​As I pointed out in the last post James 1:19-21 sets the theme for the rest of chapter 1 and all of chapter 2 of his letter.  If you haven’t read it, do it now before reading this post.  You will see in 1:19 that James wrote to people he called his beloved Brethren.  He was writing to believers as he would never refer to non-believers as beloved brethren.  He then continued with instructions for how his beloved Brethren, people who have everlasting life, should conduct themselves.  Basically, instructing Believers to live in ways that are pleasing to the Lord and which will not compromise their witness to those who are outside. 
 
The challenge is to live dynamic lives of faith.  The fact that he warned against being a passive hearer means it’s possible some Believer will do just that.  Why warn against a danger doesn’t exist?  The balance of chapter 1 describes a Believer who fails to apply what they are taught by the Word of God.  The person James calls a forgetful hearer is the same as Paul’s carnal Christian in 1 Corinthians 3.  James goes on to say that life style leads to a dead faith (James 2:14).  The context clearly supports the idea of dead being inactive rather than non-viable.  It is still faith, just not a faith that can save from discipline up to and including physical death.  It didn’t spare the Corinthian Believers (1 Corinthians 11:30) and neither will it spare forgetful Christians today. 
 
James’ comparison to the belief of demons further demonstrates he didn’t have salvation in mind because demons were never offered redemption.  It is more a Proverbs 9:10 thing.  Unlike the passive Christian, they’re smart enough to be afraid.  The Epistle of James is a guide to making the most of the gift of everlasting life while living in this world.  He was not suggesting anyone could lose the everlasting life the Lord promised to give to all who believe in Him. 
 
James believed Jesus Christ was telling the truth when He said “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”   So, the question I have for anyone reading this blog is simple.  Who are you going to believe?  Jesus Christ or someone who says you cannot trust what Jesus Christ has said. 

​Another commonly misunderstood word in the New Testament is the Greek word Sozo.  Too often people assume it always means saved from hell.  The truth is it is used of being saved from a lot of things besides hell.  Sozo is a verb whose primary meaning is preserve, rescue or save.  From what one is being preserved, rescued or saved is determined from the context in which the word is used. 
 
For example, in Matthew 9 a woman was healed of a bloody discharge by touching Jesus Christ’s robe.  When she touched Him, he turned to her and said “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.”  The word translated as ‘made well’ is the Greek word Sozo (Perfect active indictive form).   In Romans 5:9 & 10 Paul used the word Sozo to mean preserving or redeeming one’s physical life after salvation.  He distinguished being save as different than being justified and reconciled to God. So, he was speaking of being saved the wages of ongoing sin, suffering God’s disciple.  The Apostle James also wrote about this in his letter.   
 
James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  The word souls is translating the Greek word Psyche which means life.  Rendering it as souls is misleading in contemporary English and it doesn’t really fit the context.  James referred to his readers as beloved brethren in 1:19, so he was addressing this to people with everlasting life.  Therefore, we should read v. 21 as ‘save your lives’ meaning their physical lives.  That sets the context for this next section that runs from James 1:22 thru 2:26.    
 
James 1:22 starts with the call to be doers of the Word and not just Hearers.  It is a call to put their faith into action by doing good works.  He then gave a partial listing of the good works he had in mind.  And that is the context in which he wrote James 2:14 - What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?  Again, he called his readers brethren so we know he was writing this to believers.  James 2:14 is not about being saved from hell, but is all about saving physical life from the wages of sin.  More on that later.  

Jesus Christ taught that everlasting life is given the moment a person believes in Him for the 2nd birth.  Despite the clear teaching of Jesus Christ on the permanence of everlasting life, after all He did call it everlasting, there are still those who deny it is.  They claim it can be lost.  I call them the “yeah, but” people because they generally say something to the effect of yeah, He said that, but over here it says and they quote something from a different passage.  In doing so they fail to realize they actually conceded the truth of what Jesus Christ said.  If it is true then whatever passage that person wants to look at must be dealing with something other than receiving everlasting life. 
 
One example I’ve heard people use is Luke 14:25-28 - Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it--
 
Jesus said that so it must be true and it is.  But the subject here is discipleship not initial salvation.  Becoming a disciple is not the same thing as receiving everlasting life. One huge clue is that Jesus Christ doesn’t mention faith.  He was talking about something we must do.  Being a disciple will cost you something (v. 28), so you need to know the price.  Everlasting life is a free gift.  Romans 6:23 -For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  OK, this is not complicated.  Something that cost you is not free. 
 
