What stops you falling away?
This month, God’s Word has given us several serious warnings. A true Christian can fall away if you turn from trusting Christ to trust in yourself . Falling away starts when we turn to our desires and start seeing Christ as the obstacle to them. And the reason people fall away is they want to trust in something powerful they can see, and so we reshape religion around that.
But nobody falls away because God abandons them. Nobody falls away because God hasn’t chosen them. Nobody falls away because God is not powerful enough to keep them.
In fact, in John 10:28-29 Jesus gives us this promise:
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
F aith lives by receiving Christ through the Word about Christ. So , if we turn away from that Word, and trusting something else, we lose that life. But that Word we trust contains this promise: Christ will not let us be snatched from the Father’s hand.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is written to a church on the brink of falling away. In fact, some members of the church already have:
Some have fallen away from Christ into open sin . Some have fallen away from Christ into pride. Some have fallen away from Christ into heresy.
Throughout the letter, Paul has been carefully addressing the problems in turn: —divisions and factionalism, —boasting, immaturity, jealousy —arrogant false accusations against ministers —open, scandalous, sexual immorality —Christians suing one another —prostitution, failures in marriage, singleness —confusing confessional boundaries with idolatry —disorder in the roles of men and women —selfishness, abuse of the Lord’s Supper —using gifts for pride, rather than spiritually —lovelessness, and disordered public worship
1 Corinthians is a litany of failure as people fall away.
Now, at the end of the letter, Paul roots our assurance in the true anchor that prevents Christians turning from Chirst .
He answers the question: What stops you falling away?
And his answer has three contrasts:
1) Not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith 2) Not your ability to kill your sin, but Christ who died for your sin 3) Not your past or your performance, but God’s grace
The first contrast is: 1) Not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith
Please look at verses 1-2 :
15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Paul doesn’t remind them of the progress they’ve been making. Paul doesn’t remind them of a decision they made for Jesus. Paul doesn’t remind them of how their lives will be better if they make the right decisions moving forward.
Paul reminds the Corinthians of God’s objective Word: the Gospel. It is this Gospel by which you are being saved. See he doesn’t say: “your faith by which you are being saved” He says: “the gospel I preached to you … by which you are being saved”
It is God’s objective Word of grace that saves you. And look at Paul’s emphasis, he says it’s the gospel “I preached to you” why is that significant? God’s Word is not something to be mastered , but to be received . …to be heard from outside ourselves . This is why God created the church —as the place to receive the Gospel from others .
This is one big misunderstanding people often have today about the Reformation.
Many people think that the problem with the Medieval Catholic church is nobody read the Bible. Actually, it was the opposite: Medieval catholic priests had crazy exposure to the Bible. In the daily offices: They would read almost the whole Bible every year. They would pray all the Psalms every week. They would sing verses at eight appointed hours every day. Many Medieval Catholics had read, memorised , mastered God’s Word …but they didn’t hear God’s Word. When I was a child, a teenager, and a young man, I was trained to supposedly “feed myself with the Bible.” I would do a “quiet time” every day: —read huge portions of the Bible; —sing things, memorise verses .
But this is not what Paul means here in 1 Corinthians 15. Yes, he says “I would remind you of the Gospel” and yes, he says “if you hold fast to the word”: but do you see what he emphasises through repetition ? I t’s there in v. 1 and v. 2:
the gospel I preached to you the word I preached to you
It is only as God’s Word, the Gospel, comes to us from the outside, separate to our own power, believe, or ability to understand, it is only as we hear the Gospel passively, that it works in us. That’s what Paul means by ” unless you believed in vain ” —having belief itself doesn’t save you: that’s Paul’s point. It is what you believe that saves you: Not the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith
And the object of faith is Paul’s second lesson about what keeps you from falling away: 2) Not your ability to kill your sin, but Christ who died for your sin
Please look at verses 3- 8 :
15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
If the Corinthians walk away from listening to Paul’s letter and decide to make sure they don’t fall away by doing better and defeating sin in their lives… …then they’ve totally missed the point.
The point is not what you will do about your sin. The point is what Christ has already done about it.
Paul says this is “first.” And the ESV sounds a bit misleading here, because the word “importance” is an interpretation. Saying “of first importance” in English, sounds like other things are of secondary importance—or not important.
Many people make that claim today, but it’s not what Paul means . After all: how do you decide what secondary things are ? The idea of “secondary issues” is entirely subjective. Years ago, I had some Anglican friends who wouldn’t get ordained by a bishop who had ordained a woman. But they were happy to be ordained by an Anglo – Catholic who denied that justification is received through faith alone. Really? So, the issue of women leaders is more primary than justification by faith?
The idea of “secondary issues” i s not rooted in this passage. Someone I’ve known my entire adult life, told me on the phone last summer that because our church has close communion, we weren’t friends anymore. He had stopped taking communion with people who teach that gay marriage is ok. Which for him showed how serious it was, so, to not share the supper for other reasons is not primary, not “scriptural” he claimed, and he cited this passage. But Paul doesn’t talk about gay marriage at all here. If Paul is defining “primary issues” here, and all else is secondary, then be consistent. That would mean that the fact that he: died for sins, was buried, rose again, and then appeared to many people…
…are the only facts that are primary. But nobody believes that, nobody restricts “primary issues” to just that list.
No, what Paul means by “first” is simply this: these objective facts about what Christ did are what every other doctrine is about and is proclaiming. Everything God says is about this: what Christ has done for you. There is nothing God says that isn’t persuading you of this: —your sins are dealt with; —you are forgiven; —from God’s side, there is no hostility. What keeps you from falling away is Not your ability to kill your sin, but Christ who died for your sin
And so, your security now and into the future: does n ot rest on your past or your performance, but on God’s grace alone
That’s Paul’s third assurance in verses 9- 10 , just look there:
9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
This week I resumed my regular pastoral visits, and I sat with two of you on Friday, who said to me “Look at my past! So many problems, so many mistakes! I’m scared God’s bringing the consequences on me now.” Well, just look at Paul’s past! A murderer. A vicious, angry, petulant man. And what did God do with him? God redeemed him—took Paul’s worst qualities, and made them beautiful. God took his obsessive zeal that drove him to murder and hate …and made him the apostle who works harder than any of them. Paul’s not saying “Look how I have made up for my past.” There’s no way he could. He’s saying “Look at what God’s grace did to me! God held no grudge. God hung on to no hate.”
A fact that Paul knows, simply because of the Gospel that he gives to others from the outside, but notice again v. 3: I delivered… what I also received… —the Gospel that came to Paul himself from the outside. And because of that Gospel —that object fact that you are forgiven— no matter how much you struggle to “feel” a sense of faith, no matter how bad you are at fighting sin, no matter how awful your past: Your assurance does not rest on your past or your performance, but on God’s grace alone
So, What stops you falling away? It is n ot the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith An objective, sure, certain object that lies outside yourself. It is n ot your ability to kill your sin, but Christ who died for your sin Christ who hung there on the cross and bore God’s wrath. Did he bear God’s wrath for you? Well look at him—he bore God’s wrath for everyone are you part of “everyone”? Yes—so for you. And it is n ot your past or your performance, but God’s grace It is God’s job to do with you what he will. Look at him, hear his promises —he’ll take the worst part of you, and use it for good.
You, who doesn’t deserve anything, and who can’t achieve anything. You, who brings nothing to your salvation, except the sin from which you must be saved. You, who looks not to yourself, and the progress you think you’ve made, or the big things you think you’re going to achieve, but rather, you who simply:
standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.