“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Only a Remnant will be Saved
Many of my readers are staunch Christians, but I need to be very careful and explain what I mean when I use those words. When I say that someone is a staunch Christian, I do not mean that he or she is a regular churchgoer. In the world today, I fear that most people equate churchgoing and faithfully following the leading of Yahweh’s Spirit. They are not the same thing.
Over the years, I have been a member of several churches, and I have been a deacon in two of them. In every church that I was a part of, there was always a group of believers that I know were dedicated believers. I always did my best to get to know them well. That proved to be a good strategy.
I am not judging anyone, so I will say this as kindly as I know how. I believe that dedicated believers in every church I was a part of were a minority, sometimes a small minority. I depended on Yahweh to draw me to the people I should get to know well, and I expected Him to do the same thing in their hearts. He always did.
Churches today are loaded with people who profess with their mouths to love Yahweh, but they reject almost everything He has told us. My friends, those people are not true believers. Sometimes I wonder why they even bother to go to church, but again, I am not their judge. I will admit that they are better off in church than they would be in many other places, but I suspect that most of them belong to the group that equates churchgoing and faithfully following Yahweh. They are in for a rude awakening if they do not mature to the point where they can see the difference between the two.
This is something I know, because the Messiah said it. He is Yahweh, and He said,
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)
“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of Elohim abides on him.” (John 3:36)
When Yahweh said “keep My commandments,” He did not mean to read the Bible and to obey every commandment in the Bible religiously. Obeying Yahweh’s commands in the Bible is important and necessary, but honest people will freely admit that obeying Yahweh perfectly is not possible.
We still have a sin nature, and we will have it until we are taken to be with Him. Our sin nature is at war with Yahweh. When we are saved, the process of sanctification begins. That simply means that Yahweh begins to make us holy. As that process unfolds over time, we learn to do things instinctively that Yahweh calls “good,” and those things comply with the commandments He gave us in the Bible. That takes time, sometimes a lot of time. That explains why I cannot judge anyone. I do not know enough to judge.
Yahweh expects every believer to keep His commandments in the Bible, even though He knows that perfect obedience is not possible. That is why He died to save His faithful followers.
Salvation is a gift from Yahweh. It is available to anyone who will accept it, but regrettably, most people reject salvation. Yahweh knows who His followers are. I know some of them. I also know that only a remnant will be saved:
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.” (Romans 9:27)
Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. (Isaiah 10-22)
Only a remnant of Gentiles will be saved, too.
Even if perfect obedience to Yahweh’s commands in the Bible were possible, it would not be enough. The highest form of obedience, the kind of obedience that Yahweh expects, and the kind of obedience the Messiah was talking about in John 14:15 is obeying Yahweh’s direct commands that are intended only for you. For that to happen, believers must have direct communication with Him:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. (John 10:27-28)
Why Yahweh chose me for salvation is a mystery to me. I know that I am not worthy, but He chose me anyway. Abraham was not worthy, either, but Yahweh chose Him, too. Nobody is worthy: Not Isaac, not Jacob/Israel, not David, not Solomon, not anyone. That includes you and me. The thing that sets true believers apart is a heart that is willing to faithfully follow the leading of Yahweh’s Spirit. That’s the truth in a nutshell.
For those who are led by the Spirit of Elohim are the children of Elohim. (Romans 8:14)
If people reject Yahweh’s written word, how will they be able to accept His specific commands that are intended only for them. Having said that, I need to repeat that I am not the Judge.
Yahweh chose the apostle Paul. He was a Pharisee, an ultra-Orthodox Jew by virtue of his religion at the time, but not a direct descendant of Judah. Therefore, Paul was not really a Jew. He was from the tribe of Benjamin.
Paul was living in Jerusalem the whole time the Messiah was presenting Yahweh’s message about salvation and redemption to the Children of Israel. Paul hated the Messiah, because Yahweh’s message contradicted the beliefs of the Pharisaic order that controlled Judaism.
Paul may have been with the other Pharisees who were standing in front of the Messiah when Pontius Pilate presented Him to the crowd. Paul may have been one of the many Pharisees who were screaming, “Crucify Him.” I bet he was.
Paul held the outer garments of the people who were stoning Stephen. That made him complicit in Stephen’s murder.
Paul was on his way to Damascus to round up believers and bring them back to Jerusalem for trials before the Sanhedrin when he had a direct encounter with Yahweh. That’s what it took to get Paul to repent, but he did repent and Yahweh saved him.
If Yahweh will save Paul and me and you, He will save anybody. All anyone needs to do is ask, and then, be willing to follow.
Again, I am not the Judge. Yahweh is the Judge. He said that only a remnant will be saved. The remnant are people Yahweh chooses for reasons that only He knows, but they have this in common: They are willing to follow Yahweh.
And Yeshua said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you that it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Elohim.”
When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?”
Looking at them, Yeshua said, “With people this is impossible, but with Elohim all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:23-26)
Salvation is not possible for anyone unless Yahweh intervenes directly, and He did that already. Yahweh died on the cross for my sins. He was not guilty. I was. I am responsible for His death. He died for me and was buried, but He rose again. He rose for me, too. He made me a part of that whole experience. He does the same thing for every believer. Yahweh is my righteousness. Apart from Him, I have no righteousness. That is true for every believer.
With these thoughts in mind, please listen to this message on Romans 13 from Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee. Click here to listen.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