These distinctions are important.  Those who preach everlasting life can be lost are saying we cannot trust the words of Jesus Christ.  They also run the risk of convincing someone being good is the way to heaven.  The Bible clearly teaches it is by grace we are saved through faith and that not of our selves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8 & 9).  

There is absolutely nothing to the belief that everlasting life once received cannot be lost that suggests our behavior is not important to God.  Jesus Christ made that clear in all His teaching including what He said in John 8:31-32.  He desires that everyone take up the challenge of being a disciple.  However, being a disciple does nothing to eliminate the main barrier to entrance into Heaven.  Look at John 3:3.   The man Nicodemus would not see the eternal kingdom because he was dead.  His behavior was not the issue it was his lack of life, everlasting life.  He needed the second birth.  Death is what blocks the way to entering the eternal Kingdom. 
 
A dead person doesn’t need to clean up his or her life.  They don’t have a life to clean up!  They need two things.  The removal of whatever caused their death and then a new life installed.  Jesus Christ took away the sin of the world (Psalms 103:12 & John 1:29).  That was the cause of death.  Having removed sin He now is free to offer the rebirth unto everlasting life to all who believe in Him.  It really is that simple (2 Corinthians 11:3). 
 
Those who insist that continued faith coupled with good works are necessary to get you across the finish line just removed any chance of certainty.  Because no one has ever offered a quantitative measure of when you’ve done enough accept the Lord.  And He said you have to keep the whole Law 100% of the time.   Deuteronomy 27:26 - Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’  Galatians 3:10 - For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
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The failure to recognize that God makes a distinction between a believer, someone with everlasting life, and a disciple, someone who is seeking to be a follower of Jesus Christ, leads to many serious doctrinal errors.  Jesus Christ Himself laid out that distinction in John 8:30-32.  The setting is a debate Jesus Christ was having with the Pharisees in the Temple. During this confrontation the Pharisees demand that Christ tell them who He is.  Which, as He pointed out in this exchange, He had already done.  That is in John 8:25-29.  Then John records this: 
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As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Jesus Christ interrupted His debate with the Pharisees to address the people in the crowd who had believed in Him.  He was no longer addressing the Pharisees or the general public, just those who believed in Him. He was saying to be a true disciple (disciple indeed) they needed to continue in His word or teaching.  They needed to learn the truth which would make them free.  There are many passages in the gospels in which the Lord is explaining the nature and demands of discipleship.  Those passages are not evangelistic but sanctifying.  Compare the passages in John I have referenced in the previous two posts with Luke 14:25-35 or Matthew 5:1-7:27. Notice in John Jesus was talking about entering into life, everlasting life.  Luke and Matthew are talking about how to live as a disciple.  The content of the Luke and Matthew passages are completely incompatible with John 3:16, 4:10, 5:24 and 6:47. 

If you fail to see the differences in subject matter and insist both are about receiving everlasting life then you must concede these passages are contradicting each other.  There is no way to weasel word an explanation that melds them together.  Salvation cannot be both by faith alone and at the same time by good works, Romans 11:5 & 6. 

If you rule the Word of God as contradictory in its content, then you have removed all hope of finding a path to God.  You have eliminated the only trustworthy source you have for God’s revealed truth, the Bible.  The truth is that God has in His infinite grace love and mercy made everlasting life obtainable in the only way we can receive it.  It is by believing in Jesus Christ for everlasting life.  We are incapable of being consistently good enough to please Him.  Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Don’t miss the shift in verb tense between the first and second clause.  All have sinned – past tense, a completed action or actions.  Fall short – present tense – our current condition.  In other words, we have failed to mean God’s expectations in the past and we continue to do so.  Our only hope is salvation by grace though faith.  

​So, here is the thing.  Jesus Christ made very clear and emphatic statements about what it takes to receive everlasting life.  What we commonly refer to as being saved.  Jesus Christ claimed to be God and the one who is able to give everlasting life to everyone who will believe Him for it.  He proved He has the power to give life when He rose from the dead.  His resurrection is proof of all that He claimed to be. 
 
