Jesus And The Furnace of Fire

Hell is not real for most people. They think little about it and do not believe if there is such a place they will end up there. Hell, if real, would only be reserved for characters like Hitler, Himmler, Stalin, Pol Pot, murderers, child molesters, etc., the very worst society has to offer. It is not a place for the average man or woman is the general thinking.

The Bible teaches no such thing. What it does teach is that it is very possible for you and me, your wife, your husband, your daughter, your son, your mother or dad, your neighbor, your friend, some of the best people you know to end up in what the Bible calls the furnace of fire. And what people cannot comprehend and refuse to believe is that Jesus will put them there.

Hear Jesus, "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Mat 13:41-42 NKJV)

Many people who think they know Jesus would say, "No, he would never do that." Well, if not, he is a liar. If he is a liar you cannot depend on a single word he ever uttered for who would know when he was lying and when he was not, but God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

Let us take a closer look and see who it is that will be cast into this furnace. It is "those who practice lawlessness." (Matt. 13:41 NKJV) I know vast numbers of people, while good in many respects, many proclaiming that they believe in God, who never make any effort to obey Jesus and thus they practice lawlessness. The New Testament is the law of Christ, the law he gave, the law he is talking about in the passage under discussion.

Have they ever been baptized for the remission of sins? (Acts 2:38) No! Do they intend to? No! Do they worship God? No! Do they "forsake the assembling of ourselves together?" (Heb. 10:25 NKJV) Yes! Have they put on "the whole armor of God?" (Eph. 6:11 NKJV) No! And the list could go on and on. Just common ordinary day folks. Where are they headed? You say don't judge. I am just quoting Jesus. He is the one who said that those who practice lawlessness will be cast into the lake of fire. I just happen to know what lawlessness is, it is disregarding his word.

Paul, for example, gave us a list of sins in Gal. 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." (NKJV) Paul says, "and the like" meaning this is only a partial listing of sins. There is another long list that can be found in Rom. 1:24-32 and then we find this in the last verse there, verse 32, "those who practice such things are worthy of death." (NKJV)

Sin is lawlessness, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness." (1 John 3:4 NAS) It is those who practice lawlessness, Jesus says, who will be cast into the furnace of fire.

To be saved a man must love Jesus. "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed." (1Co 16:22 NKJV) "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me," says Jesus. (John 14:21 NKJV) The apostle John says, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:3-4 NKJV) "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?" says Jesus. (Luke 6:46 NKJV) If Jesus is not your Lord (he is not if you are not obeying him) how are you going to avoid the furnace of fire?

But people say I know what the word of God says about this or that but I know how I feel in my heart. Thus the standard for being saved and for living a faithful obedient life, for determining what is and is not sin, ceases to be what the book, chapter, and verse of the Bible teaches and becomes instead the feeling in the heart. That feeling becomes the standard for salvation and the word of God is cast aside. Commandments no longer matter, especially if they prove inconvenient or troublesome.

I love God. I will be saved. How do you know? My heart tells me so. Just as long as your heart tells you so it makes it so? Well, Jacob felt Joseph was dead, felt it in his heart, but that did not make it so. "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9 NKJV) People head to death and judgment with faith built on personal feelings (quicksand) rather than on the word of God (a solid rock).

"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: 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. 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: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." (Matt. 7:24-27 NKJV)

There are so many who consider themselves saved that never even enter a church door and many more who enter it only occasionally. They do not know God's commandments and make little or no effort to learn them. They rarely, if ever, read the Bible and have no desire to study it. The Hebrew writer tells us that there is a time when we "ought to be teachers." (Heb. 5:12 NKJV) There is no way most people can obey that directive for they have never studied enough to even think about being a teacher.

They have never made any effort to "study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Tim. 2:15 KJV) Other versions read a little differently but the same idea is in them all. Their indifference to the word of God is great but they are still going to heaven according to the consensus of the public.

I write this article because I am fearful. I am scared for people I know and love. I am scared for the many who are likable, kind, and caring people -- we would call them good people by our worldly standards. I am scared for they are not scared, not at all. They do not know enough to be scared. Like an infant running toward the busy highway, having no concept of the consequences that await them, they go day by day walking toward the precipice from whence, once the last step is taken, there will be no return, the final step into hell.

