Print Page | Add To Favorites | Close Window | Send To A Friend | Save This Page
FAQ # 103
QUESTION 103 : Jesus said no man putting his
hands to the plow and turning back is fit for the Kingdom, that clearly
tells me one can lose there salvation, isn't that so?
One person noted in favor
of this question,
The Lord must have shocked [sarcastically
saying we can fall from salvation] the people of his day by teaching the
following:
But Jesus said to him, "No one, after putting
his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God"
(Luke 9:62, NASB).
Another translation says:
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Luke
9:62, NIV).
This can show that it doesn't mean a person has salvation, then looses
it afterwards. For you could say, "no one who is born of a woman
after Adam is fit for the kingdom of God." Yet people are saved and
the former statement is also true. Or you could say, "no one who
ever sins is fit for the kingdom of God." Yet many who had sinned
are now saved or fit for the kingdom. That is why Christ came, to make
you fit even though your Adamic inclinations will attempt to make you
unqualified. So though anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looking
back is not fit for the kingdom, he can then make those who are born again
fit in this regard. Whereby he could have said, "Being confident
of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil.1:6). Why should we be confident
that we will never put our hands to the plow and look back and thus make
it? Because, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure" (Php 2:13).
Secondly, though I don't always ascribe to the NIV, it did translate it
as "fit for service," also nullifying the argument of this meaning
a possession to salvation then loosing it. But the reason the person quoted
it was to say that those who are not fit for service automatically loose
their salvation when they look back. Again this is erroneous. One, Christian
service doesn't equate salvation or a clause to it, it is a free gift
with no strings attached or no pay back; also, living godly is not a pay
back, but an automated regenerated lifestyle. And to some extent, Christian
service is an automated lifestyle of being born again - an innate passion
of yours and the spirit of God who gives the gift according to faith,
usually by request. Two, even if Christian service had this salvation
importance, those who are born again will never put their hands to plow
and look back; because, "He who has begun a good work in you will
perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil.1:6) and "it
is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure"
(Php 2:13).
Go to top of Page | Get the Book | Buy it here or here or here or here | More FAQ's