Things that Accompany Salvation - kjv@Hebrews:6:9

Salvation is one thing, the main thing, but what comes alongside or because of salvation?

Author: Randy Pritts

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Part of te SoGreatSalvationSeries

Today's Text

"...we are persuaded better things of you..." v9

We have just come out of a passage where we were forced to consider one of the more meatier subjects of the "word of righteousness", is there a limit to how far one can rebel against their salvation, all the gifts and grace in it that is provided, and still come back to it without having to crucify Christ all over again? The author's suggestion is yes, though he doesn't quite describe what level of rebellion would be, only that we all must be mindful and watchful of it. It's like saying "yes there is always that possibility, but saints we are persuaded better things of you".

This would be new information to a large percentage of a Hebrew audience who are of the belief that their salvation is owed to them because of their heritage and bloodline.

Prior to that, we were considering ears that have grown dull of hearing, and suckling Christians who remain on the milk of the word refusing the meat, and the idea of the faithful needing to develop further and further toward their ultimate completion. The implication here is that even with the saved there is a strong pull working against it, lesser human tendencies always close by to contend against it. Are we all in danger of loosing our salvation? I sincerely doubt it, salvation is always what it is, but the road it leads us alongside on is narrow and rocky and precipitous all along the way. Perhaps the better consideration is not of our salvation at jeopardy, but being full of a great many challenges along the way that make us all the stronger. It's like saying "but saints we are persuaded better things of you".

Perhaps the lesson to consider is that yes, salvation is given and is a complete act of grace (can't be earned, isn't deserved, it came at such a heavenly price completely free to us, we should extremely glad for it), however, it is a seed that has been graciously planted with a intended purpose (to grow and to blossom, to produce herb and fruit, made unto good works, preordained to conform to the image of Christ). It is not all that hard to consider what would likely happen if a person who had once received all of this throw it all away and became entirely reprobate. What is often harder to consider is what God is to do about the many people who don't toss it all aside outright, they simply choose not to willingly do or become anything more in this lifetime with it.

Which brings us to the topic of this passage today " ThingsThatAccompanySalvation"

"For the earth which drinketh in the rain" v7

There is a picture drawn out for us in verses 7-8 that we have to wait till verses 10-11 to have explained. The picture is of a parcel of soil drinking in the rain from above, soil that is in the process of producing either one of two things, either herb else thorn and brier. Of the two the herb is much more in need of the rain. Has there ever been a brier that has been over or under watered? Has there ever been a thorn crop fail from being under tended? No, only the herb requires just the right amount of rain and the right amount of expert care.

Now then what is this produce of herb and thorn pictured herein v7 to mean? Well in verse 10 we now see them being explained as labors and works, not works of the type that "accomplish" salvation, works of love as far as the herbs go that "accompany" salvation if pursued with much diligence and faith and patient hopeful enduring.

The rain then is not salvation as indicated that it is "oft" to happen. The rain better represents God's frequent and continuing providence, perhaps pointing us back to the enlightenment/heavenly gifts/Holy Ghost partaking/good word/powers of the world to come/etc... for some being forsaken v4-5. Salvation has happened first, then these many spiritual graces spread like rain for the furthering towards our spiritual completion, which entails the much desired production of these herb like fruits of the labors and works of love towards His name, fruits that feed those many saints for whom the field had been dressed. It is this accompanying process and production that God blesses in many more ways. But when there is the opposing type of plant and production, a different kind of work that grows on its' own with little need for the rain and thrives untended, such process feeds no one other than itself and is meet only for God's own rejection.

Perhaps these barbed works are from a person struggling hard still to earn their own salvation. Perhaps it is from the person that has known and experienced better but more desirous of his own wiles and affections leaves herb and ministry of saints far behind. Maybe this person is the one who has grown dull of hearing or never bitten fully into the meat of God's word, these works are being forced by them. All these passages could be interrelated when it comes to the brier and the slothful. When for the saint this means the spiritually opposite, he has fully and willingly stepped into his salvation, and at the same time stepped into the wondrous things that do accompany said salvation, the oft rain he has drunken, the soil of his heart steadily kept and cultivated, he has ministered and is ministering now, labors of love to which all saints and he alike are being blessed. Between the two soils and the two outcomes there is a world of difference.

"For God is not unrighteous to forget" 10

Why would it be injected here this statement "God is not unrighteous to forget"? There are many of late that suppose faith in the grace of salvation all there to be. They believe, and therefore live out the rest of their lives just as without grace they would have been. No additional reward is rendered for the accompanying good works of the type only the So Great Salvation can breed. There is no doubt that God is righteous enough to honor HIS vow and grace of salvation. Would God be any less righteous to after honored eternal salvation add to it an additional reward for not being babe in the word or fruitful doer be?

10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:

He is not forgetful neither now in this life as the well tended field of saints blesses one another and is blessed, not forgetful in the world to come.

There is something more to said about the earthen soil spoken of here as well. Jesus described it in His "Parable of the Sower" kjv@Matthew:13 as having different types, as there being that of the wayside/the stony ground/choked with the thorns and then there being good ground into which His word (His seed) is indiscriminately sown. Three of the four soils find it hard go grow to mature this word with any resultant fruit. One type however comes to a point it "beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty". What gets in the way is as complicated as "the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful" or as simple as it "not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended". So we see how important the condition of the soil is to this. Think of the soil as faith and the plant the seed word of our Savior and what it is best intended by Him to become and produce.

What has the word of God planted in you grown thus far from its' planting to be? If not much then why not more than presently you know it to be?

"That ye be not slothful" v12

11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The word of God is full of so many promises, promises there for the inheriting (notice it is not said for the earning or for the simple taking or stealing away). Promises that come as a result of our adoption which is the result of this So Great Salvation found in Christ Jesus. Where would we ever begin to list out these many promises in so short of a time as we have here today; promises for the here and now, and for the future in His Kingdom.

It says here that each one of us is to shew the same diligence "to the full assurance of hope unto the end". In context this is still speaking of labours of love (spawned by Christ's own love) and good works hereon to accompany this So Great Salvation. Shew the same diligence all of you, whether you are a pastor or a pew holder, whether you are babe in the word or a fleet footed gospel warrior. This due diligence is what moves us from simply saved towards going on towards breathtaking and hand of God completion. It is not work for work's sake but of love "which ye have shewed toward his name" and for the safety and edification of those for whom and "by whom it (the field about us) is dressed.

We shall speak in greater depth about what it means that God has promised. That will be large enough in our consideration to warrant another chapter in this ongoing SoGreatSalvationSeries loving work!

Comment Board: ThingsThatAccompanySalvation Tags: Salvation, Apostasy, Grace, Assurance, ,

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