DM25. I do not believe just saying to Jesus, "Lord, Lord" necessarily means that we are saved.
It's not about what you say... Read the verses. The bible speaks for itself. It is the belief that Jesus died for your sin... It is an acknowledgement that you are a sinner in need of a saviour. It is the belief Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day. It's this faith in his grace, in Jesus alone, that saves you. That is what gets one born-again. And how one gets to that point varies.
AFTER you get born again by faith alone, you get the holy spirit and your heart changes. You get sanctified, you overcome sins you struggle with, you change the direction of your life, you are a new person in Christ. You live in the spirit. But the flesh is still there so you will have sin. You put in good works and reasonable service to the Lord. You don't "live in darkness" anymore, you do have a changed repentant heart and you are made righteous in Jesus, and already sealed and saved from what he did on the cross and that doesn't change ever, but you want to put in good works to God and serve him for his kingdom out of LOVE for him, not to get saved or to maintain your salvation or out of fear of losing your salvation or obligation, but out of genuine love for him. So you are right you don't live in darkness anymore and the direction of your life has changed. All glory to God for that. The holy spirit inside you gets all the glory for your good works, not you as you don't do it out of the flesh. BUT this DOES NOT SAVE YOU. This is sanctification process, AFTER you have already been saved... This is after salvation. This is good works not to get saved or because you have to, but good works because you are already saved. Good works because you love God. See the difference? The motive is different and this is important. Salvation is an event, it is a supernatural conversion event. It is not a process. Sanctification is a process, after you have already been saved. Salvation is not earned. It is a free gift. It is given to you by God. We're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
I disagree. Not every sin committed is a willful sin. Some people commit sin out of ignorance.
Sanctification is a process and every sin you know you've committed is willful... We have the choice to go through with sin or not. Christians are not perfect in terms of willful sinning either, no one is. That's why we need Jesus, plain and simple.
Anyways I tried my best to get through to you but if you don't change your mind on salvation we will have to just agree to disagree I guess... I'll pray for you and everyone else that you truly grasp the gospel. It is difficult for our carnal minds to understand. Because we can get deceived by some teachings and think "That's not fair Jesus did it all, people need to earn it and put in work for salvation and stop committing sin in order to be saved!" That comes from the human mind. But God works differently in that he comes to us in our darkest time, when we are filthy with sin, and calls us son then and there. Jesus forgave us for all our sins, it is nothing we earn or no action, we did nothing to deserve it. We didn't stop sinning or turn from sin to deserve it. It's truly beautiful and shows God's grace... As humans we always think we need to do something to be righteous and justified before God, but Jesus did it all... If you truly want to overcome sin you will need to know this because you can only overcome sin by the spirit, not the flesh, and you can only do it out of genuine love of God after you have already been saved. God knows everyone's hearts and our motives. If he sees someone try to stop sinning in order to get saved, he will not save that person because they didn't trust in Jesus alone for their salvation. That person will get destroyed. I will never stop preaching the true gospel, the gospel that saved me, the gospel that everyone seems to forget about. God saves through faith. Even before Jesus, when Israelites were looking forward to the cross, they were not justified by the law but by faith. Even Abraham, he was justified by faith, not the law. This is the basic fundamental core of the Christian faith every Christian should understand.