I am being conformed more and more every day into the likeness of Christ. (Some days better than others)
I always love your stuff, brother. But the gospel of John and Romans eliminate the possibility of true believers losing their salvation.
According to the Apostle Paul(Various translations):
Believers in Christ are SAVED. It “the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
We ARE SAVED. God offers “the gift of his Son”. Once accepted he will not take it back.
Future “works”, “efforts”, “good deeds”, should be the fruit we bear as a result of being SAVED. We did all the sinning. God thru the finished work of Christ does all the saving. We are simply called, like the Phillipian jailer who asked “Sirs. What must I do to be SAVED, to “BELIVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED.”
New International Version
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
New Living Translation
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
English Standard Version
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Berean Study Bible
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Berean Literal Bible
For by grace you are saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
New American Standard Bible
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
New King James Version
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
King James Bible
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Jesus is like Joseph in Egypt: in the system but not of the system, because he operates on a higher principle lost on the comformity-consensus crowd.
Won’t people be surprised and stunned. Religious experts hit hardest.
Justification then sanctification. Both are part of being saved.
There was no 'process' with the thief on the cross.
The only way I can accept this, is if 'continuing to have faith' is to be considered a 'process'.
What we argue over is:
1. What it means
2. How it is accomplished.
Way too many Christian organizations preach:
1. Saved by Grace
2. Kept by 'something'
with the bottom line being, "Yeah; the Lord saved you - but what are YOU now going to do to KEEP it?
John 6:25-40
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[c]”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
A simple, to the point question received a simple, direct answer.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’
Creating a new human being is a 'process'; starting with the mother and the father coming together.
After 9 months of 'process' (more or less) a child is born: POW! there it is!
So it is with us; the second time. The 'process' being the events that lead up to our final BELIEF!! Pow! there IT is: a child of GOD.
Just as a new-born human baby now needs to grow and learn and thrive; thus it is the same with a new-born Christian.
There is a 'process' to all of this, but the main event, the birth, is NOT. We are never gonna be 'more' born than that day written on our birth certificate.
Likewise with 'salvation'. You are either alive in GOD or you are not.
I cannot envision a human being stuck in the birth canal of a woman any more than I can a Christian being stuck in some 'process' of salvation.
The fact salvation is a process means it is not an unconditional one and done deal for all time regardless of how the Christian lives his life. Since salvation is a process is why the Christian is told to be faithful unto death (Rev 2:10). The Christian is to run the Christian race and cannot stop until the race is finished, not fall short, (Hebrews 4:1). Phil 2:12 “work out your salvation” is a ongoing sustained work not a one time, unconditional deal.
The justification of Abraham was a process beginning in Genesis 12 with his obeying God in leaving house, land and kindred to Genesis 22:12 in offering Isaac.
Seed planted in shallow ground...The context is being grounded or not in what you learned...
We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit which only saved people acquire...
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.