In blogpost 49, I introduced the subject of obstacles to people being saved. In light of the love of God and Calvary itself, it’s amazing that all persons will not be saved. The Gospel is clear that all persons are invited to receive remission of sins and make heaven their home. That should be enough to catch the interest of everyone. But, what’s even more amazing is that, according to Jesus, only a few people will ultimately be saved (Matthew 7:13-14; 21-27). There has to be a reason for the disparity between salvation being available to everyone and the fact that only a few will actually be saved. What is the explanation?
In the most recent posts, I have listed what I see as four inherent obstacles to fallen man surrendering fully and lastingly to God, namely, pride, corruption, vanity, and weakness. Of course, all of these can be overcome with some will power and the grace of God. In addition, I think there are four external obstacles that prevent people from being saved, all of which, again, can be overcome. I’m presenting them in the next few posts. The first external obstacle that I see is:
🟥 The activity of the devil
We cohabit this world with an adversary to our souls, the devil (1Peter 5:8). We see his malicious intent against our race from the very outset, in the Fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-6). He has approached every person since then in much the same deceptive way, with the sinister goal of keeping them out of heaven. While the Bible reveals this important fact, many people fail to perceive his cunning and, therefore, allow the devil to have an advantage over them (2Corinthians 2:11). According to Jesus in His parable of the wheat and the tares, the prime source of all doctrinal error is the devil (Matthew 13).
The Word of God was the biggest obstacle the devil had to face in bringing down the human race.
Every human being is in relation to God according to His Word (Matthew 4:4). This was so from the beginning. God had established a covenant relationship with Adam involving the forbidden fruit tree (Genesis 2:16-17). He has always dealt with mankind by covenants, which have had specific terms of contingency. No person in proper relation to God’s Word is condemned. The only way the devil can effectively remove a person from God is to temp him to breach the Word of the Lord. Sin is only sin because it is a violation of God’s Word (1John 3:4). And, the devil will attempt this in the trickiest of ways.
In order to bring down our original parents, the devil had to move Adam and Eve from believing the Word of God as given because it was the sole basis for them being in right standing with God. There was just no other way to get them to fall. And so the devil set about to tamper with the covenantal command of Genesis 2:16-17. His temptation was a tricky play on the Word of God. God had identified the tree as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and had said not to eat it on pain of death (Genesis 2:16-17). The devil used God’s reference to good and evil to indicate that eating of the tree would, in reality, enable them to be as gods/God. He acknowledged that what God had said about the tree offering knowledge was true, but that His prohibition concerning it was keeping them from a higher realm of being. The devil spoke assuringly, as though he knew certainly of the outcome he foretold. It seemed reasonable to Eve, the one deceived by the ploy, that eating the fruit so named by God would produce a highly desirable consequence. Hence, she indulged in eating it and disobeying God. The fact that the devil played on the Word of God rather than contradicting it altogether worked in his favor. What he denied of God’s Word— that they would die— he contrasted and balanced with, “ye shall [instead] be as gods/God”, which was a lie, but somewhat logical in a deceptive way.
That treatment of the Word of God by the devil from the outset of the human race should make every sincere soul today conscientious about accepting doctrine, especially salvation doctrine, knowing the devil is still resisting us in this area. And his greatest success is in corrupting the Word of God to his purpose (2Corinthians 2:17). Truly, as the Apostle Paul said, a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Galatians 5:9).
The Word of God was the biggest obstacle for the devil when he tried to bring Jesus down in the wilderness. In tempting Jesus, the devil attempted the same misuse of Scripture— in this case Psalms 91— as he did with Adam and Eve. He offered Christ a false interpretation of the Messianic Psalm (Matthew 4:6). But Jesus could not be moved as our original parents were. He countered the misinterpretation with additional Scripture, showing the Bible is not at odds with itself. The devil’s misuse of Scripture in his temptation of Jesus should put us on our guard to be sure about salvation doctrine in the Christian era. There is more confusion in the world on this biblical subject than on any other.
