The price of unbelief

November 17, 2021 (Wednesday)

 

A point was brought up about fallen angels and humans choosing to give up on God. The reference verses are, “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.” [Jude 1:5 – 6 ESV] This leads us dangerously close to another subject: disqualification.

 

In Jude 1:5 it specifically states that Jesus saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Some modern theologians like to link this to Jesus saving a people out of the world through the cross. In some ways there are some similarities. There is a strong argument that what Jesus did in the Old Testament foreshadows what He does in the New Testament (and by implication today).

 

I believe that Israel (Jews) are STILL God’s covenant people. God has not abandoned them in the sense they are wholly disqualified. However, there is a sense where Jesus’ work on the cross had a specific reason. Paul explained, “For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.” [Ephesians 2:14 NLT] Jesus eliminated the “we is us, they is them” in the spiritual sense by giving Gentiles equal access to God.  

 

In Romans 11, Paul discusses the spiritual roots making holy the branches. Paul notes a specific reason for the inclusion of Gentiles, “So I’m asking you: They haven’t stumbled so that they’ve fallen permanently, have they? Absolutely not! But salvation has come to the Gentiles by their failure, in order to make Israel jealous.” [Romans 11:11 CEB] Fallen and failure does not mean permanent. Throughout the Bible God leaves a faithful remnant.

 

Paul continues with a warning, “They were broken off because they weren’t faithful, but you stand only by your faithfulness. So don’t think in a proud way; instead be afraid. If God didn’t spare the natural branches, he won’t spare you either.” [Romans 11:20 – 21 CEB] The faithful are grafted into the spiritual tree, with holy roots, while the unfaithful are broken off.

 

Even in the process of breaking unfaithful branches and grafting in wild branches, there is a promise. “And even those who were cut off will be grafted back in if they don’t continue to be unfaithful, because God is able to graft them in again.” [Romans 11:24 CEB] So, disqualification is not absolute. Based on the idea of a remnant, neither is it total.

 

Let me be clear. Paul is saying if this happened to the natural children of Abraham, it will happen to Christians as well. Just as Israel has been set aside (for now), God will set aside churches (individual and group) who become unfaithful. To accomplish this journey, we muddy to the one true religion by adding, venerating, and praying to others beside the one true God. Second, we lose sight of and finally rejected the Messiah. The second is a logical end of the first.

 

Reflecting back to “the Exodus,” we read this final judgement about those saved out of Egypt, “So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.” [Hebrews 3:19 CEB] Imagine that, “saved” people who finally arrive at a place of disqualification due to unbelief.