Luke 13:23
Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them.
One asked the question, but the answer was to them all.
This is the question that ought to occupy the hearts and minds of men. The fact is, regardless of what we do in this life it is brief. The best good we can do is not merely to enjoy life and improve it for our children or our world, for regardless of how well we may do that, it is temporary and we cannot know what generations to follow will do with it. Ecclesiastes said the work of our hands may pass on to a fool.
But salvation; that is a different subject entirely. Rather than striving to see what good we may do for temporal society, rather to work at improving another's eternal prospects; now that is a work worth doing.
And this work requires that we recognize
First that there are few who are saved.
It is not universal. It is restrictive and exclusive to those who come through Christ.
Secondly, that the work of salvation includes not only justification but also sanctification.
God means to conform us to the image of Christ. To give ourselves then to the assistance of those in the middle of sanctification is to not only be a blessing to them but is part and parcel with our own sanctification.
Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them.
One asked the question, but the answer was to them all.
This is the question that ought to occupy the hearts and minds of men. The fact is, regardless of what we do in this life it is brief. The best good we can do is not merely to enjoy life and improve it for our children or our world, for regardless of how well we may do that, it is temporary and we cannot know what generations to follow will do with it. Ecclesiastes said the work of our hands may pass on to a fool.
But salvation; that is a different subject entirely. Rather than striving to see what good we may do for temporal society, rather to work at improving another's eternal prospects; now that is a work worth doing.
And this work requires that we recognize
First that there are few who are saved.
It is not universal. It is restrictive and exclusive to those who come through Christ.
Secondly, that the work of salvation includes not only justification but also sanctification.
God means to conform us to the image of Christ. To give ourselves then to the assistance of those in the middle of sanctification is to not only be a blessing to them but is part and parcel with our own sanctification.
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