Fourth, those who fear that teaching redeemed men, God's children, that they have, as a present possession, eternal life and not simply the promise of it, and who think that the safer course is to teach them that they have only the promise of eternal life and may forfeit it by unfaithfulness, lose sight of another fact, that the unfaithful redeemed one will lose his reward. Let the reader turn back and read Chapter VI. The Scripture teaching is plain, "If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."—1 Cor. 3:14, 15. He loses his reward who is unfaithful, but not his eternal life, because it is eternal, and because he has been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14).
Fifth, those who, knowing that the redeemed man could not lose his eternal life, if he has it as a present possession, because it is eternal, believe that the redeemed have not really eternal life but only the promise of it and may forfeit the promise by unfaithfulness, and that it is dangerous to teach the redeemed that they really have eternal life because it might lead to wilful, presumptuous sin, lose sight of a fifth fact, that the child of God is not only redeemed from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), redeemed from under the law (Rom. 6:14), adopted as a child of God because redeemed from the law (Gal. 4:4-7), but that being redeemed, he is redeemed from all iniquity ("Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity."—Titus 2:13, 14). How can God, because He is just, let the redeemed man, if he is redeemed from all iniquity, be lost? "A young minister was in the habit of visiting an aged Scotch woman in his congregation who was familiarly called 'Old Nanny.' She was bed-ridden and rapidly approaching the end of her 'long and weary pilgrimage,' but she rested with undisturbed composure and full assurance of faith upon the finished work of Christ. One day he said to her, 'Now, Nanny, what if, after all your confidence in the Saviour and your watching and waiting, God should suffer your soul to be lost?' Raising herself on her elbow, and turning to him with a look of grief and pain, she laid her hand on the open Bible before her, and quietly replied, 'Ah, dearie me, is that the length you hae got yet, mon? God,' she continued earnestly, 'would hae the greatest loss. Poor Nannie would lose her soul, and that would be a great loss indeed; but God would lose His honor and His character. Haven't I hung my soul upon His "exceeding great and precious promise"? and if He would break His word He would make Himself a liar, and a' the universe would rush into confusion.' This anecdote reveals the true ground of the believer's safety. It is as high as the honor of God; it is as trustworthy as His character; it is as immutable as His promises; it is as broad as the infinite merit of His Son's atoning blood."—J. H. Brookes, in "The Way Made Plain."
If God, "that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26), set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiation through faith in his blood (Rom. 3:25), and then should let one be lost who had been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), would He not be as unjust in so doing as He would have been had He justified sinners without Christ dying for their sins (1 Cor. 15:3)?
The blessed fact that the redeemed have as a present possession, here and now, eternal life, and that it is eternal, makes manifest another fact, that the redeemed are not unconscious, virtually out of existence, from death till the resurrection. The new life is eternal; it continues without cessation or intermission. Their bodies fall asleep; but their souls are still in conscious existence; it is eternal life. Paul makes this fact clear: "Whilst present in the body, we are absent from the Lord." "We are confident, I say, and well pleased rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord."—2 Cor. 5:6, 8. The same conscious life continues; it is eternal life. Again he makes it clear: "I am in a strait betwixt the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful on your account."—Phil. 1:23, 24. The same conscious life continues, the eternal life. To depart and to be with Christ he says "is far better." But even this is not the perfect state. It is the soul without the body, enjoying eternal life with Christ. But God's perfect being is a being of redeemed soul and redeemed body enjoying the reward of its labor. The body will not be redeemed until the resurrection (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 15:42); and the soul, though enjoying eternal life and with Christ (Phil. 1:23) will receive no reward until the resurrection,—"Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."—Luke 14:14.
Paul further makes clear the distinction between the body sleeping and the soul not sleeping, because it has eternal life and is with Christ: "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."—1 Thess. 4:14. Their bodies are asleep; their souls are "absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8); but at the resurrection of their bodies, these "will God bring with him." Then, "at the resurrection of the just" (Luke 14:14) will "each man receive his own reward according to his own labor."—1 Cor. 3:8. Let this blessed teaching be a comfort to some hearts: the redeemed loved ones who have died are "present with the Lord" which "is far better." Then it is cruel selfishness to wish them back.
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DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER IN THE REDEEMED
"The God of Jacob is our refuge."—Ps. 46:7.