No good deeds needed, as in the Sheep and the Goats? Faith without works is dead.
No good deeds are required in order to be saved. Good deeds, however,
result from being saved. That was the apostle James' point. Our good deeds give evidence of our salvation but they do not obtain nor sustain it.
One can be a true believer and fall from being a true believer...simple.
I don't believe that because I don't find good ground for such a belief in Scripture. As the apostle John wrote:
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
and of course that knowledge doesn't lead to a sinful life, if anything, it's what keeps us from the sinful life, goes without saying, but that hardly means we can't fall into a sinful life, and if we do so, we should worry...that's all I'm saying.
What keeps us from a sinful life isn't fear but LOVE. Obedience to God's commands
begins with loving God with all your being (
Matt. 22:36-38). And as the apostle John makes clear, loving God leaves no room for fear:
1 John 4:18-19
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Certainly we saved disciples of Christ should be gravely concerned about falling into a sinful life - but because we want nothing to hinder our loving, joyful fellowship with our Maker, not because we fear His wrath. Fear cannot motivate obedience like love can. God knows this and so He urges us to obedience that originates from love, not fear.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
As Paul makes very clear here, God does not accept obedience from us that is motivated by fear. Fearful obedience is totally unprofitable to the child of God and anathema to the relationship He desires to have with us.
Some say once saved always saved, regardless, and I'm saying, that simply is not true.
Well, of course you're free to hold this view. You haven't offered any good reason for it, however.
Or are you actually telling me there are some that cannot/will not fall into a sinful life, once saved? And please, PLEASE don't tell me if that happens, they were never saved to begin with.
Brother, however advanced in our faith we think ourselves to be, however wonderfully righteous we may think we are, compared to the holy perfection of God we remain wicked, sinful creatures. From beginning to end, the Christian life is a process of God revealing to us those areas of sin to which we have been entirely blind that we might by His grace overcome them.
Every believer
always lives a sinful life, no matter who it is. Consequently, the only way any of us is ever acceptable to God is if the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. It is on the basis of his perfect purity, holiness, and righteousness in which we are clothed at the moment of our conversion that we gain acceptance with our holy Maker. And this is the
only basis upon which that acceptance can be maintained. No matter how righteous we work to make ourselves, no matter how many good deeds we do, there is always undiscovered sin in us, sin to which we are utterly blind, fouling our efforts. Thus, we cannot make the character of our lives the ground from which we maintain our salvation. It was impossible for us to be saved on such grounds and it is impossible for us to keep saved on such grounds. No, good works simply won't do. The
only basis for our salvation past and present is Christ himself.
Selah.