First Corinthians 3:12 indicates that one may just be saved as through fire. How does this tally with 1 John? To understand what he has written, are we weakening his statements?
This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Unity, Origin and Victory’ (1987).
What these two questions have in mind is this: John says, 'He that sins is of the devil. He that does righteousness is of God' (1 John 3:7–8). And you might get the impression that there's no in between. Have we weakened it? Have I weakened it? When I say that it means he who continues to practice sin is of the devil, am I weakening what John says? I would want to say 'no' and say it on a linguistic basis. In Greek a present tense can have a number of connotations. It can mean a point action, 'I do something right now,' or it can indicate a repeated and constant action, 'I am doing something,' or, 'I normally do something,' or, 'I constantly do something.' So we have to determine the meaning by the context.
Our English word is similarly difficult: 'When is your auntie coming, today or tomorrow?' 'Oh, she is coming tomorrow.' Funny, isn't it, a present tense used of tomorrow? Only we know our English well enough not to be upset by that kind of thing. We're quite happy to use a present tense of the future. So you have to know the language and which of its uses is being used in any one context. Some Indian friends might say, 'My father is coming from Chennai', when they mean my father comes from Chennai, he originates from Chennai. They haven't got quite our English usage of present tenses!
And sometimes in the New Testament a present tense will mean one thing and sometimes it will mean another. I take it in these passages it's being used as durative, as we call it, meaning 'he that practices sin'. What strengthens me in that belief is what John himself says. Having made this remark: 'He that does sin is of the devil,' he then tells us that if we say we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and if we say we have no sin, likewise, we make God a liar. And he adds, 'If any man sin' (1 John 2:1), John himself allows the possibility that the believer, from time to time, does slip up and fail, but then he has the advocate and the propitiation; and the believer doesn't normally go on continuing in sin.
The other question reminds me that in 1 Corinthians 3:12 it is implied that a believer can go very far into sin and still be a believer. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and our works are investigated, Paul envisages the possibility that a man's work shall be burnt up. That's a very poor life, isn't it? He adds, 'But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire,' from which we observe surely how patient the Lord is, how far we can go in our inconsistencies. You say, 'Where does the line come that you could say very definitely that this man, who professes to be a believer, isn't just being temporarily inconsistent, but he's gone beyond the limit and can't be a believer at all. Where comes the deciding line?'
As far as I know, we don't know, brothers and sisters. It's not given for us to say, is it? We do well to take the advice of Paul. The foundation of God stands sure: 'The Lord knows them that are his.' That's God's side, but on our side: 'let him that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity' (2 Timothy 2:19). If I want myself to be regarded by my fellow believers as a genuine believer, then I have the responsibility to depart from iniquity, and if I don't, I'm raising very severe doubts as to whether my profession of faith is genuine. The Lord is the final arbiter. 'The Lord knows them that are his.'
