Fallen from grace: Hint # 3 Turning from obedience to wickedness

You know the old expression about painting yourself into a corner. Well, I find myself with brush in hand, standing on tiptoe trying to keep my shoes clean. How did I ever allow myself to start speculating on theological questions as if I were any good at it? This to say that the notion of falling from grace didn't seem that tough until I actually started trying to figure it out.

It would be tempting to be a universalist at this point, if only to rid myself of these complex questions. But as I've posted elsewhere, you can have free will or you can have universalism, but you can't have both. It takes free will to jump out of Christ's hand. Nobody can pull you out from between his fingers (John 10:27-29). That decision is purely one's own.

And as we've seen, the New Testament warns us in various places that giving up one's place in the Kingdom of God is a live option. Consider, for instance, St. Paul's words (employing nautical terms of which he seemed to be fond):

Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:18-20).

It seems, by the way, that Hymenaeus failed to learn his lesson, even with the protection of God removed:

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

...must turn away from wickedness. The Apostle John obviously was thinking along similar lines as he wrote his first epistle:

1 John1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Paul and John are focusing on two things here:

1. Nobody is perfect. John matter-of-factly says that nobody can claim to be faultless, so walking in darkness isn't the same thing as falling short of perfection. Similarly, Paul tells Timothy to do his best in working for God. Clearly he wasn't expecting perfection either. Paul refers to his own failings in Romans 7:24-25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!.

2. Perverting God's truth, rather than imperfect knowledge or occasional faltering obedience, is the big issue, especially when this action is compromising the beliefs and trust of other people. St. John is particularly graphic--if we contradict God's truth we are calling God a liar. This certainly reminds one of the sin of Lucifer--seeing himself as God's equal and able to take positions of his own that rival God's.

We keep coming back to the same themes as we explore the idea of sin finally going unpardoned: substituting one's own preferences for God's will as revealed in creation, Scripture, or conscience; thinking that these preferences (whether they be beliefs or actions) are genuine options that one would not only continue to pursue but to impress upon others to their detriment; and persisting in these illusions rather than heeding any advice or action to the contrary. Perhaps this is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.