The Word of God is the biggest obstacle to the devil’s design to keep human beings lost.
Our race has been condemned since the Fall due to the introduction of sin and its role in everyone’s life. But Jesus came to save us and gave us the word of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:18-20), the means by which we can be saved. We commonly refer to this as the Gospel. It offers the plan of salvation to those who believe its message of Christ and His atoning sacrifice. Those tenets were specifically prescribed by Christ in His Great Commission and enjoined by Peter on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38-39). But the devil will resist people receiving the plan of salvation just like he did when he tempted Adam and Eve and Jesus. It’s the surest way to keep them from Christian salvation. He prefers to offer them a false means of salvation. And, if they believe his deception, it is likely they will not recover from it. A deceived heart is the worst condition of all because deception means the person is not aware that he is believing wrongly.
In the Christian era, the devil supplants the true plan of salvation with other things that, in most cases, are a play on the Word of God itself. It may be by a number of means. Let’s consider a few.
1/ Supplanting the plan of salvation with non-salvific Scripture.
Non-salvific Scripture is Scripture that is distinctly not the Christian plan of salvation. Oftentimes, these are summary statements of salvation, such as John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31; Ephesians 2:8-9, or Romans 10:9-10. None of theses, great as they are in their purpose, are the plan of salvation. They were not expressly used on the Day of Pentecost when Christian salvation doctrine was first announced and received. Acts 2:38 is the only Christian plan of salvation. It was stated on the Day of Pentecost for the Church age and three thousand were added to the Church that day (Acts 2:39-41).
Sometimes, the true plan of salvation is supplanted with extra-biblical expressions, such as, “Accept the Lord as your personal Savior”, or, ”Ask Jesus to come into your heart”. These cannot be found in the Bible and are, therefore, invalid as a means of salvation.
2/ Human reasoning
Human reasoning is another means of supplanting the plan of salvation. This is actually more prevalent in our day than people think. People often use human reason for claiming salvation. Sadly, what the mind can conceive, the mind can believe, even fervently. For example, the Jews in Jesus day reasoned that they were right with God merely because Abraham was their father (Matthew 3:9a). Though it had a shallow logical sense about it, it just wasn’t the basis for right relationship with God. John the Baptist let them know they assumed wrongly.
Through human reason, many people today assume Christian salvation on similar shallow grounds. For example, people often believe their sins are remitted just because they can cite Jesus dying on the cross for them. In reality, the Bible clearly addresses remission of sins. It declares that baptism in Jesus’ name is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16). That is the only biblical assurance one’s sins are gone.
The following is a profound, but often overlooked, biblical truth: There can be no valid claim of salvation apart from actual Scripture, properly interpreted. Faith is distinctly and solely predicated on the Word of God (Romans 10:17). It is what theologians call Sola Scriptura. Human reasonings and rationalizations are not the Word of God.
3/ Misinterpretation of Scripture
Misinterpretation of Scripture is common, especially in salvation doctrine. It effectively supplants the Word of God. That’s because misinterpretation actually changes the meaning of God’s Word. It is equivalent to deleting Scripture and replacing it with something else. As we pointed out in the previous examples of Adam and Eve and Jesus, the devil loves to spin Scripture according to his devious purpose.
4/ Religious tradition
Another way to supplant the Word of God is by tradition (Matthew 15:3-9). According to Jesus, religious traditions that are not rightly Scripture-based defeat the Word of God. Religious tradition has long been used by the devil to keep people from the truth. Often, people fail to come to the truth simply because their family has a long history in another denomination. Many people, including theologians, consider positions and tenets held by the historical church throughout the ages as proof of authenticity while the inspired account of biblical Christianity in Acts is totally disregarded. Sometimes, if a person goes against historical Christianity, he may be branded heretical though his position is solidly backed by Scripture. But biblical Christianity is how every person in the Christian era will be judged. It is provided in the Word of God as the true standard.
We will look at the second external obstacle to salvation in the next post. The devil is also involved in it as in the other points that follow simply because he is the prime source of external hindrances.