Our church recently finished up a series on the book of Revelation. I know that most people would groan if they were facing the final book of the Bible – and I was certainly holding in a cringe – but our pastor did a really good job. Most people feel a touch of fear when reading through Revelation, and that’s what I was expecting… but instead, Jesus was always in the spotlight.
The book of Revelation isn’t the only book that many Christians experience fear when reading. But why would a Christian be fearful… especially when reading the Bible? As a kid, I remember being afraid of being a lukewarm Christian (Revelation 3:16). I was also afraid of being a weed or choked out by weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43), found without oil (Matthew 25:1-13), being the unfaithful servant (Luke 12:42-48), being the wrong kind of soil (Mark 4:3-8), and I was afraid of being the branch that gets cut off and thrown into the fire (John 15:1-17).
Wow! Listing them out that way reveals quite a bit about why I have such trouble with insecurity. All of these passages I used to read and understand from a performance-based perspective. If I wasn’t zealous enough… if looked too much like the world… if I wasn’t ready or prepared… if I mismanaged what God had given me… if my seed of salvation got choked out… if I didn’t produce good fruit – or enough of it. I was fighting a losing battle.
I always felt as though I had to measure up, discovered that I never could, and decided to walk away. Whether it was taught that perfection was required or it’s simply what I understood, I knew that perfection wasn’t possible. And trying to remember every way I failed in order to confess in order to receive forgiveness, that was impossible, too!
After taking hold of my faith again as an adult, I have still struggled at times with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity in my salvation. But then I remember three little words that are found throughout scripture: do not fear. Those words never seemed to line up with my performance-based tunnel vision that seemed to spotlight all of my failings.
As I’ve been reading more and more on these passages that once struck me with fear, I started to realize that God might just be telling me that it’s time for a new series. I know that there are a great many individuals in this world that, like yours truly, don’t always understand everything in the Bible. We have to take the time to dig, to pray, and to have the Holy Spirit reveal truth to us.
Let’s spend a bit of time with Matthew 25:1-13. This is the story of the ten virgins who were waiting for the Bridegroom. They had no idea when He would be coming for them, but they were going out to meet Him. Half of them were said to be wise and the other half were unwise. Five of them didn’t just bring their lamps, but they brought oil with them as well. The other five, well, they only brought their lamps. By the way, I have just assumed that everyone understands that Jesus is our Bridegroom.
I went out to a wedding in Colorado back in 2008 and wasn’t sure how to pack. I hadn’t been there in almost a decade, I had no idea what the accommodations would be, and I was a nervous wreck (I was going to see my, now, husband for the first time in years). I was riding in the car, on the way to the wedding, with some of my future in-laws and one of them needed tweezers… I had them in my purse. One of them needed a nail file… also in my purse. There were multiple other things they were needing to use (hair things, bobby pins, a safety pin) and I had them. They started to refer to my purse as the Mary Poppins bag.
I was prepared. I had packed wisely for my trip. But what if the same is not true for going out to meet my Bridegroom?
With that thought bouncing around in my head, I had to start breaking the scripture passage down. I first noticed that the ten virgins weren’t divided into different categories of morality – good or bad; faithful or unfaithful – but rather by what they had. Oil. In the Bible, oil represents the Holy Spirit.
Five of them had the Holy Spirit – the possession of the Holy Spirit… a relationship. The other five had no oil – they had the appearance of relationship without the reality. They had the actions without the guidance of the Author. As this rolled around in my mind, I can’t seem to see it any other way. The unwise five, aka the Foolish Five, trusted in themselves… in their actions and activity, but the Wise Five had placed their trust in God and followed His direction.
Now we come to the part that blows the religious argument apart. All ten, the Foolish Five and the Wise Five, they fell asleep! All of them! This shows that none of them performed perfectly. They all stumbled. They all fell. They all missed the mark. They all fell asleep. The only difference between them is still just one thing: five had oil and five did not.
When the cry rang out at midnight that the Bridegroom was coming, all ten woke up and started to prepare their lamps. Outwardly, they all looked the same. My in-laws all had their own purses, but my purse contained things their purses lacked. The same is true for the ten virgins. They all had their lamps. They all trimmed their lamps. But only five of them had oil.
The final verses of this parable, Matthew 25:8-13, reveals several truths about salvation. The Foolish Five realized they didn’t have it. They had no oil, they required oil to go out to meet the Bridegroom, so they asked to use some of the oil the Wise Five had. Salvation doesn’t work like that. No one can borrow the faith of their family. Your grandparents’ salvation – their possession of the Holy Spirit – doesn’t make you saved. Same goes for a spouse, a parent, your pastor, or your friend. Your salvation is a personal relationship.
A grandparent, parent, spouse, pastor, or friend… none of them can give you what you can only get from God. You can only receive the Holy Spirit from God, not your neighbor. The Holy Spirit can’t be borrowed or bought. Each person who is seeking salvation must come to God themselves.
After the Foolish Five went in search of purchasing oil, the Bridegroom arrived and the waiting was over. The Wise Five were ready and went into the wedding banquet. The door shut behind them. When the Foolish Five came back, notice that scripture doesn’t state the possession of oil. They stood outside the closed door yelling, Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!
And the response of the Bridegroom is where I used to feel fear creep in. He responded by telling them that He never knew them.
It wasn’t the response they were hoping for but notice what He said and the difference between what we tend to hear. He said that He never knew them. He didn’t say that He once knew them. He didn’t say that they were His but then they missed the mark. No… He said that He never knew them.
They never had oil. They never had Him.
This parable can be scary if it’s read from a performance mindset. It can be scary to think that you have oil, but you might run out before He comes back for His bride. It’s scary to think He will shut you out and state that He never knew you.
This message isn’t telling us the Wise Five did everything right, but it is telling us that they accepted the One who did. They didn’t just profess Him… they possessed Him.
We don’t have to worry about losing our salvation because we get tripped up, we fail, or we fall asleep. Our security isn’t found in how well we hold onto Jesus, but on how perfectly He holds onto us (John 6:35-40).