On This Rock

Colossians 1:21-23  And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.


Paul writes "provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast", and yet many think the ticket to heaven is found in a moment of confession proclaiming faith in Jesus, and is then permanent. I am not saying that a decision to believe in the true identity of Jesus has no importance. Of course we need to come to a saving faith in Jesus, a place where we acknowledge our need for his saving grace, a place where we place our sinful condition before his mercy seat. This saving faith however is only a great start on our journey with the God who never takes away our free will, and who will never prevent us from turning aside. Paul wouldn't use that word provided if we didn't have the possibility of discontinuing the stable faith. Jesus is quoted in Matthew's gospel saying, “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” The problem for some is they think a decision is enough when jesus himself says that after the hear and other sensory pieces we need to act on what we believe. Faith remember in the lives of these biblical people was an active word, a sort of noun/verb. If eternity could only be finished with a few words like Staples button Christianity (that was easy), but I'm afraid it is not that easy. It is simple but not that easy, it is free but it is not cheap for Jesus or for us. Paul says he presses on for the prize and I hope so do I. The race is longer than a marathon, but we're training for eternity