Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”(John 6:28-29)
“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
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 him up at the last day.” (John 6:38-40)
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”(John 10:28-30)
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.(1 Cor. 6:19-20)
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.(2 Cor. 1:21-22)
All of this happened at our first moment of belief, before we could do anything to either earn or lose our position. The man on the cross beside Jesus is the prototype for this transaction.
Having done something bad enough to get himself executed, he was promised a place in Paradise solely because he believed in his heart that Jesus was the Lord of a coming Kingdom.
Nothing could be clearer, so in study of scripture we use clear verses to help clarify seemingly complicated ones.
I also believe that the letter to Hebrews was from Paul,(possibly transcribed by Luke) he could not sign or claim it because most Jewish believers were afraid of "Saul".
“Having done something bad enough to get himself executed, he was promised a place in Paradise solely because he believed in his heart that Jesus was the Lord of a coming Kingdom.”
Obviously. And equally obvious, he then died before changing his mind was an option. Totally irrelevant to the discussion.
I have not said ANYTHING suggesting I believe in “earning salvation”.
John restates this in his 2nd letter...
4 It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Nothing could be clearer, so in study of scripture we use clear verses to help clarify seemingly complicated ones.
But then the above plus others does muddy the water for many. There is real security of salvation and false security of salvation.
Let me repeat that. There is real security of salvation and false security of salvation.
It many come down the the following question:
DID YOU CHOSE GOD OR DID GOD CHOOSE YOU?
If you chose God, then you also have the power to unchoose God. IF God chose you, that is pretty much a lock.
So that leaves us to ponder................Does one have real security of salvation or false? How does one know??
(we can fool ourselves pretty quickly. “Go away I never knew you” has to be the scariest verse in the Bible.