during a quiet time, when I was meditating on this passage in Revelation:
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death” (Revelation 21:6-8).
The point that really stood out to me in this passage is that the very first group of people that the Lord condemns to the fire are not the murderers, or the sexual offenders, or any other group that we would recognize as grossly immoral, but rather the cowardly. Those who would not step up, in the face of fear or danger, and take a stand one way or the other, for good or for bad. The Greek word translated “cowardly” here is deilos. The only other place in the New Testament that this word is found is in the parallel gospel accounts of Christ calming the sea. Jesus uses this same word to rebuke his disciples for not trusting that he would see them through the storm (Matthew 8:26, Mark 4:40). They claimed to be following Jesus, but they didn’t actually trust him. “Believers” who didn’t believe. The open unbelievers are only the second group listed.
It’s not enough to say that I trust Jesus; I have to actually trust him. Trust that he is both willing and able to do what he promised and that, even if I must pass through death, he will be there, waiting for me, on the other side (Romans 8:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1). Taking a stand, being identified with Christ when it’s dangerous, is not a higher level for super-saints; it’s the minimum standard.
Jesus himself said:
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).
Now we have to be careful here. These passages, in their proper contexts, are absolutely not teaching that salvation is a result of my own courage. There is no possible way to earn salvation; it’s entirely a gift of God’s grace, purchased by the blood of Christ. And when (not if) those of us who do trust in Christ fail to live up to this standard, God is still willing to forgive (1 John 1:8-9). The Apostle Peter’s restoration after his cowardly denial of Jesus is sufficient proof of that.
What these passages are, however, is a clear statement that Jesus is both Savior and Lord. He won’t ever be one without the other. And in this we have hope, because:
By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:14).