When A Little "Give and Take" Is Not Such A Good Thing

Revelation 22:17-19
"17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

In our social system we have always been taught that when there is a disagreement that we should work out a compromise with the other person. In the vernacular the term is "Give and Take". This all sounds good, but when it comes to the scriptures and sound doctrine we dare not give in to error.

In the above verses from the Book of The Revelation ch 22 we see the golden bow that God wraps up His word with. We are not to add to it (Give) or take away from it (take); to do so leads to great consequences. Let's analyze this passage one verse at a time:

Verse 17: this verse is talking to the unsaved. The only way the unsaved can come to a saving faith is by means of the Holy Spirit and the bride (also known as the church). The members of the church are responsible for sowing and watering the message of the Gospel to the lost and the Holy Spirit is responsible for reaping the harvest. Note also in this verse, that the invitation is open to anyone, anywhere at anytime no matter what they have done in the past. For those who "hear" the calling to come to Christ they are free to come. The Bible calls these people the "whosoever wills". Whosoever is exactly as it sounds... whosoever. This means ANYBODY no matter what sin or so called "unpardonable sin" they may have thought they committed. The only unpardonable sin is to refuse the Holy Spirit's call to come to Christ. When someone does that, they are in danger of having their heart so hardened that they will not come to Christ in the future. If they are at the point where they still seek Christ, then they have not committed this unpardonable sin.

Verse 18: The apostle John is testifying (based on Divine intervention) that the Bible is the infallible word of God and is not to be amended in any way. He begins by addressing the people who would add to the Word (the givers in our title). Who are the givers? These are those who would add to the plan of salvation. Salvation is through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ that He is God and that His death, burial and resurrection is enough to justify us before a Holy God. See 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 where Paul lays out the Gospel message in 4 simple verses. So what do these people add? Simply put.. works. In biblical days these people would add circumcision as a prerequisite for salvation. Today, some add baptism, speaking in tongues, helping the poor, following sacraments, etc. None of these things save. Not only do they not save, they can prevent salvation from ever taking place. If a person believes they have to perform some duty in order to be saved they are saying that they do not trust that what Christ did on the cross was sufficient to justify them, ergo these people fall short of being saved. The bible calls this falling from grace in Galatians 5:4.

Next John addresses those who would take away from the message of the Bible. How do they do this? By simply denying the Deity of Christ. Christ can not forgive sins or be any one's savior if He is not co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father. Jesus Himself proclaimed this in John 8:58 "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I Am." We know that the name "I Am" is the name God used for Himself when He showed Himself to Moses at the burning bush. The Jews that Jesus told this to knew what He meant because in verse 59 it says they took up stones to stone Him for proclaiming He was God. In verse 24 Jesus makes this statement to let everyone know that if you do not believe He is God in the flesh that you shall die in eternal damnation of Hell "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." While it is true we should not judge others as to whether they are saved or lost (only God knows their heart) we have an obligation to tell people that if they do not trust Christ that they will not be saved. Jesus said they will "indeed die in their sins". If Jesus says it so emphatically I dare not water down the message because it sounds harsh. It's supposed to be harsh. Pardon the pun but it is meant to scare the living hell out of people. I would much rather scare someone into heaven than to lull them into hell by preaching a "feel good" type of Gospel. I will have to give an account to God for how I shared the Gospel and I do not want to face Him knowing I compromised the true message of salvation simply so people will feel better about themselves.

What will God do to those "take-away'ers"? He will take away their part of the book of life. This is important to understand. By inference, this passage clearly states that all people (that's A double L, ALL) people's name are initially in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. When we get saved our name is not added to the Book of Life, it simply means that God won't blot out our name from the book. The people who take away the Diety of Christ do not have saving faith themselves so as night follows day their names will be blotted out from the book upon their deaths.

We may not understand everything in the Bible, but those of us who are born again understand enough to not add to the message of salvation by adding works and we understand enough to not take away the Diety of God. If we misinterpret other scriptures in the Bible, it is not quite so critical, but if we misinterpret these it is deadly.

If you are unsure of your salvation now is the time to get it settled. You must believe (which means to trust with all your heart) that Jesus is God and that His death, burial and resurrection is the only way to justify you in the eyes of God and the only way to come into God's eternal family. Once you do this, you should then be baptized as an outward testimony of your inward faith. The baptism is not a necessary part of salvation but it shows your obedience to Christ's commands. I don't know of anyone who has truly come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ that did not want to tell everyone they know about it. Baptism symbolizes Christ burial just as we are buried under the water and come up out of the water a new creation.