SALVATION
Can you lose it?

The scriptural position of interest is eternal security. But without some other points of God's gracious work made clear the scriptures are rather frustrating in this issue! Some scriptures are talking to "man" in His fallen state and others are talking to the believer. So in this email I am sending some on what I believe to be the ground work for deeper study on eternal security. The idea that it is God's grace that causes us to be saved in the first place needs to be clear! Then after that it launches off into other issues and hopefully good questions!!

Consider our salvation, our calling and our transformation...

John 1:12 &13 It says clearly here that a man is Born Again Not by the will of man nor of the flesh but of God! We are born of God.

James 1:18 No man is born spiritually of his own will!

John 3:6-8 Only Spirit begets Spirit!

Titus 3:5 Born according to His mercy. NOT our choosing!

Romans 9 the whole chapter esp. 15-26 No unsaved man can resist His will!

Eph 2:8-10 It is the free gift of God. Man has nothing to do with it!

Rom 8:29-30 God chose HE speaks and it happens! To God it is finished!

John 15:16 Jesus said I chose you!

Eph 1:3-14 What a gift!!

1 Cor. 1:28-31 "In Christ" is a position we got by God and it is eternal by the bibles own description.

2 Cor 5:17 says we have been made a new creation MADE is past tense.

The two have already been made one new flesh as we are called His body!! We are already "seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus".

Isa. 25:8 He (GOD) will swallow up death for all time,

John 5:24 Those who believe GOD who sent Jesus has eternal life and does not come into judgment,but has passed out of death into life.

Col.3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in GOD.

2 Tim. 1:8-10 GOD saved us and called us not according to our works, it was HIS own purpose and grace Jesus abolished death.

Heb.2:9 Christ tasted death for everyone.

Heb.2:14-15 Jesus freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

1Pet. 3:18 Christ died for sins once for all.

Conclusion:

Please understand that many have had a tough battle with understanding this concept of Fathers nature. It is so unnatural to us to receive such grace! And without relearning some of the mistaught foundations of our belief we may see a lot of contradictions in scripture. But truth is not for the faint of heart!! As Matt 7:7 shows by it's use of the continuing imperative KEEP knocking..etc.

When I first thought of such a thing and studied from my novice standpoint many years ago I came before God humbly realizing that both a losing of and a unlosable salvation seemed to be mentioned in the scriptures. At a loss as how to rightly divide this I asked Jesus what to do! His response was most enlightening. He said.. " Which of these two makes you want to serve me more?" I thought for a while and realized that if salvation could be lost than a lifetimes of effort could be wasted by a single thought and also that if salvation could be lost it was no salvation at all because to God all sin is the same there is no measuring of sin so anything would make one unholy! Thus I answered that being eternally secure was the only thing that would make me want to serve Him more. His love begets our love.

Since that day many years ago I have learned much about the mistaught and misunderstandings of those scriptures I thought once were contradictory! I now find none that cannot be put in their proper place and all seeming contradictions answered! But it is a sobering thought that one needs only to look at ones heart to realize that if salvation could be lost there is no such thing!!! What then is our excuse for not having a simplicity of devotion to Christ that immediately favors His grace and not our works.

By the way...Sometimes people think that because the Christian is eternally secure he has no fear of wrong behaviour...Definitely NOT! The bible says that "Whatever a man sows he shall reap"! A Christian may leave this world early if He is not sowing to the Spirit but the flesh. (Rom. 8) Furthermore "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God" and "He disciplines every son He receives".

My point is that there is still justice and equity in the family of God. But we are no longer in Adam but in Christ in a whole new world and it's rules of love and faith and sowing and reaping.

You're a new creation in Christ Jesus and nothing or nobody can unmake you! Romans 8:38&39

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