I'm done with this foolishness, so I'm going to show you exactly from the Bible where I base my beliefs and doctrine, which is purely upon what God says and demonstrates. If you don't see where I'm coming from after this, then your blood is on your own head.
Who cares about rewards if I'm still going to heaven!
You mean I could go ahead and sin all I want and still go to heaven??
Sin is the transgression of the law of God. 1 John 3:4 "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
You and I sin every day. 1 John 1:8,9 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
Proverbs 20:9 "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?"
Ecclesiastes 7:20 "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not."
Sin, even one sin, leads to death.
Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death;"
Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"
When you say, "You mean I could go ahead and sin all I want and still go to heaven??"
The problem with this statement is that you sin every day, whether willfully or not, and if you deny this you're a liar; thus, because of your sin daily, you are no better than those who murder and pillage and do all sorts of wickedness. Why? Because when you transgress one part of the law, you transgress the whole law, you become guilty of all (James 2:10). This is why all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, Romans 3:10).
So, in reality, you are making yourself a hypocrite because you are saying that your sins aren't worthy of hell like everyone else. This is false because Christians sin every day, whether willfully or not. Therefore, if God judged everybody on their ability to stop sinning, no one would be saved, as you so sternly preach Christians should do; you are therefore proclaiming justification and righteousness by the law, because when one ceases from sin, they follow the law, thereby doing the works of the law.
But what are we not justified by? The law (Romans 3:19-20, Galatians 3:16).
In Jonah 3:10 it says that turning from evil/sin is considered works in the eyes of God, "And God saw theirs works, that they turned from their evil way;"
Yet the Bible says that works are not what save us.
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
Romans 4:5 "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
When you say we can't sin a certain way as a condition of our salvation, you are trusting your own righteousness and goodness by not sinning, and not trusting the promise of God or his grace, which says, "In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began;" This therefore makes you both a liar and a hypocrite, because you sin every single day, and every single day you deserve hell by your own actions, but only by God's mercy through his Son are you spared from what you deserve, as we all are, if we place our trust in Christ. Worse than that though, you are calling God a liar, because if you say that we must cease from sin as a condition of our salvation, then you frustrate the grace of God by doing the works of the law (ceasing from sin), and make the cross of Christ of none effect to yourself (Galatians 2:21). Why? Because you are not trusting Christ to save you from your own wickedness, but are instead depending upon your ability to stop sinning.
BTW, I'm making a list of all those who say what you just said.
Your on the list. Some day it might come in handy.
You're the 4th one on there.
I'm cool with that, because if I'm on a list of people that fully trust God, and not myself, then surely I am blessed.
And then I have to hear that the ones who believe in eternals security NEVER say that we should sin.
I don't think anyone that believes in eternal security advocates sin, and if this is your strawman, then you have failed in your task of disproving it. No, rather, what they say, is that through Christ, sin has no more dominion over us and if we do sin, it doesn't affect the solid rock upon which our salvation rests - the grace of God.
Laugh it up, you mocker and reviler.
Mathew 7:23
Jesus will declare those who practice LAWLESSNESS to depart from Him. That doesn't sound like the loss of a reward, but the loss of salvation.
So here's the problem with your quote.
Christ in Matthew 7:21 gives the condition for condemnation by saying "Not every that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them,
I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Jesus says that he NEVER knew them, which means not even once. There is no indication of loss of salvation in this passage at all; there is only indication of those who were never saved to begin with. They are those who trusted in their own works of righteousness by doing such works in his name, such as you do. You claim to be saved, but you also claim that you're saved as a result of YOUR ability to cease from unrighteousness. But remember, all have sinned and fallen short. So, if you are saved, you're not saved because of yourself, but because Christ has mercy upon you; your salvation has nothing to do with your abilities, but only is possibly by the desire of God. But again, you trust your ability to not sin, so you do not trust Christ, which means you must be unsaved.
Also, the condition for condemnation in that passage is that they did not the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father? John 6:40 "This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." The will of the Father is to believe on Christ. Does the verse mention anything about ceasing from sin, or living a certain way to be saved? No, it does not in the slightest; it only mentions trusting Christ as your Savior. And if you argue it does say we must live a certain way, you are adding to scripture and making God a liar.
