Back under the curse

"But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived." (1Cor. 6:6-9).

The Corinthian church had become a cage of every kind of hateful bird. They had fallen from grace, not in doctrine, but in very fact. They were in grave danger of committing full damnation. They were sprinting full bore away from their new justification, subconsciously minded never to return.

"Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." (Rom. 5:14).

The extent of Adam's transgression, and the depths of his lostness, was as vast as the heights of his previously blessed access to God's Spirit. He and Eve were sunken in a quicksand of obstinate pride, solidified hard in rebellion, from which they could never, by their own will, extricate themselves. 

Had not their Master intervened, they would have remained in rebellion forever, forever running from the eye of the Lord that runs to and fro throughout the whole earth, forever deceiving themselves that they had done right by exposing the assumed selfish purposes of their Creator.

Rather, Jesus, ignoring the self-deceivings, did for them what was not in them to do for themselves. He cut to the chase, showed them their wickedness, and pronounced their sentences that should have been an instant haling before the Judge of the righteous kingdom and blasting them into non-existence. Instead, they were lovingly but severely shamed and guilted, emotionally scourged and given a much lighter sentence than what they deserved, and evicted from the high, Edenic privileges so graciously accorded them from their loving Maker.

Under the gun now, under the wrathful sun. Living in the red, never able to get into the black. Their natures were evil, permanently. And their children's.

Even righteous James admitted, "in many things we offend all." (Jas. 3:2).

Yesterday, I brought damage to my brother. I was finishing up a large job for him. He's an elder in my church, and his wife is a very godly sister to me. A love them both. A while back I had painted their house, inside and out. They had liked the work, and trusted me to install tile in their livingroom and kitchen. That went well. The last part of the job was to put engineered wood flooring in their bedroom. 

Two weeks ago we measured the room and ordered the product. It came in, except for the foam underlayment, for which I remeasured the floor again at 241 square feet, and purchased the underlayment. I started the installation yesterday. 

But, my brother offered the suggestion, Are we sure we have enough flooring? Like a Superman, cut and chiseled, standing proudly with hands on hips and cape blowing in the wind, I quickly calculated the total area covered by their 12 boxes of flooring multiplied by 22.6 square feet of coverage that each box contained. The total came to 271 square feet. But, to verify that we had enough wood I relied on my horrible memory skills instead of looking at the paper that had the calculation from that morning. And I made a big blunder.

Instantly I compared 271 square feet of engineered wood in the boxes to what I remembered the floor area had calculated to be, but I mixed up the numbers. Instead of 241 floor area I used 421. 

Suddenly a crisis now arose. I told him that we had only half of the flooring we needed. And so patiently did my brother trust me and drive across town and ordered 8 more boxes, which would take a week to arrive. Now my earlier calculation was to blame for a delay in the middle of the job, which would put my brother and sister another week sleeping in another room, their mattress on the floor.

As he drove back into his driveway from ordering the 8 more boxes, the real number as 241, not 421, popped into my head, and now my brother had to get right back into his car and immediately drive back to cancel the order. Oh, what a goose I am! How offensive I am!

Surely, "in many things we offend." (Jas. 3:2).

Until that episode of foolishness, I had been in the black, scoring big time in their appreciation. But now I was back to working in the red, living under the curse of the Law. I had caused my brother needless travel, standing in line to order unnecessary things, needlessly dreading and stressing over more sleepless nights on the floor. And because I damaged my brother, I also damaged my God, who desires undiminished brotherly trust and love, perfection and efficiency in work. My trustworthiness and reliability were greatly in question. And my forgetfulness was a sin, a crime in heaven and an increased burden upon Jesus.

Even though my brother and sister have forgiven me, my status in their minds, and in mine, is compromised. Likewise, I have Jesus Christ the perfect as a Mediator between me and God, who can never forget my deformities and deficiencies until Jesus blots out all our sins in the Latter Rain.

Before all this happened, by my loss of justification by faith, I fell to the temptation to rely on my debilitated memory skill. Now I must be restored to God and man. I must be saved anew. I must be rehumbled and reconverted by my dying Lamb of God. I must be rejustified by His gift to me of living faith.

The doctrine is true, Once saved, not always saved. Once justified before God, not always justified. Once saved from the curse of the Law, not necessarily forever saved from the curse of the Law.

It's also true, that it's easy to fall away from reliance on the Lamb, very easy. And it's not so easy to own up to the falling away. It's not easy to stop running in obstinate arrogance. Because of the sin in our nature until Jesus comes, it remains difficult to be saved. We tend toward accepting the apostate Protestants' tradition that salvation is an easy thing to be had. If it were easy, then why is the whole world wondering after the beast? How then is it that Satan can deceive the whole world, according Revelation 13:3, 17:8, and 12:9?

No doubt, grace constantly flows from the hearts of Father and Son. But the weakness of salvation, the pervasive failure to be saved, lies not in Them, but in us. Will we accept the full guilt and shame in valid repentance, which God requires? Or will we do like the children of Cain, and rig up an easy redemption that involves no deep sorrow for sin, and say, "I... shall see no sorrow." (Rev. 18:7).

Let's be heirs of Eve's redeemed heart after Jesus chased her down to fix her unfixable situation. Let's be like her who believed the promise of a Redeemer. Clothed with the Son, and His promise under her feet, until death parted them, she abode in obedience to His everlasting covenant.

And that promise is ours too if we let Jesus change our heart like our mother of all living bowed her proud resistance and opened up again in great humiliation. Jesus born in our redeemed heart, the hope of glory, is His promise still. 

Amen.