The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 45-21, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

"You've explained that Romans 1 deals with God's righteous judgment concerning the unsaved, degenerate man, who are given over to a depraved mind. You have explained that Romans 2 concerns the basically religious or moral man, but who is still without Christ. How does, or how will God deal with the back-slidden carnal Christian?"

Answer

Now we know how God will deal with the unregenerate, whether they are immoral or moral, whether they are irreligious or religious. Right? Judgment! But how does God deal with back-slidden carnal Christians? I think that there are four Scriptures that answer that for us, and I am going to give them to you rapidly.

1. I believe God "chastens." 1 Corinthians 5, provides an illustration for us. It says there in verse 1, that there is an individual in the church who is having a sexual relationship with his father's wife. That probably is a term that refers to his stepmother, or it would say "his mother," so it was his stepmother, and it nonetheless would be considered not only immoral in the general sense, but in the specific sense of incest. And not only was this going on, but you are puffed up (verse 2), and haven't mourned over such sin, but rather you look at it as if it was a notch in your belt.

And so, because of this, he tells the church (verse 4), "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Now, the text says that this is a saved individual because in the end, in the "day of the Lord" the spirit is going to be--what? saved. So, this is a believing person, but for the time he is to be delivered to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, and this is to be done by the church (verse 4), "When you are gathered together, and my spirit is present with you, and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ (power and authority are the same thing)," when you are gathered together and you have the authority of Christ, as the duly constituted church and you come across a sinful member--put him out of the church. That's the first way God deals with a back-slidden carnal believer. The church is to turn that individual over to Satan and there will be a chastening in the physical dimension, ultimately the spirit, or the soul being saved because it is a believer.

2. Now there is a second factor that we need to talk about, relative to chastening, and that's in Hebrews 12:5. This is the element of chastening that is not so much the design of the corporate body of the church, but is the individual attention of the Spirit of God Himself, in a personal chastening. It says, in the middle of verse 5,

" My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? And if He doesn't chasten you, then you are an illegitimate child, and not a son at all. It is like a father Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

And he goes on to talk about it. So there is, in the life of a carnal and disobedient Christian (and carnal may not be the best term to use. The disobedient Christian I think fits better biblically), but when you have a disobedient, back-slidden (is the word Jeremiah used, so that's a good word) Christian, you have

1. The responsibility of the Church to put that person out, if in fact they will not repent of such sin.

2. The Spirit of God personally gets involved in the life of that individual in a chastening manner.

Now, turn for a moment to 2 John 8, I want to show you a third thing that can occur in the life of a back-slidden, disobedient Christian. Verse 8, 2 John, "Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully." What this indicates, is that a believer could come to the point in his life where his disobedience caused the forfeiture of that which he had already gained as a reward, previous to his disobedience. The Lord has given you a promise that there will be a reward for faithfulness. If you are faithful He has given the reward, but He reserves the right to take it back, in light of unfaithfulness. So there definitely will be chastening by the Lord. There should be chastening by the Church. There will be a loss of reward; an empty-handedness if you will at the time of rewards at the Bema Seat.

Under those things we could talk about a lot of other things: of course, you forfeit blessings, and joy, and assurance, and all kinds of things that occur. But I guess we could sum it all up by saying, there is a loss of the meaning and the meaningfulness of salvation. When a person is back-slidden, and disobedient, and sinful, they not only lose the sense of their salvation and their assurance (that's why 2 Peter 1 talks about making your calling and election sure by adding certain things to your life). They not only lose the sense of their salvation, but they lose the meaningfulness of it, that is, the blessedness of it.

Now, I have to add another thing, after those four, the one other thing that happens, that God does to a back-slidden, disobedient Christian (are you ready for this one?), is to forgive them in spite of their sin. Aren't you glad to hear that? And the text is 1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." And of course, we know that he is referring to believers whom he calls his dear children. Don't sin! Obviously, don't be disobedient or back-slidden, "But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice (the propitiation, the covering, the mercy seat), the "hilasterion" (Greek) for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." So that if we do sin, Jesus Christ as our Savior is our covering for our sins, and He has forgiven us all of our trespasses, Ephesians one tells us.

So where there is sin and disobedience in the life of a believer there will be chastening by the Lord, there should be chastening by the Church, there will be a loss of reward, and a certain empty-handedness at the time of rewards, there will be a loss of the sense of being saved, and the blessedness of being saved, and that's why you see John says "We write these things unto you that your joy may be. . . ." what? "full." But on top of all of those things, we also have the promise that God will, in spite of our sin, forgive us, because Jesus Christ has already paid the price even for the sin we haven't committed. And since the price is paid, His death for us becomes a covering. Isn't that a great grace that God has given us? That's why it is so important to affirm what we call eternal security, because the lack of eternal security strikes a blow against the efficacy of the death of Christ.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur Collection" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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