Go back and read John 3:16, 4:10 and 6:47 in context again.  Now, look at John 5:24:  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.  Again, notice the Lord said all of this in the present tense.  Here He adds that believing Him, Jesus Christ, is proof of a person’s belief in the Father.  It is a confirmation of the trinitarian nature of God.  But the main point for our purpose today is this.  The person who believes the Father sent Jesus Christ to die for us, who in turn believes in Jesus Christ for everlasting life will not face an additional judgement but already has the gift of eternal life.  That is what the Lord Jesus Christ plainly said.
 
And yet I know a number of Pastors and church leaders who insist you can lose your salvation teaching everlasting is not a sure thing.  They reject the security of salvation by faith and insist one must have good works to back up their claim to faith.  Why?  The answer is simple.  They have a low view of the Bible and a low view of God.  That is a polite way of saying they don’t believe the Bible is God’s word.  They fail to see the distinction Christ makes between being a believer and a disciple.  Their trust is in a philosophical derived system of theology rather than a careful study of God’s word. 
 
And we have to decide who are we going to trust.  The men and women who gave their lives to make sure the words of Jesus Christ were preserved have proven their integrity.  They died defending something they knew to be true.  They were eyewitnesses to the events of Christ’s life.  If they had made it all up do you really think they would have given their lives to protect something they knew was a lie?  That is a question each of us has to answer for ourselves.  After 55 years of study I am more convinced than ever.  The evidence is overwhelming in support of the reality of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.  He is to be believed.    

​Is it possible to almost believe in Jesus Christ?  I believe it is, but that leaves the question is almost good enough.  I’m thinking belief is very much like telling the truth.  The legal standard for truth is to speak truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.   Being mostly true is still a lie because it’s not the whole truth.  So, if not quite telling the whole truth is a lie, then it follows that not quite believing is actually unbelief.  Almost is not quite, therefore the same as never has.   

So, what does it mean to believe something?  My dictionary leads with this: “to accept as true, genuine or real.”  That pretty much covers it.  It is important we understand what it means to believe because believing is the only requirement Jesus Christ spoke of concerning the gift of everlasting life.  Jesus Christ always and only said the gift of everlasting life was a gift given to everyone who believes in Him.  Two verses that explain that are John 3:16 & 6:47. 

John 3:16 states: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  In John 6:47 Jesus Christ was a bit more forceful in His claim.  “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.”  Both of those verses use the present tense which clearly means the believer has everlasting life when they believe.  It is not something received later in life or after we die.  It is a present possession of those who believe.  Therefore, we must conclude that everlasting life is given the moment someone believes in Jesus Christ for everlasting life or deny Jesus Christ is speaking truthfully. 
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Another important verse in John’s Gospel to examine is John 4:10. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”  Speaking to a Samaritan woman the Lord Jesus told her if she knew who He was she would have asked for living water (everlasting life) and He would have given it to her right then!  Since He called it everlasting life, we can trust that it lasts forever.  Forever means never ending so once given it cannot be lost or taken away. 

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That seems pretty straight forward.  A gift is something received without any expectation or requirement of compensation.  In other words, it is free.   The word eternal means infinite duration which in this case should be understood as never ending as it obviously has a beginning if it is a gift.  However, a review of contemporary Christian views on eternal life shows that not everyone understands what constitutes a gift nor do they know what eternal actually means. 

There are those who accept the words of Scripture as written and assign the common meanings to them.  People who hold that understanding know it is possible to know you have everlasting life with the assurance of being with God in Heaven when you die.  They agree with the Apostle John who wrote the following:

John 20:30 & 31 - And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

1 John 5:12-14 - He who has the Son has [a]life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, [b]and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

However, there are some who teach you can’t really know for sure.  They usually fall into 1 of 2 groups.  Those who teach you can receive the gift of everlasting life, but will lose it if you fail to maintain a proper Christian life style.  The other explains it as believing in Jesus Christ grants you probationary acceptance that will be judged at death to see if you actually qualify for the real thing.  While they each follow a different rationale, they both end up at the same place; no one can be certain they have actually received eternal life until they die.   But what did Jesus Christ say?

