subject: Trials And Tribulations [print this page] This is a very important pointThis is a very important point. Don't miss it. The Old Testament was written to teach Christians about faithfulness. Another way to say it is that Christian faithfulness is aided by the lessons garnered from the Old Testament. Or this -- Christianity cannot be understood apart from the teaching of the Old Testament, apart from learning the lessons of the Old Testament.
The point was that the Corinthians, like the Ancient Israelites, should not trust in their baptism alone. Paul said, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Clearly, Paul meant that anyone who thought that s/he had a secure standing before the Lord because of baptism needed to think again, and to repent of such presumption, lest he fall. He had in mind those Corinthian leaders who had opposed him by teaching the wisdom of the world as if it were the wisdom of Christ. He had previously accused them of sexual immorality, here he accused them of idolatry and, ultimately, of faithlessness. This attack by Paul was directed at those who had broken covenant with God, and who had been leading the Corinthian church astray.
This doesn't mean that God doesn't protect and preserve His people. He does! It does not mean that baptism is not important, or that it is not an aid to faithfulness, because it is! Baptism is important and it is an aid to faithfulness. But that doesn't mean that God's people get to escape difficulties in this life. It doesn't mean that Christians escape testing and the need for the personal, ongoing discipline and practice of faithfulness. God accomplishes His purposes, not ours. God tests His people to prove them -- and to improve them. God accomplishes His will, not ours. God does persevere with the saints, and part and parcel of God's preservation is His ongoing testing and our ongoing perseverance in faithfulness.
The old adage should be rewritten, "Once saved, always being saved." God's salvation is a process. This does not negate the fact that there is an historical moment of personal rebirth in the lives of saints. Rather, it puts that moment in a larger context. God's plan of salvation began before time itself and will culminate when the New Jerusalem comes down from heaven (Revelation 21:2). It has begun but it has not finished. It's ongoing, moment by moment, 24/7. And it's not just that God is engaged moment by moment, but that God's people must be similarly engaged in the process. Once God begins a thing it will be completed, but Paul's point was that salvation is in the process of completion. It was both a done deal and yet still in process. Sometimes Paul spoke of salvation as a fact, and sometimes he spoke of it as a process not yet finished.
In 1 Corinthians 10:13 Paul turned his attention from the faithless to the faithful. Part of the confusion we find in this chapter (and elsewhere) is the result of the fact that Paul was speaking (writing) to two different groups of people, both of whom were members of the Corinthian church. That is what Paul was talking about in the first five verses -- the difference between faithful Christians and faithless Christians. Some of Paul's words were aimed at the faithful Christians and some were aimed at the faithless Christians. Our task is to discern the difference.
As the Kingdom continues to unfold, some of the faithful will be revealed to actually be faithless, and some of the faithless will join the ranks of the faithful. There is some traffic between these two groups, and that is the issue that Paul is getting at.
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). The temptation is real and effects both groups -- the faithful and the faithless. Note the abrupt change in tone. Paul has turned from addressing those with whom God was not pleased to those who had faithfully received the strength of Christ in order to provide for them what they could not provide for themselves.
God tests everyone, the faithful and the faithless. And the way in which people respond to those tests points to the difference between the faithful and the faithless. The faithful are encouraged and strengthened in the midst of trials and difficulties, the faithless are not. The faithful lean upon Jesus, who carries them to safety. The faithless do not, nor do they find safety. The trials of the faithful are productive, whereas the trials of the faithless are destructive.
God's faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, provides the model for faith. God's people are saved by God's faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, who will not -- cannot -- fail to bring all of His people into the Kingdom. The purpose of temptation, the trials and difficulties of the saints, is to drive them to greater dependence upon Jesus Christ, who provides the only safe passage through the troubles of this life. Those who will not rely upon Jesus Christ are driven away in anger and frustration -- their own anger and frustration, I should add. God does not make them mad, rather they get mad at God and/or His people of their own accord.
