Subject: "Once Saved Always Saved" |
Bible Note: Gloria Lynn, My belief is that we can walk away from God. It is from a hardening of the heart, which comes from unrepented sin. Consider: Do we all sin? Yes. Is sin without effect? No! What is the remedy? Christs blood. So why does James 5:16 tell us to confess our sins to each other to be healed? How could the Christians in Corinth be involved in sexual morality? 1 Cor. 5. Is that lifestyle acceptable to God? Why does Paul tell the Christians in Galatians 5:19-21 that living that lifestyle will not allow them to enter the Kingdom of God? What is Jesus talking about in John 3:19-21 about coming into the light? Do we obey God because we love Him? 2 Cor. 5:14. Or do we learn to love as we obey? Luke 12:34 Why does Jesus say in John 10:28-29 that no one can snatch them from my Fathers hand? But the Hebrew writer says in 6:4-12 and 10:26-39 we can lose our salvation? I am asking these questions to stimulate us to dig deeper to find an answer that will satisfy them all. The doctrine “once saved always saved” comes from the lack of using the Bible as a whole and relying on one or two scriptures to base your whole belief system on. When you look at the scriptures I just referenced ( amongst many other scriptures ) you are left with contradictions with this belief. And we know the Bible cannot contradict itself. From studying the subject over the years I have come to the conclusion that: A: We are saved though Gods grace. That is we can only have our salvation because God decided to give us a way to receive it. Which leaves us the CHOICE to accept it or not. B: Jesus blood cleanses our sins away, any sin and all sin, if we continue in Him (walking in the light). 1: Confessing our sin is part of walking in the light. James 5:16 2: Fighting the spiritual battle against Satan and the temptation to sin is our conscious effort to walk in the light. Eph. 6:10-18 3: Encouraging each other to keep from being deceived by Satan. Heb. 3:12-19 4: Watching our life and doctrine will save ourselves and our hearers. 1 Tim.4:16 The list goes on and on. A thorough study of the New Test. teaches again and again that we need to obey God commands and that involves our personal choice to do so or not to do so. Every time we choose not to obey, we don’t lose our salvation, but we harden our hearts. The more we disobey, the harder our hearts become (this is a “lifestyle” Paul is referring to in Gal. 5:19). The hard heart turns from God (Heb. 3:12-19) We make a choice to accept Jesus as our Savior and we have the power to choose not to want Him as our Savoir. Without choice there is no love, God wants us to make the choice to love. I hope I’ve spurred you on to dig deeper into the Word. Let me know what you think. Kin Ps check out the study on Heb. 6 that was posted 12-1 at 11:16 |