Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jud 1:3-4 KJV)

The other day I was reading a devotional based on Jude 3-4, and the author of the devotional was warning about changing the grace of God in to something that it is not.  In Galatians, the apostle Paul points to legalism as the problem.   There were some that were attempting to attach works to the good news of the Gospels and there by diminishing the grace of God and emphasizing works.  Ephesians 2:8-9, tells us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  It is not by any of our works, we just have to believe (faith).

There is also another front by which the grace of God is a under attack and that is where the Bible uses the word, lasciviousness.  What is lasciviousness?  Webster defines it as follows:

1. Looseness; irregular indulgence of animal desires; wantonness; lustfulness.

2. Tendency to excite lust, and promote irregular indulgences.

Some translations of the Bible translate it to mean, “license”.  The world has pointed at Church and said where is this “grace” we Christian keep talking about?  Grace is not the means by which we tolerate or give license to the world to sin, it is the means by which we forgive the sin.

Last night I was reading a website where they didn’t believe in eternal security.  The next morning, I woke up and started thinking about what I had read.  Instead of going directly to verse that I believe strongly support eternal security the Lord had me thinking on 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 5 in particular.

1Co 5:5 (WEB) are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  

I believe that these verses speak of Church discipline, and the process by which the person under disciplinary action is to be handled.  Since the topic at hand is eternal security and not Church discipline how does this relate to eternal security.  Let us look at verse 5, “are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”  The verse speaks of the “destruction of the flesh”, physical flesh, but “the spirit may be saved”.  If 1 Corinthians 5:5 is referring to the spirit being saved we are more than likely talking about a Christian.  Would sexual sin of this type qualify for the loss of a Christian’s salvation and eternal security?

1Co 6:18-20 WEB  Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.  (19)  Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  (20)  for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us ‘Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, ‘ and seems to imply that there is a difference.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 goes on to tell us what that difference is, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit”.   

Let us return to 1 Corinthians 5:5, is the man referred to a Christian or not, if not why say “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”   Was the man committing a sexual sin and based on 1 Corinthians 6, is sexual sin a greater or lesser form of sin?  So, what kind of sin qualifies for the loss of one’s salvation and eternal security?  Many people who believe in conditional security think that eternal security gives the believer the idea that they can sin without consequences, does 1 Corinthians 5, sound like lack of consequences?   “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.”

One last comment, Matthew 7:21-23 (WEB) say:

(21)  Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  (22)  Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’  (23)  Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

If a person could loss their salvation would the Lord have said “I never knew you”, or would He said “I once knew you”.

I have been reading discussions where Christians have been questioning certain life styles.   In an attempt to stop the mouths of the Christians and their message, the world has used scriptures.  These scriptures are:

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:1-6 KJV)

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.  (John 8:7 KJV)

The idea behind the expression, “Don’t kill the Messenger” was probably first expressed in Antigone by Sophocles which says “no man delights in the bearer of bad news”.  There also stories of rulers killing messengers that have brought bad news.  There is one case recorded by Plutarch in his “The Life of Lucullus” that states “Since the first messenger who told Tigranes that Lucullus was coming had his head cut off for his pains, no one else would tell him anything, and so he sat in ignorance while the fires of war were already blazing around him”.  

In recent months I have noticed that one of the attacks against Christians is the “he without sin let him cast the first stone,” or check the “mote” in your own eye before judging me.  God has given the Christian a message for the world, a world that is at enmity with God.  If the World and Christians a like feels judged by the Word of God, it is rightly so, it is not the messenger doing the judging but the Word of God.  Christian are Ambassadors for Christ.  An Ambassador is not to speak his or her own words but only the words of their leader or master.   We as Ambassadors for Christ, we must be very in tune with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are not the judge, that is Jesus Christ, the Word of God, both through the Holy Bible and on His triumphant return.

The Message of the Gospels remains the same, the messenger is not the Message.  The messenger’s job is to get the message to the recipient, even if the world is trying to kill the messenger and the message.  It is the Message of the Gospel that judges, has the power to change and has the power of life and death.  We, the messenger, Christian, have too precious a Message to allow fear of the world or even death like the messengers of Tigranes to deter from our duty.