Those Who Fail the Great Test of Life

Those Who Fail the Great Test of Life

The religious masses are very confused when we speak about living an overcoming life. They cannot deny that the Bible speaks about victory and that a Christian should have victory. However, their experience is that they generally suffer only defeat. It is not so easy for them to bring this into harmony with the Bible. Many have attempted to bridge this gap so that the Word of the Scriptures and the Christians’ experiences should not appear to be so totally opposite. Most often their building activity consists of explaining away both the letter and the spirit of the Scriptures.

“For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.” Jer. 8:11.

Ludvig Hope has made his attempt to explain it in the book God Did It. In the chapter “Comfort My People” we find the following, which should not be overlooked:

“One day one of my friends in Sweden was walking down a narrow back lane in Stockholm, where he met an acquaintance. As far as I remember he was one of the important and rich men in town. My friend greeted him and asked why he was walking there in the back lane.

“Between the back lane and the main street there was a school building. In that school building there was at that moment a large group of young people getting the results of their exam. A door led from the school to the back lane, and this door was often used by those who failed the exam. Those who were ashamed to go out the main entrance when they had failed took off through the back door.

“The rich wholesaler was walking back and forth outside this door when my friend met him. The wholesaler said that one of his sons had taken an exam. “‘Yes, yes, but why are you walking here in this street?’”

“Then the wholesaler replied, “‘If my boy comes out this way he shall know that he has a father.’”

“He knew that if the boy passed the exam he would go out the main door, and then he did not need a father who met him with love and comfort. But if he failed and came out the back door, he knew what the boy needed. Then it would be good to be embraced warmly by his father.

“Our great comfort is that Jesus stands by the door where those who fail the great test of life come out. I met Him there the day I took my first great exam, and failed, and I have met Him there again and again throughout many years, when I shamefully sneaked out the back door because I had failed the exam. The Savior never stands at the main entrance where they go out who have passed the test. He always stands at the back door, caring for those who fail. God be thanked for this comfort! Grace, grace without end. Oh, how great is the grace of God!”

So much for Ludvig Hope! Let us notice that God’s people were to be comforted by this chapter. Hope admits at the beginning of the chapter that this is one of the hardest things to do. However, we understand that he feels he has done it quite well by relating this story.

He says that the Savior never stands at the main entrance where those who have passed the test go out. He always stands at the back door, receiving those who fail. We can ask: Are they not received who overcome? Or: Who receives them if the Savior does not? Hope met Jesus only after he had failed. And this he has done, as he himself says, “again and again throughout many years.” He cannot comfort people with any other comfort than the one with which he himself has been comforted. He knows no other grace than the grace for the forgiveness of his transgressions. This also holds true for many others. He is totally ignorant of the chastening grace that is mentioned in Titus 2:11-14.

God be praised that we have a better comfort to give to His people! You who are tired of failing and walking out the back door, you who get nowhere but long for progress in your Christian life: I can comfort you with the fact that there is grace to be had in order to overcome in the trial, so that you can live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world. You need not fear that Jesus will not receive you when you have passed the exam. Listen to what James writes: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Jas. 1:12. The Bible is full of such promises to those who overcome. We can see that from what is written to the seven churches in Asia Minor.

The entire book, God Did It, explains away an overcoming life. We will just look at another chapter, “Doing According to God’s Word.” In this chapter he deals with the Sermon on the Mount, and he quotes the last four verses. Hope writes, “There are two thoughts contained in this Word; both are simple to understand and straightforward. The one thought is that he who hears the Word of Jesus and does not do according to it is like a man who builds his house on a field, without a foundation, and when the storms come everything collapses. Nothing of what such a man does, will stand when matters become difficult.

“The other thought, which is also easy to understand, is that he who hears the words of Jesus and does them is like a man who digs deep in the ground when he wants to build a house, and puts the foundation stone under the house on the rock. The house will stand in storms and bad weather.

“So far this word is easy to understand, but it is more difficult to fathom what Jesus means by doing His Word.”

When we read this we can ask: Why is it harder to know what Jesus means by doing His Word? If we can take Jesus’ other words simply as He says them, then we must take the last words in the same way without putting something mystical into them. Does Jesus mean something other than what He says? If we read on in the book, we understand why Hope finds it difficult to understand just those words of Jesus. The Christians’ lives are the exact opposite of the Sermon on the Mount, so they need to bridge the gap, and so they start to explain away the doing of Jesus’ words. We read further in the chapter: “The meaning of Jesus’ words is that we shall stand firm. We must and shall see that we are imperfect, sinful, and lost. Then He also says that we must be converted, and if we are converted, then we do these words of Jesus.

“This is the one essential thought in God’s Word, and we must try to understand and believe it; otherwise we do not understand Jesus right. At this point many people ask this question: ‘What does it mean to be converted?’ It is simpler than most people imagine. It does not mean—as so many people think—that we shall overcome our sin. Neither does it mean that we become a new person or that we do something toward our salvation.

“What does it mean then?

“First of all, it means that we admit we are lost sinners who have strayed from God. When we acknowledge this, we stop running away from God and His kingdom. Then He can speak to us without us running away or squirming out of it. We admit instead that the sin and guilt we have seen is ours. We acknowledge that we are sinful people. It is I who am the prodigal son. And so we go and say this to God.

“This is what it means to be converted. This is what it means to do Jesus’ Word.”

Now we have received an explanation of what Jesus means by doing His Word. It does not mean that we do what Jesus said, but that we confess that we have not done it, and then go and say it to Jesus. Then we do Jesus’ Word. This is what Hope says. He says that being converted is not what many people think it means: overcoming sin. Neither does it mean that we become a new man.

It is terrible that thousands of people should come to such an understanding of Jesus’ Word. This false doctrine is accepted, and people read it without thinking. We must cry out with Paul, “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’ Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” 1 Cor. 15:33-34.

Many people have been awakened to the fact that they need forgiveness for their sins, but they remain in sin. They do not believe it is possible to come out of it. They do not know God who is mighty to save. Now it is high time to wake up and not sin anymore. It is high time to learn to know God who has given us everything we need that pertains to life and godliness, so we can partake of divine nature. Then there will be fewer who fail, and we will stand in life’s hard trials.

Hope writes in his foreword to the book that this will probably be his last book. Yes, this is also our desire before God, for the sake of the people and the country.