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Jesus Christ Himself said the only requirement to receive the gift of eternal (everlasting) life was belief in Him as the life giver.  The Bible says He took away the sin of the world when He died on the cross.  His resurrection 3 days later proved He has the power to give eternal life.  In order to buy into the proposition you can lose everlasting life or must also live a certain life style to finally receive it suggests there was some deficiency in Christ’s death and resurrection which we have to make up.  
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So, what could that be?  

​1 John 1:8 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
 
The most common question I’ve been asked about this verse has been is John talking about how to be saved or something else.  I’m using the word saved here to mean being born again and receiving everlasting life.  So many churches have equated forgiveness with the gift of everlasting life and made repentance a requirement for that gift it is understandable some people would be confused about 1 John 1:9. In Determining John’s intended meaning I want to consider 2 things.  First the context in which verse 9 is stated and second is it consistent with what John wrote in his Gospel.  Since John’s purpose in writing his Gospel was evangelistic (John 20:30-31) we should expect to find no contradictory references to salvation in his letter.     
 
Let’s start with the context of 1 John.  A good interpretative method should always start with examining the context.  We know from the introduction in 1 John 1:1-4 that his stated purpose was for his readers to experience the full joy of fellowship with him, the Father and the Son Jesus Christ.  Since the objective is fellowship, we know he was writing to people he knew were believers and had everlasting life.  The main body of the letter starts 1:5 and continues to follow the theme of fellowship.  In verses 5-7 John states the basic requirement for fellowship is living according to truth, living in the light.  And John rightly points out that starts with being honest about sin, we still sin even as believers.  Therefore, my conclusion is 1 John 1:9 is not a condition or step in receiving everlasting life but is instead about maintaining fellowship with God and other believers.     
 
It that consistent with how John describes being saved in his Gospel.  Yes, because the only condition John quotes Jesus Christ as saying was believing in Him, Jesus Christ, for everlasting life.  John did not record the Lord ever mentioning repentance or confession of sin as a requirement for receiving the gift of everlasting life.  In fact, the words repent and repentance do not occur in John’s gospel at all.  There are only 3 places we find the word confess and in each case the object is Jesus Christ not sin (John 1:20; 9:22 and 12:42). 
 
In summary I believe we can safely say confession of sin is the first step in achieving the fullness of joy experienced by being in fellowship with God and other believers.  Repentance comes into the picture when dealing with recurring and willful sin.  That requires a change in behavior along with the acknowledgement of confession.   An unbeliever asking God to forgive their sin is not the same thing as believing in Jesus Christ for everlasting life.  So, I say don’t confuse the issue of salvation by adding conditions Jesus Christ never did.  Forgiveness is not the same thing as being born into everlasting life.  

​Matthew 7:13 & 14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult (narrow) is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
 
The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1-7:28 is an exposition by Jesus Christ on living for the Kingdom of Heaven, also called the Kingdom of God.  The Lord was primarily speaking to His disciples (Matthew 5:1), though there was a crowd of people gathered around them listening.  It was not, as some have taught, an evangelistic sermon.  He would not have started an evangelistic message by calling His audience the salt and light of the world.  According to Matthew 4:17 His focus was preparing Israel for the Kingdom.  the context is always a key consideration in determining the meaning of a passage. 
 
so, in determining what the narrow and wide gates and ways stand for, we have to look to the context of the sermon.  The Body of this Sermon, which begins in Matthew 5:21, presents us with a series of contrasts between the conventional teachings of the Rabbi’s and the true words of Jesus Christ.  The Lord started with the format of “you have heard that it was said” followed by “but I say to you.”  Then in chapter 6 He switched to a more direct line of “how to” instructions on charitable deeds, prayer, fasting and wraps up with contrasting faith and worry.  Just prior to the short passage on the gates and ways Christ focused on dependence on God.   He followed Matthew 7:13 & 14 with a warning to avoid false teachers.  He also pointed to the end for those who depend on good works to earn their place in the Kingdom.
 
Therefore, based on that analysis of the Sermon, I believe it is clear that the wide gate and wide path is following the conventional teaching of working your way into the Kingdom.  The narrow gate is the way of faith.   I would point you to the summary statement on which Jesus Christ ended this sermon. 
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
 
 
The Narrow Gate is entered by faith, believing the promise of Jesus Christ for everlasting life and entrance into the Kingdom.  The Narrow way is believing and living by His words in this sermon.  He spelled out living by faith in Matthew 6:1-7:12.