So you insist that we still EARN at least part of our salvation. I don’t.
I believe that if we are truly saved with “the spirit of God in our hearts” we will do good works because of the leading of the spirit.
The Bible tells me that when God forgives me of my since they are removed “as far as the East is from the West”. That means to me that they are still going away because you can’t measure that distance. If you start going East there is never a time when you start going West. On the other hand if you go North there comes a time when you are again going South so it is a measurable distance.
Now, if God says that and that I am “washed white as snow” how can He, after my death, bring them up again? Wouldn’t hat make Him a liar?
So the priest was given a 5th chance. Seems it would be just as appropriate to throw vipers out of the priesthood for the good of the flock and justice.
I guess I am confused by the notion that once you are “saved” through belief in Jesus as your Savior that it then doesn’t matter how many more sins you go on to commit, you’re still “saved.”
Once you know Jesus, know His desire for the way you should live, shouldn’t you live that way from then on? If you don’t, did you really believe? Was it a sincere recognition that Christ is our Savior? How could one tell?
Once you know Jesus, know His desire for the way you should be living, and still choose to backslide or sin, wouldn’t you be held accountable for doing what you know is wrong in Jesus’ eyes?
In fact, when Peter, a believer, slipped into error, Jesus called him a viper and told him to get away from Him. That’s a pretty strong reaction toward a believer. Peter, the believer, believed Jesus was his Savior. Still Christ demanded more of Peter. He demanded faith lived out correctly.
Jesus makes it very clear in that passage that He cannot be united with anything other than real faith- faith lived correctly.
This is, as I see it, the terrible flaw, in the “saved” interpretation. Lots of people backslide. Lots of people sin. All of us are imperfect. If we, as Jesus admonished us, “go and sin no more” once we are forgiven, I would agree with this notion of being saved. Clearly, here in the story of the adulteress, Christ was attaching a requirement to belief and forgiveness: sin no more. Act in a holy way from that moment onward. Actions.
But most of us cannot do that. We still sin. We believe but the flesh is weak. How can we reconcile Christ’s demand that, once forgiven, we sin no more/walk the way of the Cross/go through the narrow gate; with the notion that few of us can hope to that level of perfection?
Well, Christ gave us a way: the sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation/Penance practiced from the earliest times of the Church.
No one with an unrepented sin on his soul will enter Heaven. It is a place of spiritual perfection. God can only unite Himself to purity. What if one is a believer who is “saved” but sins and does not repent of the sin before he dies? Does he still get to go straight to Heaven to sit with all the saints when he wasn’t sorry for a serious sin? I think not.
Didn’t St. Paul himself say he was working out his salvation with fear and trembling? Why was Paul himself still voicing concerns over his salvation? He was definitely “saved.” Because Paul himself understood that accepting Christ as his personal Savior required more than just belief. Paul believed. But Paul did not assume that belief guaranteed him Heaven. Belief is the first step; the crucial step. But actions must follow. They are a sign of true conversion and faith.
In God’s covenant, He demanded signs of belief from His people: blood on a doorway, circumcision, keeping the commandments, etc. That was the Old Law. In the New Law, Christ too demands a sign of our new covenant with Him: our lives must be an example of Christ’s teachings. Our actions must mirror the New Covenant. We must take up our cross and follow Him. We must walk the road to Calvary just as He walked it. Actions.