The Paradox of Salvation

"...they would not hear. [Therefore] the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backwards, and be broken, and snared, and taken." Isaiah 28:12b, 13

The people of Israel would not learn as children would learn, they would not step down to the level of child-likeness necessary for trusting God. Therefore the very instruction that would save them is the very stumbling block that will destroy them. You cannot escape God's ways: you either accept them unto life or reject them unto death.

This is the paradox of salvation: Christ is simultaneously the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world and the scandalon on which many will be broken and crushed. He is simultaneously the source of man's salvation and damnation (John 3:16-19). It all depends on what a man "does" with Christ: accepts or rejects, comes with or goes against, swept up or left behind. It is man's choice whether he is damned or saved, but those are his only to choices, and Christ is the center of the whole issue.

We have the bizarre assumption that God's ways can be rejected and they become indifferent to us. They are not (especially if you are His child); they will haunt you again someday, revealed as the adversary of the path you took. Truly if you are not with God, then you are against Him (James 4:4; c.f. Luke 9:50). That which can save your soul will damn it if you choose to reject it. Our decisions decide our destines: if we choose Christ as our salvation, then we are saved. If we choose to make Christ of no account, then we are damned already.