09/11/2022
Part two
When I first knew the Lord I believed that yes, the keeping of faith is something granted and it is impossible to lose it. However, through the years I saw that my belief was not correct. The keeping of faith is NOT something granted. If it was there would not be in the Word of God the warnings we will see today, nor the Word of God would ever speak for people who concerning the faith suffered shipwreck. I believe that the Christian life and faith is not something instantaneous, something that finishes with the confession of Romans 10:9-10. Instead, it is something that has duration, a way that as long as we live we should walk. It certainly starts with the confession of Romans 10:9-10, but it doesn’t finish there.
A. II Timothy 4:6-9
In II Timothy Paul, now reaching the end of his life, gives instructions to Timothy. There, in verses 6-9 he gives a short account of his life:
II Timothy 4:6-9
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I HAVE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE FINISHED THE RACE, I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing”
If faith was something that started and finished the day that Paul believed, he wouldn’t have said: “I KEPT THE FAITH”. The faith is indeed something that needs to be KEPT. While Paul kept the faith, Hymenaeus and Alexander made a shipwreck concerning the faith.
See also that Paul in this account of his life didn’t say: “I planted so many churches, I wrote so many books, I preached to so many crowds, I made thousands to believe”. At the end of his ministry, his account was very simple: I HAVE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE FINISHED THE RACE, I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH.
The Christian life is a fight, a race, a path that one has to walk. It starts the day we believed in the Lord but it doesn’t finish there.