I am scared because their indifference is great. I am scared because they presume, just presume. I am scared because they have no interest in searching the scriptures to see what they need to do and how they need to live.

Should a man fear God? They do not. If a man has no fear of God it is not likely he will ever repent. That is one reason so many today can go on day after day, month after month, year after year, living carelessly and indifferently. They believe God will save them the way they are and have no fear that he will not. Hear the Bible on the subject, "By the fear of the Lord one departs from evil." (Prov. 16:6 NKJV) "The fear of the Lord leads to life." (Prov. 19:23 NKJV) When you do not fear God, you do not worry a whole lot about keeping God's commandments.

There is a real furnace of fire, or else Jesus lied about it. It may or may not be like what we would think of as being a furnace of fire but the effect on the soul will be that of extreme pain and suffering such as physical fire brings to the body. There will be little to no difference in the intensity of the suffering else the analogy fails.

In the book of Revelation, in John's vision, he saw the great Day of Judgment. "And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books." (Rev 20:12 NKJV)

His vision of judgment day closes with verse 15, "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:15 NKJV) I cannot imagine such a horror. That does not mean I do not believe it, but the horror of it is more than the mind can grasp. Can you imagine the fear, the terror, the panic, the hysteria, when one realizes this is his or her fate?

No wonder there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth." The phrase "weeping and gnashing of teeth" is used 4 times in the book of Matthew (Matt. 8:12, 22:13, 24:51, and Matt. 25:30 NKJV). In each instance, the phrase is used by the Lord Jesus himself, in red print in your Bible. Does Jesus lie? When was the last time you had pain so bad you had to gnash your teeth? Could you bear that for eternity?

Hell is a place of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43), a place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48). These are the words of Jesus himself. Paul, in a passage that is talking about hell, speaks of God's "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil." (Rom. 2:8-9 NKJV) Is a man stronger than God who created the millions of stars in the universe? Can a man withstand God's indignation and wrath?

Jude speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah and says that they were "set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jud v. 7 NKJV) The Hebrew writer spoke on the topic saying, "For we know Him who said, 'vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. And again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb 10:30-31 NKJV)

Peter says, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now 'if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?'" (1Peter 4:17-18 NKJV)

We have become so accustomed to talking only about the love of God, of his mercy and grace, of his forgiveness and salvation that we scarcely can comprehend anything else from him. However, God is also a God of justice, holiness, and righteousness.

What kind of a Father would God be if he said, "Okay, so I sent my son into the world to suffer and die for you and you rejected him and made his commandments of no account, paying no attention to them and caring less? You did your own will rather than mine; it is okay, you come on up into heaven with us anyway and we will forget all about it. What is a little spilled blood even if it was my son’s?"

If God were to say a thing of that kind what kind of God would he be? Would he be good? God cannot be a good and just God and let man get by with man despising his son. Jesus cannot be Lord of our life if we are the Lord of our life. God cannot be God if we are going to play God ourselves.

Paul wrote in language so fearful I find it hard to read when he wrote in 2 Thess. 1:8-9 of Jesus' second coming and said of it that his return would be "in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." The phrase "in flaming fire" catches my attention every time I read the passage. Terror will be a mild word to use when that day comes. Are you prepared?

Can you see in your mind's eye that day coming and perhaps for the first time in their life your son or daughter, your husband or wife, your mother or your dad, realizing the horror that is about to befall them? Can you see in your mind's eye the hysteria, the panic, the terror that will be on their faces? Can you see them weeping and sobbing uncontrollably and you are unable to do a thing about it? As I said earlier we ought to be scared as we see how people are living so indifferently to God. Are you one of them? Is one of your family one of them?

Many are lukewarm, maybe a step up from indifference. Is that a big enough step to avoid the furnace of fire? Hear Jesus in the book of Revelation speaking to the church of the Laodiceans remembering that the church is the people who make it up. He says, "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'--and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." (Rev 3:15-17 NKJV) What kind of a Christian are you?

The only good thing that can be said for the Christians in the church at Laodicea was that God was going to allow them a little more time to repent. He says, in verse 18, "Be zealous and repent." If you are reading this today it means you are being granted some time to repent if you need to do so. You have now, today, with no promise of a tomorrow.

