Overview
Saint Karv, called to be an evangelist of the Most High God, to those who seek the truth in Christ and the saints of the Lord, drawn to Him according to the will of the Father, I give you my salutations. I wanted to write this blog for those who are stumbling on this issue, so I hope that if you consider yourself to be in that boat, this wisdom would be of great help to you and your walk with the good shepherd.
The most popular contention against the security of a believer's salvation, which some have termed "Once Saved Always Saved," or OSAS, is that a believer can lose their spot in heaven and lose their identity as a son or daughter of God. The vast majority of 'Christians,' who I will continually warn you brethren to mark and avoid as wolves, hold to this belief. Not everyone who claims to believe in OSAS believes it either.
Is there really nothing that can cut you off from God's promises once you have believed? I pray you will carefully consider the Scriptures with me for the answer.
Setting Things Straight
Firstly, beloved, let us be of the same mind. What do people who believe in OSAS, which I will also call by the Biblical term eternal life, uphold? People who believe in the doctrine of eternal life teach that when someone believes in Jesus Christ for salvation, God gives them life that cannot end, or eternal life. Hence, they cannot go to hell.
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Consequently, this group believes there is no compromise to the believer's salvation, meaning no action the believer is able to commit can damn their soul to the lake of fire now that they have eternal life. Regardless of if they live in terrible sin or even stop believing in Christ in an attempt to abandon the free gift, God will raise them up at the last day.
Some who are unlearned about the doctrine claim that it is taught by Calvinists. In the realm of Calvinism, the main teachings are comprised in the acronym TULIP, but the main doctrine we are concerned about is the P in TULIP, called Perseverance of the Saints. To explain simply, according to this doctrine, those who are truly saved, or those who are indiscriminately chosen by God to be saved, will persevere to the end, or endure in their faith. However, this is not what believers in eternal life claim, since they say one can stop believing but still be saved.
Understanding Salvation
Now, to see whether you can lose eternal life or not, we must consider what it means to be saved and have eternal life. When someone believes in Jesus Christ, even though their flesh is sinful, God will count them as being righteous, or sinless.
Romans 4:5
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
The reason why we are considered righteous by God even though we are yet sinners is because the Lord calls things which are not as though they were, as Romans 4:17 says. However, there is a time which will come when believers will in a more perceivable manner have no sin. In my last post, I went over the doctrine of the new man, which is a righteous body born after God that does not sin. In the resurrection of the dead, the words of the Lord says that a believer's corruptible body will become incorruptible, or as Philippians 3:21 says, their vile body will be changed to be like Christ's glorified body.
Ephesians 4:24
"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
1 Corinthians 15:52-53
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."
When we consider the promise of the new man, or a believer's resurrected body, we will notice connections between the things that God counts us as having and what the new man has. God counts us as righteous, and the new man is righteous. Jesus says we will never die in John 11:26, and the new man is immortal. 1 Thessalonians 4, which also talks about the resurrection of the dead, says once we are risen and are with Christ, we shall "ever be with the Lord," stating we will live forever with Christ Jesus once risen from the dead.
As I am sure you know, brethren, our flesh is not righteous, and the flesh is not able to live forever. But this just proves that God does not count us as our flesh, or the old man. The sin is not imputed to us, so it is rather not you or I committing sins, but sin dwelling within us, as Romans 7:20 says. Since all of these promises hinge on the resurrection of the dead and not the flesh, we can see then how the flesh cannot separate us from the love of Christ, since God is so sure that a believer will rise from the dead that He already counts them as if they are even though they are not. God even counts us as already being in the heavenly places according to Ephesians 2:6. Again, I want to give you assurance from the holy texts inspired by the Holy Ghost and show you what Paul wrote so your foundation is not words that have originated from my own heart, for I write this to you in the language of the Scriptures and not my own.
Romans 8:38-39
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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."
