- Aug 10, 2006
- 14,954
- 3,824
- 74
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Married
I see, so its about your work that saves you? I thought it comes down to His work? See as soon as you put conditions on salvation, you make it about you and not Him. You are not being sanctified, you ARE sanctified (set apart, either you are set apart or youre not), Paul tells the Corinthians that. You are sanctified, washed, justified, a past event. You are not being made holy, you are holy, set apart. I will agree with you, at the end of Ephesians he says we have an incorruptible love for Christ, meaning we cant walk away, but He is always about His work that nothing separates us from the love of God, nothing, including you. In no way am I saying that you ask Jesus to save you and then you carry on with how things were. What assurance we have in Him!
Talking about practicing things, is that what we are doing? Are we going out and practicing sin? I most certainly dont, do I sin? Of course I do, but I dont practice it. I am not trying to set world records for sin or become better at it.
Are you a son of disobedience? No the bible says you are a son/ daughter of God. So are you going to experience Gods wrath? No, there is no judgement for you if you are in Christ, the bible says so.
At the end of the day, neither you nor I can say who is saved and who isnt, only God can see the heart.
Anyways, if you asked God to save you and recognized the need for His son and believed in Him for your salvation and got hit by a car 30 mins later, you're saved, nothing more. I'm sorry if that doesn't work for you and you believe you gotta do a bunch of stuff before you get saved, then you have missed it my friend. That is not the Gospel and God is not that kind of God. He wants none to perish but all to believe and come to repentance (changing of your mind about Jesus). The bible says so and there is no conditional verse after that one.
Once saved always saved.
Your argument is with scripture, not with me. I am just teaching what the scriptures teach. I agree that we can do nothing to earn or to deserve our own salvation. Not one of us can even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless the Father first draws us to Christ. Even the faith to believe in Jesus is a gift from God. And, the empowerment to live holy and godly lives also comes only from God and not from ourselves. We can only be made righteous by the blood the Lamb (Jesus Christ) shed on a cross for our sins.
But, the scriptures are real clear on this subject of our salvation. And, the scriptures teach that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, for if we walk according to the flesh, we will die in our sins. But, if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will have eternal life with God (See: Romans 8:1-17; Luke 9:23-25; 1 Jn. 1:5-9).
There are so many scriptures which teach that we must live by the Spirit and not by our flesh, and we must continue in our faith, steadfast and firm to the end if we want to have eternal life with God. And, then there is the scripture which says we are going to reap what we sow. If we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we are going to reap destruction (another word for decay, death). But, if we sow to please the Spirit, then we have eternal life with God (Gal. 6:7-8; cf. Gal. 5:19-21).
I gave lots of scripture references in the O.P. which teach the same as what I just stated. Have you read them all, prayerfully, carefully, asking the Lord to show you what they mean? They say that our walk of faith, in the Spirit of God, determines whether or not we have eternal life with God. They say that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God, and that those who are walking in obedience to the Lord are the children of God, and that God lives in them.
Too many people professing faith in Jesus Christ who believe they are going to end up in heaven one day, but they never died with Christ to sin, and they aren't living with him to righteousness, either, because they have been convinced they don't have to, and that all they have to do is say some words after someone and they are in, good to go, and that heaven is guaranteed them no matter how they live their lives from that moment on.
But, scripture after scripture all throughout the New Testament dispels that theory, and in fact a lot of scriptures are very pointed at warning the church on these matters. And, even one tells those who think God won't do anything about their living in disobedience that if he cut off the Jews, then he can cut them off, too, so they shouldn't be arrogant (see Romans 11).
There are going to be a lot of people standing before God one day who are going to be told "Depart from me, I never knew you," because they bought into a cheap grace gospel which told them that they didn't have to repent of their sins or obey Jesus, and that they don't have to submit to the Lordship of Christ but that they can still go to heaven. Yet, all throughout the NT the church, Christians, are warned against that type of thinking, and they are given the example of the Jews in the wilderness who did not enter the promised land because of their unbelief and their disobedience. And, so the Christians are then warned to not follow their example and for them not to harden their hearts against God.
So, I recommend reading through the New Testament one book, one chapter and one verse at a time, prayerfully, carefully, respectfully, asking God to open your heart to the truth, all of it, in context. For, many people are claiming the promises of God that are not theirs to claim. Like for example, so many people quote those verses in John 10 about not being snatched out of God's hands, but they always leave out the verse right before that that says "who" can't be snatched out of God's hands. And, the "who" is the Lord's sheep who listen to him and who follow (obey) him.
Upvote
0