If you have family who are still alive as you read this, it means they still have time, "if" they will use it, time to bring their life into accord with God's will to avoid the furnace of fire. Maybe you can help them. You can pray for them and ought to do so earnestly time and time again.

It distresses me to write an article like this for I know few listen. As I said earlier, the assumption is that all is well, everything is fine, it is okay, and we are all saved. Jeremiah wrote words that I fear are going to end up applying to our generation as well as to his, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!" (Jer. 8:20 NKJV) Is God first in your life or is he thirty-first, forty-first, fifty-first, or just not there at all? Is he just a Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and Easter Day God in your life? If so, it is time to make some changes. There is a furnace of fire.

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Prov. 1:7 NKJV)

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Christ the Savior of the Church But Which One

Paul tells us, "Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body." (Eph. 5:23 NKJV) This passage is clear-cut and easy to understand, save for one thing--what body is he the savior of? The New Testament teaches the body is the church (Col. 1:24, Eph. 1:22-23), so is it the Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church, the Methodist Church, the Nazarene Church, or one of the hundreds of others that could be named? Many would say it is all of them taken collectively. Is it? It is a subject worthy of study, for if we do not get it right we will be found outside the body Jesus saves on the Day of Judgment.

It is essential that we understand when Paul said Jesus was the "savior of the body," he was talking about the church already in existence, a church that would continue to exist until the end of time. The church is the body, "And he (God the Father--DS) put all things under his (Jesus'--DS) feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." (Eph. 1:22-23 NKJV) Paul says again in Col. 1:18, "And he is the head of the body, the church." (NKJV) The church is thus Christ's spiritual body, which Christ will save at the last day as he is the savior of the body. Being a church member then is essential for salvation. There is not a word in scripture about salvation outside the body of Christ, outside the church.

However, we still have the burden of figuring out just which church it is that Christ is going to save as we have hundreds and hundreds of churches today. Is there any help in figuring it out? Yes, quite a bit.

I will start with what ought to be obvious to all. If the church of which a person is a member began centuries after the New Testament was written, it is not the church that Jesus said he would save. How do we know? The church Jesus established and over which he was and is the Savior was established in the first century on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Let us say just as an example that a church began in the 1600's. If a person claims the church of which he is a member is the one which Jesus built and is the Savior of and yet it was not begun until the 1600's one does not have to be a mathematical genius to see the timeline does not fit.

Are we to believe Jesus saved people in a church that did not exist? Are we to believe Jesus saved people in any of the hundreds of churches now in existence before they were founded? A little common sense goes a long way. If people were saved in the hundreds of years before the Reformation and the establishment of the multitudes of churches we have today, it only proves those churches were never needed for salvation and were not a part of the church Jesus saved and is saving. It proves they are man-made churches. Jesus promised to save his church, not man-made churches.

That the church was begun in the first century is so self-evident from even a casual glance at scripture, I do not want to spend much time on it here. Many of Paul's salutations in the epistles establish that fact, for he often begins with words like, "To the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1:2 NKJV), "To the churches of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2 NKJV), "To the church of the Thessalonians" (1 Thess. 1:2 NKJV). It is hard to write to a body not yet established, to something that does not exist. The church was begun on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, commencing with those who responded to Peter's preaching that day. In Acts 2:47 the New King James Version of the Bible reads, "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Much more could be written on the establishment of the church but that is not the purpose of this particular article.

Every denomination that exists today was built many hundreds of years after Christ built his church. This puts every one of them in a terrible bind. Only emotion can rescue them; there is no hope that reason can. How can one claim his church, speaking by way of accommodation, is the church Jesus built when one takes chronology into account? People were saved and added to the church that Jesus is saving for many hundreds of years before any denomination existed.

If you admit the obvious that your denomination is not the church Christ built, then troubling questions arise. Why does it exist? Who built it? Jesus built his church but the chronology says your church is not his church, so who built it? Was Jesus' church insufficient by itself without your church (denomination)? If he did not build your denomination but man did, who gave man the right? Where is the Bible authority for any man to go out and build a church in addition to God's church? That is the very thing that happened if God's church already existed before your denomination.

