Featured Believers stay righteous by practicing righteousness

Yes, but the day of remption, the adoption occurs at Christ's second appearing. Romans 8:23; Hebrews 9:28: Ephesians 4:30; 1 John 3:2; Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9. . . . etc.

 

Here's something I wrote on another message board that may be helpful:

You seem to misunderstand the Biblical doctrine of eternal security.

You talk about the Biblical doctrine of eternal security as if it's something we earn after salvation by proving ourselves worthy.

That's not the case at all. We're not saved by our own righteousness, but by Christ's righteousness, and our salvation is not kept by our faithfulness, but by Christ's faithfulness and ability to keep that which the Father has given Him.

If one is born again, then his salvation is secure in Christ's hands.

I would encourage you to think long and hard about the consequences of rejecting the Biblical doctrine of eternal security for a moment. If we could really lose our salvation, then Hebrews 6:4-6 says that if we ever sin after being saved, we'll be lost forever with no way back, because the Lord would have to be crucified all over again to retrieve us. That means that it would only take one sin to fall away.

To deny the Biblical doctrine of eternal security, you must believe that, if one sin before we're saved was enough to condemn us, one sin after we're saved is enough to condemn us, as well. Doesn't this make the New Covenant worse than the Old? Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites were condemned for their actions, but we'd be condemned for our thoughts.

Under the Old Covenant, under the law, the Israelites couldn't murder. We can't even be angry. They couldn't commit adultery. We can't even have a lustful thought. If you're right, then we lose our salvation by doing less in following the law than the Israelites did under the law!

Is this really the Good News of Jesus Christ? Are these the riches of His Grace, that we have to live in fear of sinning? Are we saved by grace only to be placed under the constraints of an even more severely administered law?

But, back to your question, there are a host of verses that support the Biblical doctrine of eternal security.

Let's start with the most obvious:

So, here we have three promises:

a) That Jesus will not lose those the Father has given Him.

b) That Jesus will not cast out any who come to Him

That precludes both the sinner losing his salvation and Jesus taking his salvation away. So what means is left to lose salvation?

c) That God has already promised they would be raised on the last day.

Does God now break His promises?

And that's only the beginning. There is plenty of evidence for the Biblical doctrine of eternal security after that. For instance...

Romans 8:29-30 says that God predestined those whom He foreknew to be conformed to the image of Christ. If we can lose our salvation and, thus, our conformity to the image of Christ, then does this mean that God's foreknowledge is wrong? That's open theism, which has historically been condemned as heresy by the Church.

Jude 24 says that Christ is able to keep us from falling? If we can lose our salvation, does this mean that Christ is able to keep us from falling, but is merely unwilling? How is that consistent with the Biblical description of Christ?

Colossians 3:1-4 says that if we have been saved, we will appear with Christ in glory? It doesn't say "you might appear with Christ in glory, if you don't lose your salvation". It says "you will appear with Christ in glory". Done deal.

Philippians 1:6 says that if Christ has begun a good work in us, that He will finish it. How does He keep that promise to finish the good work He began in you, if you can lose your salvation?

1 Peter 1:23 tells us that when we are born again, we are born of incorruptible seed? If we can lose our salvation, then this seed is corruptible and that promise is not true.

Like Colossians 3:1-4, 1 John 3:2 says that we are sons of God now and that when Christ appears, we will be like Him. There is no qualifier. There is no "...if we don't lose our salvation". And if we're sons of God, when has God ever disowned a son?

Titus 1:2 says that God has promised us eternal life and that He never breaks a promise.

In John 10:27-29, Jesus promises us that He has given us eternal life, that we will never perish, and that we are not only in His hands, but in the Father's hands. How is Jesus' promise in John 10:27-28 consistent with the idea that we can lose our salvation? Is Jesus really incompetent to keep those whom the Father has given Him?

John 5:24 says that if we are saved, we will not come into condemnation but will have eternal life? How can Jesus promise that we will not come into condemnation if He knows we can lose our salvation?

Romans 11:6 tells us that salvation is not by works. If we cannot be saved by works, then how can we lose our salvation by works? Furthermore, why isn't keeping our salvation a work?

John 14:16-17 tells us that when we are saved, the Holy Spirit indwells us forever. How can the Holy Spirit indwell in us forever if we lose our salvation? Since when does the Holy Spirit dwell in the unsaved?

Ephesians 1:13, 4:30 tells us that we are sealed unto the day of redemption. If we lose our salvation, then how can we still claim to be sealed?

1 Peter 1:4 says that our salvation is "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading". If our salvation is imperishable, how can we lose it? If our salvation is promised by God to be undefiled, how can we defile it?


It's been my experience that where you find a denial of the Biblical doctrine of Eternal Security, just scratch the surface and you'll find a belief in works-righteousness.

Again, I ask, is this really the Good News of Jesus Christ? Are these the riches of His Grace, that we have to live in fear of sinning? Are we saved by grace only to be placed under the constraints of an even more severely administered law?

 

You and I agree, salvation is instantaneous, happens the moment we believe and are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

You left out the op, who claims "salvation is a process" which I was challenging. See following quote.

 

If you don't fear God, you don't know God.

Do you fear God? Do you think Isaiah was wrong to fear God?

 

This is very similar to the Mormon tactic of dismissing scripture by telling people to pray about the Book of Mormon to see if it's true.

I don't need to pray about it because God has already spoken about it.

 

Here's how it works. Jesus paid for all of my sins, past, present, and future. And just as in America you cannot be punished twice for the same crime, as a Christian, I cannot be punished for any sin no matter how serious. But, in view of that, God gave me a brand new nature that loves him and hates sin. So even if free to sin, It repulses me and I love the fullness of the Spirit that comes from holiness more than anything else.

 

The Holy Scripture teaches no such thing. Rather the promise to those whom God has saved, ". . . And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. . . ." -- Hebrews 10:17 cited from the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:34. This is a covenant which God Himself keeps. That "no" in "no more" is an emphatic no, meaning never.

 

“and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,” Philippians 3:9 (NASB95)

 

Sorry sir it seems I quoted the wrong person. Yet I'm glad you agree
MB

 

If we have been born again we are born of the Spirit and the new man produced by the born-from-above experience ALWAYS practices righteousness.

To "practice righteousness" is a present participle condition - a state of being, not a process.
After regeneration, we are still capable of sin when we yield to the desires of the old man of which we are admonished to avoid.

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Otherwise we delude ourselves and make God a liar.

1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The Spirit within us should bring sorrow for sin and acknowledgement of our sin.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We need to cease and rest from our own useless works in an attempt to cover our sin, it doesn't impress God in the least but angers Him and He may chastise us as His children.

Hebrews 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

 

This thread demonstrates that we have not presented the gospel in such a way it is understood. Once God puts a person in Christ, they are made righteous. When they subsequently sin, they remain righteous, because Christ died once for all, past, present and future. Yes, as born anew believers in Christ we are strive to become more like Christ, and to be His ambassadors, which is to say live as sinlessly as we can. So when we sin, we know it, and strive to eliminate it, but from God's perspective, we do not store up wrath, because being justified, it is just as if we did not sin.

This concept is not hard to understand, so why do so many posters not understand it?

 

“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:9 (NASB95)

 

Not in the least helpful. Try reading 1 John slowly and critically.

 

Please provide scriptural support for your view of "INITIAL" salvation experience.

Joe can lose his saving faith only if he never had it.

God's choosing of His elect is not frivolous.

Rom 8:37 KJV - Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 KJV - For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 KJV - Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.