Is Understanding of God’s Message a Guarantee for One’s Salvation?

Written by Warren |Posted on March 23, 2009 | Comments

We know that the mystery spoken in the scriptures is only given by God. Jesus said to His disciples “The mystery was revealed to you by God and not to them” (Matthew 13:11). That would mean that the mystery is a decision God makes for us to understand the scriptures. Without this mystery, it would be impossible for us to understand the gospel message and turn and be saved. Jesus says that this mystery can’t be understood by man for this was prophesied by Isaiah (Matthew 13:14-15) and man needs to understand the mystery so that they would turn and be healed by Christ (Matthew 13:15). Therefore we can conclude that saving faith cannot occur unless the mystery was revealed to us so we can understand and turn to Christ.

However, what alarmed me was not all people whom God chose to reveal His mystery to would be saved. I just discovered yesterday in 1 Corinthians 13 in our Church service, which speaks of love, that even if you knew the “mystery” of God, but without love, we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2 ).

“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. “

Not All Who Know Would be Saved
So not all who understood the message of the gospel, which is an act God chose in order to reveal Himself, would be saved. I used to think that understanding of the gospel was an act of God for the Christian to be saved. Because by nature, nobody seeks after God nor even want to know Him how much more to commit one’s life to Him (Romans 3:11-12). So since nobody by nature seeks after God, we would need His grace to reveal Himself to us so that we would understand and be saved. But no. Let us see Jesus’ words when He quoted Isaiah in Matthew 13:15:

“For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

Notice there the requirement for salvation: see with their ears and understand with their heart. And that understanding would only occur when God chooses to reveal Himself (Matthew 13:11). This is a strict requirement for the salvation of man. But will man automatically be saved once they understood the message? Let us see here.

Examples From Jesus’ Parables
Jesus started describing the parable of the sower. We see that only the fourth soil was good and was saved because of its fruits. The first three soils however didn’t make it. Thus they weren’t saved. But just because they aren’t saved doesn’t mean they misunderstood the message. In fact, it was the exact opposite. They understood it. Notice that these unsaved soils still belonged in the context of the Kingdom of Heaven: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom…” (Matthew 13:19). We see then that the first three soils actually still belonged to the Kingdom of God. And in order for one to belong to the Kingdom of God, one must be able to understand the gospel message. This would make more sense as Christ went further to the next parable which is the parable of the wheat and tares wherein the wheat looked almost exactly the same as the tares. Then we see that the wheat represents the Christians and the tares the non-Christians (Matthew 13:38) but both of these groups belonged to the Kingdom of God (Matthew 13:24) and only the TRUE believers will be saved in the end (Matthew 13:43).

This may be confusing to you because it is like saying that not all who are Christians are saved. Are we then promoting that our salvation is not secured by Christ? No. Salvation is secured by Christ once and for all. But people who belonged to the Kingdom of God in the context of Jesus’ parables details the professing Christians who does not have a direct relationship with Christ simply because they don’t produce fruits. They still belong to the “Christian” realm only as an organization and not as having an individual relationship with Christ.

Not Even Correct Biblical Teaching is a Guarantee of One’s Salvation
Not only the knowledge of all God’s mystery is not a guarantee for one’s salvation but even teaching the right doctrines. Jesus said of those whom He denied entrance to Heaven “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ” (Matthew 7:22). Prophesying is not limited to what God verbally says to the prophet. No. As long as one speaks the words of God, he is acting as a prophet. The principle there is speaking the words of God. So Jesus here says that these people would be speaking the words of God in Jesus’ name meaning they would be speaking the Word of God accurately. These will be the people who will be teaching biblically. And it is not surprising to see that these will be the people who would call themselves to be expositors of God’s words.

The Greatest of These is Love
Knowledge of the scriptures is not the end-all be-all in the Christian’s life. Turning back to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we see that Paul describes that the greatest act of all, even greater than all knowledge, all gifts, all sacrifices, all good works, the greatest of all these (even his own) is love. Love for Christ is the ultimate guarantee of one’s salvation not the knowledge alone. For love is the greatest. But love without knowledge is impossible. For Paul includes, “love rejoices in the TRUTH.” So knowing the scriptures is not an obligation. Knowing the scriptures is the very fruit of loving Jesus. The reason why you read the scriptures is because you love Christ and not because you are obliged to do so. It is you manifesting the love you have for Christ and thus you rejoice in the TRUTH. With pure love, the Christian would always want to seek the TRUTH. But seeking the TRUTH is not a guarantee of one’s salvation. So loving Christ is not an emotional feeling without direction. It should always go hand in hand with the truth of the scriptures.