There is much talk today about losing salvation. The issue is not that
can one lose his salvation but the truth of the matter is the real issue is they
don't know what really happened at Calvary . These people don't understand at
all the doctrine of salvation.
The heart of the matter is how is the
sinner brought back into the proper standing so that he can have fellowship with
God. To put it more simply, how is a man saved today. Man's dilemma is how can
he become righteous before God. In order for the sinner to spend eternity with
God he must be holy before God (Heb. 12:14; Hab. 1:13). The sinner has to be
reconciled and justified before God in order to spend eternity with God.
Part I. Let's first look at the condition of the
unsaved man. He is lost (II Cor. 4:3), having no hope (Eph. 2:12), separated
(Isa. 59:2), unregenerate (Titus 3:5), darkened Eph. 4:18, unprofitable (Rom.
3:12), and under the wrath of God (John 3:36), and in the flesh Rom. 8:8. He is
stuck in the mud big time. A dead man cannot pull himself up out of the miry
muck for he is dead!
Part II. Without going into all
the doctrine of salvation let's just look at what God did to the sinner. There
were several things that God did to bring the sinner into the family of God. By
a supernatural work of God the sinner was reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10), made
righteous (Rom. 3:22), justified (Rom. 3:24), and redeemed (Gal. 3:13). Then as
a result some more things happened: the saint was sealed (Eph. 2:6), seated
(Eph. 2:6), saved Eph. 2:8, adopted (Eph. 1:5), quickened (Eph. 2:5),
circumcised (Col. 2: 11), raised up (Eph. 2:6), forgiven (Col. 1:14), blessed
(Eph. 1:3), accepted (Eph. 1:6), sanctified (Col. 1:30), put into the body of
Christ and made to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh (Eph. 5:30) and
glorified (Rom. 8:30). This is quite a work, I might say.
Now the above
fourteen things (and probably more) happened instantaneously when God saved the
sinner. So, the people who say they can lose their salvation are saying that
they or God can or will undo all of Part II and go back to Part I. Now let's see
how one can lose their salvation. When we talk of one losing their salvation we
are talking about the person in Part II. We are talking about the one who lived
after Calvary and before the Tribulation period who had at least 14 different
miraculous things done to him regarding his salvation. Instead of listing all
the verses you have used in the past I will just list where they are found. When
we talk about one losing his salvation we are not directing it to:
1.
Jews or Gentiles under the Old Testament Law before Calvary (Gen. - Mal.).
2. Jews and Gentile during the gospels, which basically fall into the
first category of being before Calvary (Gospels).
3. Unbelieving Jews
Paul was directing Hebrews 3 and 5 to (Hebrews).
4. The 12 tribes
scattered abroad in James, which doctrinally deals with the tribulation period
(Hebrews thru Revelation).
5. Unbelieving Jew or Gentile during the
Tribulation period ? primarily the book of Revelation.
Most of the
verses you use to try and prove a saint can lose his salvation in this age of
grace are found in the above books to in Paul's epistles (except Hebrews of Paul
wrote Hebrews).
The person we want you to show to us that can lose their
salvation is that blood-bought redeemed sinner after Calvary where Christ died
for their sins.
Let's look at this ? we have a sinner saved by grace
today and falls into the Part II category (redeemed, saved, regenerated, sealed,
etc.). At some point in his life he loses his salvation based upon some
mysterious way that you have conjured up (whatever that may be). I am assuming
at that point he becomes unreconciled, made unrighteous, unjustified,
unredeemed. Then as a result of his ?unpardonable sin? or whatever criteria you
have dreamed up for one to lose his salvation he becomes unsealed, unseated,
unsaved, unadopted, unquickened, uncircumcised, unraised, unforgiven, unblessed,
unaccepted, unsanctified, unglorified again, and finally, kicked out of Christ's
physical body! In other words this saint loses his salvation by doing something
or a bunch of things??? And then all that God did for him (Part II) gets undone!
The poor ex-saint is back to Part I again!
Let's carry this further ?
now the poor, lost, ex-saint gets saved again!!! Now God reapplies all of Part
II and all is ok ? but then he blows it again and all is undone again and he is
back to Part I!!! And then he repents and he's back to Part II! Does anyone see
how ridiculous this is getting? If you can give me one example of this happening in the scriptures I might listen. I know
you will say that once he loses it he can never get it back again ? yes, real
neat system you have there.
The problem (or blessing) is this ? the
sinner was reconciled by the DEATH OF CHRIST. The sinner was JUSTIFIED BY THE
FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST and made RIGHTEOUS and SEALED UNTILL the DAY OF REDEMPTION
? DONE FOREVER and nothing you can do can undo that!
Now, you can show
me where a man before Calvary does not have this blessing and that a man in the
tribulation does not have this blessing but you can't show me in Paul's epistles
during this age of grace after Calvary that a man can fall out of what God put
him into today!
If you still think you can lose your salvation then you
are doing something to lose your salvation and you are not trusting Christ to
keep you. You say, ?I believed on Christ and he will do his part but I have to
do my part or keep from doing something that will cause me to fall away.? Then
if that is the case then you are still trusting yourself to endure to the end so
in reality you are not trusting Christ at all you are counting on you to hold
out till the end, which is, works salvation, which is a sure ticket to hell.
Instead of trying to prove you can lose it why not spend some time
seeing what really took place at Calvary and then you would not be spending time
trying to show people you can lose it.
May God bless