God never removes our free will ... one can temporarily backslide or can choose to walk away permanently. One should be resisting sin (God will help you with this) .... if you are not resisting sin ... then you are totally lost (if you do not care about sinning)
I'm curious. When you say that one should be resisting sin and if they aren't, then they're totally lost...
Is sin not always a
deliberate act on our part? If it isn't, can you give me an example? Otherwise, if all sin is a
deliberate act on our part, then at what point is someone considered lost?
This is my understanding; say for example (this may be extreme, but it is to get a point across), I'm driving down a residential road when suddenly a young child runs out from between two parked cars. I do my best to stop and avoid hitting the child, but there just wasn't enough time or space to do so and I end up hitting and killing the child. Did I commit a sin in taking that child's life?
Same scenario, but this time instead of trying to avoid the child, I floor it. Did I commit a sin in this instance?
In both instances the outcome was the same, the child died. But, my motives were different. The first scenario would not be considered a sin on my part but simply an unfortunate accident. There was no ill intention or motive on my part to harm the child. In the second scenario, there was. It was a deliberate act on my part to harm the child.
It's very easy for us, and very self righteous I might add, to say that if someone continues to deliberately sin, then they are lost or were never saved to begin with. When the reality is, all sin is a deliberate act on our part. If it wasn't, then it wouldn't be a sin.
One cannot presume to say that someone who continues to sin is lost or was never saved to begin with without placing themselves an a pedestal claiming that their own sins are never intentional.
In the parable of the sower and soils, Jesus gives us four examples. The first is someone who hears the word but doesn't receive it at all. They remain unsaved. The second is someone who receives it, but it's more of an emotional high for them. For these people it's more about how they feel so they never bother to try and understand or to learn more about what it is they believe. So as soon as things start to get uncomfortable, as they always do, they have no understanding of the word and are quickly led astray by the next best thing that gives them that emotional high. The third example is someone who also receives the word but soon finds the worries and desires of the world more important, leading them astray. And finally, the fourth example is someone who receives the word and runs with it. It becomes their new life, bearing much fruit.
The first example is the only person who wasn't saved out of the four. All the rest were saved. In this parable Jesus showed us the three different types of believers. The believer who is more about the emotional side of it all, but has no foundation (understanding of the word) upon which to stay rooted. The believer who is too easily overcome by the worries and desires of the world (this one typically being the one who would
appear to be deliberately sinning), and the one who is all in and firm in their faith.
Not all who are saved are going to appear the same in their behavior. In a perfect world they would, but this world is far from perfect. Jesus was simply pointing this out.
