Ten Gospel Truths
What the Bible Teaches - Truth #4
- This truth flows naturally and logically from the gospel as Good News (Luke 15:1-10). The false idea is that like a shopkeeper, the Lord regards us indifferently until we take the initiative to ferret Him out from His hiding place. The truth is that He seeks us (Psalm 119:176; Ezekiel 34:16).*
- If anyone is saved at last it will be due to God's initiative; if anyone is lost at last, it will be due to his own initiative (Jeremiah 31:3; John 3:16-19).
- Our salvation does not depend on our maintaining a relationship with God; it depends on our believing that He stands at the door and knocks—seeking to maintain that relationship with us unless we break it off (Revelation 3:20).
* There are two Hebrew verbs that are translated "seek" in our English Bibles. One means searching for something that is lost or hard to find; but that verb is never used as God commanding us to "seek" Him as though He is hard to find or hiding from us. The other verb means "pay attention to" or "inquire of." (See 1 Samuel 28:7, KJV, where both verbs are used in one sentence. It is the verb "inquire of" in that verse that is translated in Isaiah 55:6 as "seek ye the Lord." What the Lord actually said is, "Inquire of Me while I may be found," "pay attention to Me").