At the risk of wading into a swamp here, let me say that Metmom makes a key point. It is the Holy Spirit that is essential to salvation. Indeed, it is the indwelling of that Spirit which makes us Christians. By definition, a Christian is someone in whom dwells God’s Holy Spirit. As Jesus told Nicodemus, you can’t begin to understand the Kingdom of God (that state of affairs where God’s will is perfectly done) unless you are born again. That is, God puts his law (Spirit) in our hearts as promised in Jeremiah 31.
The single overriding question about salvation then is this: How do I get me some o’ dat Holy Spirit? And Peter’s answer at Pentecost was: “Repent and be baptized.” In other words, shed your old ways and make a commitment. God is all powerful, yes. But his rules of engagement declare he opposes the proud and gives His grace to the humble. It is when we humble ourselves and open the door that he comes in.
It is the Holy Spirit then that starts to show us our sins, cleansing us as we continuously repent (daily if not hourly) for every sin, and motivating us to do right. And here’s the punch line: FAITH comes from OBEDIENCE. Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever” (Jn 14:14-16). Earlier he had said: “If you abide in my word (ie: keep his commandments), you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (Jn 8:31-32). Faith comes from obedience, and it itself is a gift of God—not some intellectual or emotional achievement on our part. Obedience comes from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes to us through humble repentance and surrender.
The World sez: Convince me (ie, bring me to “faith” or “belief” in Jesus) and then (maybe) I’ll behave and repent. Jesus said the exact opposite: Repent, behave, and you’ll believe. Yes, Paul can say we’re “saved by faith.” But that’s just shorthand for saying we’ve repented and are behaving.
Sin destroys faith. It eats away at our relationship with God and, if left unchecked and un-repented, will harden our hearts. Eventually, scripture explains, the Holy Spirit is then no longer able to be heard in us and ceases to strive with us for perfection. This is the proverbial “unforgivable sin” of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: Refusing to heed its remonstrances. It is unforgivable because, after a certain point, we don’t realize we’re sinning and don’t repent. Continued, willful sinning (really rebellion against God) is said to “grieve” the Holy Spirit, which, yes, can then depart from us. Hence, the repeated admonitions in the New Testament to persevere in faithfulness.
Unlike most of my fellow Protestants, I guess, I don’t believe in “eternal security.” We most certainly CAN lose our salvation and many have. Not because God is weak or careless with us, but because his rules of engagement dictate that we are and remain free to make our own decisions. Indeed, THAT is the human predicament: We HAVE to choose. I thus take strong issue with “five-point” Calvinism, which strikes me as a passel of heresies bundled up in a futile (and circular) effort to assure people that once “saved,” they are forever “in.” Just ain’t so. Likewise, however, ritual and religious formality is useless without true inner surrender. Even in the Old Testament, God was telling the Israelites to “circumcise your hearts.”
What IS it that God WANTS from us? Here’s a hint: it ain’t a lot of fawning and phony “love,” praise and empty worship. Nor is it the achievement of some pristine orthodoxy in our belief systems, or the kind of wishful thinking that passes for faith in most people. No. What He wants is RIGHT BEHAVIOR. OrthoPRAXY! Check out the parable of the two sons, Matt 21:28-32.
Do we ever measure up? No. As Isaiah noted, the best of our “good works” are viewed by God with all the contempt we would have for used menstrual rags. Thank God, Jesus is our righteousness. But we have to keep trying to do what is right in God’s eyes, because if we give up on that and revert to the ways of this world, our faith will surely wane and atrophy, as the Holy Spirit’s voice in us gets harder and harder to hear. Thus, as James said, faith without obedience (works) is (or will be ) dead.
Thanks for reading this far. Flame way if you want. But I do think this approach to the subject bridges much of the vast chasm seen in the endless debate about this stuff. ‘Splains a lot.
**Flame way if you want.**
Sorry, but this is an Ecumenical thread — there is no baiting, no flaming, no antagonism.........just discussion. Hope you aren’t disappointed.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I DO take issue with your contention that the Holy Spirit "departs from us" if we grieve Him. We are told by the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. . (Ephesians 4:30). Also, in Ephesians 1:13, "In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise". And again in 2 Corinthians 1:22, "In addition, he has put his seal [of ownership] on us and has given us the Spirit as his guarantee." There are other verses as well that tell us that the Holy Spirit is NOT taken from us once we are indwelt by Him and that happens when we are born again through faith in Christ, when we receive the gift of God's grace by faith. Though our sins can separate us from fellowship with God, and God does discipline us as a loving Father would with consequences, nothing can separate us from His love and He will never leave us or foresake us, never lose us or cast us out.
I would dearly love to believe that this difference is all just a matter of semantics and misunderstanding, but there is no denying that there is a vast chasm between saying we are saved by grace through faith in Christ and our works are evidence of that faith and saying we are saved by faith AND our works and without those works, faith is not enough to save us. As Paul reminds us about Abraham, "In the same way, Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." (Galatians 3:6) and reiterated in Romans 4:3, "For the Scriptures tell us, "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.".
I believe this point is crucial to being a Christian and, if we think somehow that our works are what merit heaven for us, we miss out not only on the joy the assurance of our salvation God desires that we have, but also the freedom to live a life pleasing to God done out of love for Him and gratitude for His unspeakable Gift rather than out of fear of hell. God loves us so much that He GAVE His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will NOT perish, but HAVE everlasting life, that sounds to me like HE really wants us to trust in His promises and to love Him because He first loved us. God bless you!
Boatbums makes a good point in her post.
Yes, we are commanded to not grieve the Holy Spirit, but in that same verse, immediately following that statement is the promise that we are sealed by Him until the day of redemption, as if reassuring us that even if we do grieve Him, He will still be with us because we are SEALED by Him until that day.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.