In this passage, Paul writes a list of things which he says are unable to separate us from the love of God. If you remember John 3:16, the love of God is that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world and rose again on the third day so that anyone could have eternal life and not perish if they have faith. In the verses, Paul firstly mentions death. This means that dying, either by the hands of another or yourself, cannot make you lose your salvation. Neither can life; nothing that is living, including yourself, can make you lose your salvation. Angels, principalities, and powers are also unable to take you away from God. Since Satan is an angel and has control over the principalities proliferating sin in our world, there is no work he can do against you to condemn you to hell once you have believed in the Son. Nothing that is present and nothing in the future can condemn the saints of God to the second death either. If there are egregious sins you can commit in this present moment or in the future, then they cannot separate you from the love of God. Neither can apostasy make you a bastard, since this is a thing that can be done presently or in the future. No far distance can separate you from the Lord, and neither can any other creature, which we talked about in the beginning. Clearly, there is nothing that can send you to hell once you are saved, not even your flesh. The hope of the faith is not lenient on what you did, but is according to what Jesus did.
Clearing Up Apostasy
Along with claiming sin can separate you from Christ, people who do not hold to eternal life also believe you are able to walk away from salvation if you stop believing, or apostatize. My beloved, we have just read in the Scriptures that your destiny of partaking in the resurrection is completely unaffected by your flesh, so there are problems with this statement. Firstly, if this was possible, you would think there would be an example in the word of God to originate this belief from. However, the closest example to this is what Paul says about his physical kin.
Romans 9:1-4
"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;"
In the beginning of Romans 9, our brother Paul hits the reader with a gut-wrenching opening about the physical descendants of Israel, whom he is related to. He says in verse 3 that he wishes he could be accursed from Christ, or stop being saved, for his "kinsmen according to the flesh." If it were possible to step away from salvation, you would think the Apostle Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ who wrote the majority of the New Testament would know. Instead, he says he can only wish that this could happen, not that it actually can.
In the gospel of John, Jesus said to the Pharisees,
John 10:25-29
"Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."
Even Christ, our Lord in the flesh, has spoken the same doctrine, saying His sheep, who are believers, are given eternal life and will never perish. Jesus then says that His sheep are in His and the Father's hand, and no man is able to take them out. If you are a man, then you are unable to escape from life that is forever. You are unable to perish. There is nothing that the mortal body can do to cut itself asunder from the hope of the resurrection. We know our Lord God is omnipotent, or all powerful, as Revelation 19:6 says. Unless man can be stronger than his maker, then you cannot make yourself go astray. Christ remains faithful even when you are not.
2 Timothy 2:13
"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself."
The Conclusion of the Matter
My brethren according to the washing of blood, now we have gone and searched the Scriptures like the Bereans of the past, and we can come to a conclusion based off of the pure words of Jehovah our God. If you have believed in the gospel preached to you by the servants of righteousness, whose feet are blessed for spreading the good news, it is impossible for you to be condemned to the lake of fire. No matter what you do in your flesh, that be sinning or losing your faith, God will call you those things which are not as though they are. God sees you as righteous, regardless of what you see of your flesh. God sees you with eternal life, even though your flesh will inevitably return to the dust. Remember, brethren, that your flesh is not born of God, but that you have been translated into the kingdom of the Son by the Spirit as says the Scriptures in Colossians 1:13. Call into remembrance the example of our beloved brother Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, who apostatized when he denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times. And again, call into remembrance the example of our brother in 1 Corinthians 5, who was so wicked that Paul prayed God would destroy his flesh, and yet Paul wished such for him so he would not lose as many rewards, for he will still partake in the resurrection of life. Therefore, I pray that you walk by faith and not by sight.
I hope that my brothers and sisters who have been appointed by my beloved brother Urfriendlyhood will begin to write these blogs for the profit of those in need on the waters of the web as we have been. For those who are abiding in the doctrine of Christ, I wish to you God speed, and for those who have hardened themselves against the grace of Christ and inclined themselves towards another gospel, which is not another, rather than repenting, I call you Anathema. I pray that the face of the Lord shines on the saints with all grace and ever enduring mercy. Amen.
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