If your church is not the church Jesus built then how can it be a friend to Christ's church? It is in competition with Christ's church. If it taught the same thing Christ's church taught (the same doctrine), was the same in organization, work, worship, the same in every respect, then it would be his church and not a denomination, and yet I have never known a denominational person willing to declare that his church is the church Jesus built. Why not? Because that would make it exclusive as Christ built only one and that would necessarily exclude others in other denominations.

I think men generally realize these things, it is only common sense, a little logic, pretty much like two plus two equals four, simple reasoning, and yet it is so troubling to allow our minds to dwell on these things that we quickly shut the thoughts off before anxiety sets in. If we do not see an answer, a way out, our mind seems to say let it go. We pretend the problem is not there, is non-existent, and we refuse to think about it lest it cause us worry, concern, and trouble. But, like cancer, if the problem is there, it will not go away on its own and, sooner or later, one way or another, we will be forced to deal with it. It refuses to be swept under the rug and forgotten. There is a Judgment Day when we will have to provide answers as to what we did and why in our lives.

Often the answer that comes up is that all the denominations taken together are the church Jesus built. We all know deep down that is not true, but again we do not like to think about it. Every one of them was built hundreds of years after the fact by man, not by God. Add to that more denominations are being established all the time.

We also know that they do not teach the same doctrines nor practice the same things. One denomination is open to gay marriage and homosexuality, to women in leadership roles, to sprinkling for baptism, to this or that while another denomination is one hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction on these issues and others. Their doctrines are as far apart as the East is from the West. They are not of one mind nor one practice.

To get everybody to heaven who just believes in Jesus, which is a belief commonly held, means there is no such thing as truth and that the things Jesus and the apostles taught about Christian living are at best simply good advice, not commandments, and are irrelevant to salvation. In the denominational world, one man's truth is another man's lie. Let a Baptist and an Episcopalian get together and talk about Christianity and homosexuality and see what happens. I use that as only an example. Make no mistake about it, if denominationalism with its generally held belief that we are all going to heaven just so we believe is to be accepted, a man must also accept the idea that neither truth nor practice matters. There is just no way in the world of getting around that.

In this article, I have said nothing about the Roman Catholic Church as I have excluded it from the denominational world. However, it does not get a free ride.  The question with it is whether a totally apostate church can be saved. However, that is an article for another time.

We can answer the question "Christ the Savior of the church but which one" by saying it is none of the denominations, but it is the church Jesus himself built. It is the church restored to what it was on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 in terms of initiation into it and whose work, worship, and organization is defined and limited by the New Testament scriptures. What is true for an individual Christian is also true of a group of Christians, namely, a church: "Anyone who does not remain in Christ's teaching but goes beyond it does not have God." (2 John 9 CSB)

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Parable of the Tares -- No Middle Ground

The story of the parable of the tares is found in Matt. 13:24-30 and explained by Jesus in verses 36-43. I quote the parable as follows:

"Another parable he put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.''" (Matt. 13:24-30 NKJV)

There has been debate over the years about this parable as to whether or not the kingdom referred to is the church or the entirety of the world, all of humanity, over which God rules. It is the world for in Jesus’ explanation of the parable he says as much, “The field is the world.” (Matt. 13:38 NKJV) The emphasis in the parable is the contrast between the wheat and the tares. There is no middle ground to be had. One is either a tare (a weed in the newer translations) or wheat and which one it is makes all the difference.

Let us say for the sake of argument the parable is a reference to people in the church. It is not but let us say for the moment it is. There is no middle ground there to reside in. You still have an either/or scenario. If the ungodly in the church are not to be saved then what hope does that leave for the ungodly outside the church? The answer is none. All outside the church are ungodly in that they have never obeyed the gospel and are sinners in God’s sight. If you have not obeyed the gospel and you are old enough to do so then you are still in your sins.

All the godly are in the church. One cannot be godly and be outside the church for the same process that saves a man (gospel obedience) makes him, by God’s grace, godly. God adds the saved, the godly ones, to the church. "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47 NKJV) The church is that which Jesus is the Savior of. "Christ is the head of the church; and he is the Savior of the body." (Eph. 5:23 NKJV) The "body" is the church. "And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body." (Eph. 1:22-23 NKJV)

If a person is saved he is in the church, the body of Christ, but this does not mean once saved always saved for a Christian can fall away and become ungodly, even become a disbeliever, later in life.

