Question: I read one of your post titled, 'Faith Or Unbelief, Which Thing Rules Your Life?' It is very interesting that you spoke about Parable of Jesus as something that conveys eternal realities to our present understanding, so that we may be able to use it now in our present world to make a eternal difference. In short, you spoke about both unbelievers and believers building their house on sand, then how can it be Faith or Unbelief when both is involved?
Let me know your thoughts.
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus holy name!
You are right, it can either be faith or unbelief, whether it is believer or unbeliever.
As I have already discussed in that post, the parable that exhorts all humans to build their spiritual life on the Rock of Jesus comes twice, once in Matt 7:24-29 and the next in Luke 6:46-49. Both of the Parable emphasizes spiritual reality of our own heart condition and all human heart in general, and how the present time life lived on earth with faith or without it will without doubt will influence the eternal reality of their never ending life in their after life.
For example, as apostle Paul has clearly exhorted the believers saying, "11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have Jesus Christ. 12 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13 But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. 14 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. 15 But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. 16 Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world's standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise." (1 Cor 3:11-18, NLT).
In the above verses, we see even when Paul speaks, he speaks to believer, then wants them to check their own faith with the works they do to confirm whether they have genuine faith or have been deceived to think that they have faith when they do not really have it within them (2 Cor 13:5-6). Then he warns the deceived people to know that they need to get saved and stop deceiving themselves. So we know that the unsaved can remain within saved people of the Church on earth, and still go to hell fire in their after life because of being deceived. So if someone is saved and has genuine faith, they will enter heaven and face the judgment of Christ throne, where they will either be rewarded eternally or will lose the reward based on whether their works were done with the right motive and a good conscience (1 Cor 4:5; 1 Tim 1:18-20).
For the above reason, every time Jesus or the apostles, even as they spoke to the believers who were saved and had faith, they also both spoke and warned to the deceived within them who had no real saving faith (1 John 2:19), yet these unsaved thought that they were wise by world's standard to think that they were saved, the clear warning is for this category to really get saved. Every worldly person need to be warned of their deception within their own heart and know how it is leading them to hell fire. If the works of their life completely contradicts their thoughts of salvation consistently over a period of time, then those so called believers need to get back to Jesus and ask for the forgiveness of their sins to receive the saving faith within them that can only keep them safe.
This is the reason it is faith or unbelief, saved or still to be saved. It cannot be both. For the deceived who live within the community of faith, but still live like the devil sinning all the time and having rejected or have come to the senseless state of no conviction of sin, they need this warning of Jesus, that if they continue to build their lives without the saving faith foundation of Jesus Christ within them, when the storm of death come to destroy their bodies, their soul will also be destroyed in hell fire after that by God (Matt 10:28). But those who have the foundation of Jesus' saving faith within them will end up receiving their eternal glorious body through resurrection, but their superstructure of reward which will be given based on whether their works were done with right God glorifying motives, will stand the test of God's fiery judgment that will happen before Christ's throne in heaven. Therefore, a spiritually wise man believer will receive great rewards for eternity from God.
As for a foolish believer, when the storm of death start to happen physically for them with "rain" descending, flood coming and with strong winds blowing to beat on the earthly house of their body, he who built his house on the foundation of Jesus through the sand of dead works and sinful works will suffer the loss of the destruction of the super structure which will be a great fall, even though it was founded on the rock of Jesus Christ. Yet the house of the glorious body of the basement will stand for eternity because it was given as a free gift by God even for that foolish believer (Eph 2:8-10). The promise of God even for that careless foolish believer builder is, "The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames" (1 Cor 3:15). Those who escape through flames will have all their belongings burnt by fire, but only their life on earth will be saved. Likewise, it will happen for a foolish believer in eternity, only their eternal life will be only thing that will be left behind with no rewards at all. A foolish believer will think like the world, but act like the saint. Finally eternal loss of reward will be irreparable. And their loss will be for eternity.
So to make things clear, we know from the above that the unbeliever will build his life with complete sand, without the foundation of the rock bed of Jesus Christ. So when he dies, the house of sand collapses to leave him without a house, thus to live in the hell fire forever. But for a foolish believer, who thinks like the world but acts like the saint, will try to build his house with sand of the dead, self and sinful works upon the rock, so when the storm come, only the house will stand but the superstructure of religion that was built upon it by sand will be completely washed out (1 Cor 3:11-15). Physical death is the storm that brings rain, flood and wind to test the house of their bodies, to know whether it can withstand the storm which comes to both believer and unbeliever in their natural life. But spiritual fire test is for the believers only who build the superstructure upon the already laid foundation of Jesus Christ, they are actually tested in their after life for the material strength of their motives with which they did good works so that it can be considered as spiritually worthy eternal works, which will be rewarded eternally by God for its spiritual worth.
With what foundation have you laid your spiritual life underneath? Is it the foundation of the rock of Jesus Christ or the religious sand which has no strength to save you eternally? How have you started to build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, in other words, with what material of motives have you been doing your good works? Is it for the Lord, or for the Lord and your own benefit, or completely for your own benefit that you have been doing those good works? Is it your own righteousness that you are depending on to get in to heaven or collect your eternal treasures over there, or is your faith in the righteousness of Jesus which has been achieved for you on the Cross two thousand years ago motivates you now to do good works for God? We need to ask these hard questions constantly, to collect treasures in eternity and also stay assured of the saving faith so that we could end up in heaven when we die, and continue to live in the prosperity of God forever in our ever after.
Much Blessings...
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