Having been raised in a Christian home, only recently/ within the past year have I actually wanted to find the answers to a lot of questions - this is relevant as some of the answers to these questions lead to the question I asked above. One of these, you've probably had asked, is whether the bible preaches salvation by works or by grace. certain sceptics would claim this to be a contradiction; Ephesians 2:8 explains that by faith and not of works and James 2:24explains that we are justified by works. My understanding of this as of now is that everyone saved, is saved by grace and evidence of this salvation is seen by good works.
After watching the following video by John piper
he sort of touched on this topic, however to a very deep extent. He talked about Romans 8:13 in the sermon and how if we live by the flesh or we would die(go to hell). John also pointed that this message/warning is in other passages, except easier to hear such, as Hebrews 12:14 were it explains without holiness/sanctification, no one will see god. In my head, I initially thought this was salvations by works, but back to before, it's not; rather it's the sanctification by grace that true believers go through, and it seems very thorough. I could (probably) be wrong but it seems as if true Christians, from this text, must succeed in overcoming sin in their life or there're not really a believer. This also seems a lot like Lordship salvation which apparently is heresy to a lot of people. It also put a lot of concern on me, not that I want to continue in my remaining sin; the complete opposite in fact. The concern came that I still have this remaining and can't seem to overcome it. After studying the issue, nearly everyone says the reason people like me can't overcome sin is due to a misunderstanding of Christ's power; we can't stop and only by the power of the holy spirit is it even possible. I really tried to apply this and also prayed to god a lot to help me, and this has gone on a long time. One question that came to mind is that maybe I'm not actually saved. There was some logic to this as if I wasn't saved, then the holy spirit isn't indwelling within me and this obviously meant that my current/previous/ongoing efforts to kill sin had been just that; my own effort; completely insufficient.
If this were true then this would mean I had never been saved all this time and I am a false convert and simply just intellectually understand but have no actual saving faith, just an acknowledgement. From this prospective Gods will becomes very scary as I believe that God the Father choices everyone who will be saved, but despite this thought pattern, I still genuinely want to be saved and may even be. Above anything this question comes from assurance problems.
I agree with John Piper when he says that behind every discontentment there is some sort of deception. I greatly assume that in my situation anyway there has to be some misunderstanding somewhere - which may even make the question illogical, but I hope you can at least see were it came from and any help to answer it would be great. Thank you very much for your time reading this.
After watching the following video by John piper
If this were true then this would mean I had never been saved all this time and I am a false convert and simply just intellectually understand but have no actual saving faith, just an acknowledgement. From this prospective Gods will becomes very scary as I believe that God the Father choices everyone who will be saved, but despite this thought pattern, I still genuinely want to be saved and may even be. Above anything this question comes from assurance problems.
I agree with John Piper when he says that behind every discontentment there is some sort of deception. I greatly assume that in my situation anyway there has to be some misunderstanding somewhere - which may even make the question illogical, but I hope you can at least see were it came from and any help to answer it would be great. Thank you very much for your time reading this.