In a practical sense as far as what will happen in the last day, the Day of Judgment, everyone is a tare who is not saved whether in the church or outside it. All outside the church are going to be gathered together to be burned along with any tares that are found in the church. Again, the parable is not about the ungodly in the church but those who are ungodly in the church will not be saved.

While Peter may have had (?) reference to the Roman invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 when he penned the following passage he nevertheless made a point we all need to give consideration to. He said, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17 NKJV) What indeed? When one obeys the gospel the Lord adds that person to the body of Christ, the church, where the saved abide.

Paul talks of Jesus' second coming and says this, "When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he comes, in that day." (2 Thess. 1:7-10 NKJV) We see no middle ground. One has either obeyed the gospel or he has not.

It brings me great sadness to know people I care about and realize that to them gospel obedience and faithfulness is no big deal. What are they thinking? Do they think the Bible is a fairy tale and there is no judgment to come? Do they believe you cannot trust God's word, that all the talk about eternal fire and gnashing of teeth is just so much hyperbole? Have they followed hook, line, and sinker the common opinion that as long as you are a decent human being you will be saved? Do they think they are special and God is going to give them a free pass despite their shunning of him, disrespect, and lack of love for him? Or, is it that they are just so "this-worldly" that they cannot give spiritual matters the time of day? What are they thinking? I do not know but does it matter what the motive for disobedience is when the result is the same regardless?

They live their lives giving God little to no consideration. "The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts." (Psalms 10:4 NKJV) No, to you and me they do not seem "wicked" as we generally think of wicked people but we must remember we do not think as God thinks nor do we see or understand as he does. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord." (Isa. 55:8 NKJV) Besides, if we are honest, and we stop and think about it, we know a person who does not seek God is proud in that he thinks he can do fine without giving God a primary place in his/her life.

If we don't care about God while living why should we think we shall be saved in the Day of Judgment? Whatever other lessons are to be found in the parable of the tares this one stands out to me -- there is no middle ground. One is either wheat or a tare, saved or lost, has obeyed the gospel or hasn't obeyed the gospel, loves God or does not love God. How we desire middle ground, if not for ourselves for others, but there is no middle ground to be had. It is finally heaven or hell.

"Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The son of man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 13:40-42 NKJV)

There is no middle ground but unlike in the physical realm where a species cannot help but be whatever it is in the spiritual realm a tare can be changed into wheat if the desire is there to make the change. God's desire is to save, not to cast into the furnace of fire. "The Lord … is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" (Ezek. 18:23 NKJV) "For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore turn and live!" (Ezek. 18:32 NKJV)

Yes, turn and live for there is no middle ground.

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I Can Do All Things Through Christ

The passage written by the apostle Paul and found in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” (NKJV) is a verse I became very familiar with when our young son entered kindergarten many years ago. He was afraid of leaving home and going to school so we had tears regularly that first year. It rends a dad and mom’s heart out to send them off into what is for them the dark terrifying unknown when as they leave the house it is all they can do to keep from crying and falling apart. Night after night at bedtime I would go back and the two of us, my son and I, would sit there and talk about this verse and it seemed to calm his fears after a while as we would talk.

Is that the way God strengthens us? I have little doubt that there is strength in the word of God -- power to strengthen not only a child but people of all ages. “For the word of God is living and powerful.” (Heb. 4:12 NKJV) If we will only hear the word and believe it with conviction of heart we will find the power to overcome. We must believe the word for it to strengthen us.

What is there in faith that gives strength? The writer of the book of Hebrews says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1 ESV) Faith is assurance, it is conviction, that God will be with me and that I can, through his power, do this thing that is so difficult for if he is with me he will grant me power -- strength to do it. Faith believes in his promise. “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5 NKJV)

The Greek word in Hebrews 11:1 translated into English by the word “assurance” (ESV, ASV, NAS) or the phrase “being sure” (NIV 1973, NET) or words to that effect is used in 4 other places in the New Testament where in 3 out of the 4 instances it is translated by the English word “confidence” or words similar to it. You will find those passages in 2 Cor. 9:4, 2 Cor. 11:17, and Heb. 3:14. Thus, faith builds confidence giving us strength for, you see, faith is confidence, is assurance. It casts aside doubt and fear.