Mathew 25:46
Jesus is speaking about those who did not do the good works He just mentioned. They will go to eternal punishment. That doesn't sound like the loss of a reward to me, but the loss of salvation.
I just proved that, but I'll prove it again. The Bible says that our righteousness' are as filthy rags before the Lord (Isaiah 64:6), meaning that we could never work our way into heaven. No, in fact, in the prior verse, Jesus explains that the works they did WERE good! They preached in the name of Christ, they cast out devils that were afflicting people in the name of Christ, they did WONDERFUL works in the name of Christ. So what's the problem? The problem is that salvation is not through works, it's through faith alone on Christ, which is the will of the Father mentioned in the previous verse, which is why Christ NEVER knew them; they never believed in Christ to save them from their sins. These condemned people trusted in their own very good works, like you do, to save them, which falls way short of what God's standard. You misconstrue this to say they did NOT good works, but they in fact did, and even Jesus admits it in the passage, but good works do not save, which is why they were condemned. They are workers of iniquity and lawlessness because Christ is the end of the law (fulfillment) to every one that believes on him (Romans 10:4), therefore, whoever believes on Christ fully follows the law completely, because Christ lived it and is the law perfectly incarnate as the Word of God. You live the law without faith in Christ by trying to follow it and do it, as the Bible teaches one must do in order to be righteous. The problem is that righteousness is not possible through the law by following it because everyone has sinned against it. So, even though they did works, they worked iniquity and lawlessness because they didn't have Jesus Christ as their end to the law; they were subject to it, and since they couldn't meet the standards set in the law of God, they were condemned.
Luke 9:23-24
Jesus says that whoever wishes to save his life will LOSE IT.
That doesn't sound like the loss of a reward either, but loss of salvation.
You're not using a spiritual application. This is again about those who seek to save their own life by themselves and not trust Christ: again, about works salvation. They who seek to save their own life are they that do not desire a savior; but they who seek to lose their life by trusting in a savior that is not themselves are they that shall find it.
Luke 6:46, 49
Why call Jesus Lord, Lord and do not do as He says?
That man is like one who built a house with no foundation, and the torrent burst upon it, it collapsed and the ruin of that house was great. Loss of reward?
Study your Bible: this is a parallel passage of the Sermon on the Mount; this is still a reference to those workers of iniquity that acknowledge Christ as Lord but did not the will of the Father, which is to believe on the Son and be saved.
Following the commandments of God and doing good deeds has EVERYTHING to do with salvation.
If you don't obey God, it means you have no faith in Him.
No faith........No salvation.
1 John 3:22-23 "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
And this is his commandment, That we should be believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment."
So this is pretty self-explanatory but I'm going to explain it anyway for you. The Bible tells us we must follow the commandments and will of God in order to have everlasting life, and the Bible tells us very clearly that his commandment and will is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and love one another. One is a commandment unto salvation, another is a commandment of fellowship.
Why? Because the Bible lists plenty of passages about what one must do to be saved (Acts of the Apostles 2:21, Acts of the Apostles 16:31, Romans 10:9-10, Romans 10:13, Ephesians 1:13, John 3:16), and none of them mention loving one another. So, the commandment to love one another is indeed a commandment of God for fellowship, but it is not a condition for salvation; otherwise, the Bible would say so.
After all this, now I must explain why OSAS is the truth.
If following the law is ceasing from sin, and we are not justified by the law, then how much a person sins has no effect on their salvation once they're saved because they could never cease from sin enough to get salvation in the first place. Once a person places their trust on Christ, they therefore don't have to keep up with God and his standards to be saved, because he did it for us. And once God promises something like eternal life (Titus 1:2), God cannot lie about its condition. If it is eternal from the point of receiving it (John 1:12), then it is eternal forever no matter what. God did not say that we have our everlasting life taken away if we live a certain way anywhere in the Bible. We may be punished on earth, indeed, but once we trust fully in Christ and are saved, we're always saved. God promised us.
Once saved, always saved.