What is the promise of Philippians 4:13 as it relates to you and me? Is it not, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?” (Phil. 4:13 NKJV) Certainly, it is. Yes, Paul wrote this regarding himself but do you not think inspiration had a reason for recording that sentiment for all to read? The passage was given by the inspiration of God as is all scripture. (2 Tim. 3:16) Paul did not need to tell us how strong he was through Christ but he did need to tell us how strong we can be. If he could be then so can we and we need to know that. Inspiration knew we needed to know. One wonders how many martyrs that were burned at the stake or who otherwise gave their lives for the faith thought of this passage.

Paul said elsewhere (Rom. 10:17), “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (NKJV) John then says, in 1 John 5:4, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.” (NKJV) There is power in faith to not only overcome the temptations of the world but power to climb our own personal mountains, mountains so high and so steep as to seem to be impossible but Jesus tells us “With God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26 NKJV)

“The word of God is living and powerful.” (Heb. 4:12 NKJV) It has caused people to repent of their sins and make a 180-degree turn in their lives. There were 3,000 who repented on the very first day the gospel of Christ was preached. (Acts 2) One cannot separate power from God’s word nor can one separate God from his word. The word has the power it does because it is his word, not mine nor yours. There is power in that word to create faith and thus change lives as well as give strength to mankind.

When Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV) he was both speaking by inspiration and by personal experience. What kind of things had he endured by means of the strength given by Christ? In 2 Cor. 11, which my reference Bibles say was written before the book of Philippians, Paul says he had been “in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.” (2 Cor. 11:23 NKJV)

He then goes on and says, “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” (2 Cor. 11:24-27 NKJV)

And, yet, at the time of this writing there was more to come for we know he eventually was executed and who can say how much more he had to endure before that? How did he do it? Well, he tells us. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV)

Paul was able to endure by faith, by faith in God and in his word for without that word there can be no faith. Had Jesus merely appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and not spoken all Paul would have known was that he had experienced a vision of a heavenly being. Paul did not know who this was who spoke to him for he says, “Who are You, Lord?” (Acts 9:5 NKJV) Only when Jesus responded by saying, “I am Jesus” did he know so we see that words spoken, or written, matter for faith.

Without word from Jesus (remember Paul did not know that this was Jesus until Jesus told him) Saul might well have left thinking he was being punished by the loss of his sight for not doing enough to destroy Christianity. Remember Paul was thoroughly convinced that the course of action he had been pursuing was the course God would have him pursue, that course being to persecute and destroy Christians and the Christian faith.

The only point I am trying to make is that Jesus needed to speak. Words were essential to communication, to understanding, and essential to the development of faith in Paul and the same is true for us today. Where the word of God has not gone there is not and cannot be faith in Jesus Christ.

So we see when all things are placed in proper order we have Jesus first, then his word, then faith, then power (the strengthening), and these are tied so closely together that they are like links in a chain.

There was power enough in the words Jesus spoke to change Saul’s life for Saul was now to become Paul, Paul the apostle. If there was ever a man with greater faith found in the New Testament I do not know who it would have been. I do not say others lacked faith but only that I do not believe any had more than Paul. His faith was so strong that when he said he could do all things through Christ it was a proven fact as shown by the things he had already suffered and endured. In fact, the book of Philippians where we find this famous passage is one of Paul’s prison epistles. Thus as he wrote he was in the very act of doing all things through Christ who strengthened him.

In the life of all of us, there are hard times. Suffering, pain, sorrow, and death trail after us like a bloodhound on our track chasing after us. We lose jobs, we lose loved ones, we lose health, and maybe someday we will be left alone in a nursing home to await death with no one seeming to care. What are we going to do? How are we to survive? There is only one answer. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

So it is from childhood to death it is “Christ who strengthens me.” As Paul said, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” (Gal. 2:20 NKJV) Have faith and be strengthened by it. Believe what God has told you with all your heart. As a child of God, you can do all things through Christ who will strengthen you, that is if you are God’s child. That choice is yours.

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