Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son:
Col 1:13
When one becomes a Christian
they become a child of God and are born again and receive the Holy Spirit as a
down payment or earnest of their heavenly future.
Who hath also
sealed us, and given the earnest of
the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Cor 1:22
who also hath given
unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 2 Cor 5:5
In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise, Which is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise
of his glory. Eph 1:13,14
The word earnest means; “Its general meaning is that of a pledge or token given
as the assurance of the fulfillment of a bargain or promise.
Once someone is truly saved
they are always saved, they are sealed unto the day of redemption. They cannot lose their salvation.
For I am persuaded,
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, 39.
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. Rom 8:38,39
Salvation involves an
irreversible change; once someone is born again they cannot be unborn. Salvation is an eternal change that cannot be
reversed; we cannot be saved and then lost.
Jesus will not allow any of His sheep to perish or be stolen.
My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28.
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Jn
10:27-29
Mr. Coombes in his book America The Babylon expounds upon
Ephesians 2:8,9 and shows from that verse how the Greek indicates that those
who are truly saved cannot lose their salvation.
Your reliance on the facts of God’s actions
on your behalf as a gift to you is what activates the relationship and gets
your account credited as paid in full.
Now, what God did for each of us in the past was an action that had
eternal results. So that when we activate
God’s gift to us, it pays for all the past errors, all the ones occurring at
the moment you accepted the terms in your mind, plus it also pays for all the
future errors you will commit, because, God’s gift includes a future state of
perfection, and until that occurs our gift covers everything we do. We know this because in the New Testament
book/letter to the Ephesian church, God through the Apostle Paul tells us
…[Ephesians 2:8,9]
“For by a gift,
are you saved (“forever being continually saved” in both the past, present and
future tense. The verb, ‘saved’ is a
perfect tense verb which means an action with results reaching into the past,
affecting the present and the future also).
So, let’s restart that verse again. “For by a gift are you forever being
continually saved, (from the past sins all way through all of your future sins)
on the basis of reliance upon God’s actions, and not of your own actions. It is
a gift of God; not of anything you’ve earned, otherwise man could boast…[and
the boasting would nullify everything anyway]
Now to be honest with you, the above
rendering is a paraphrase of the original Greek language of verse 8, and 9. It
conveys however the full in-tent of the original words, including the verb
tensing. This verse means you and I can do NOTHING to earn favor with God, but
that God’s gift cannot be earned. There are two large and heavy books that deal
with this issue…Romans and Galatians. Also, the book of Hebrews deals with how
reliance…(also known as ‘faith’) is all that ‘saves’ us.
God’s gift is a once and for all action,
the verb tensing proves it! The apostle Paul and Peter also go to great lengths
to affirm that the gift cannot be earned, and we can do nothing to lose it…IF
we indeed are relying upon the sole actions of God and not of ourselves.
Coombes, p.154,5.
So I believe that the
scriptures are clear that once saved you are always saved. If you are truly born again you cannot get
unborn.
Posts
Thanks for this post. I've been having a difficult time lately and I asked God this morning if I was still His or if He had discarded me because of my sin and lack of trust in Him. I feel like this post is a big part of His answer. Know that He uses your blog for His glory. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteMay God strengthen you as you seek to serve and please Him
DeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteI used to struggle with the same thing, even asking God if I was His because my life was perfect and the Bible says if we are His we will be tested.
Months later, when I was going through the worst 5 years I could imagine, I hated myself for ever asking the question. Now that the 'refining part' of this has settled down a bit, I KNOW 100% I am His and there is nothing that could ever make me feel differently, ever!
If you really want to KNOW you are His, tell Him you are willing to give up everything: your kids, your grandkids, your house, your freedom, your health, your sanity, your finances, pictures of loved ones, memories...if you are truly willing to pray this prayer, HE WILL show you you're His!
I pray for you that God will give you the strength to pray what seems so foolish in our eyes but is the true Glory of God!
I'd do everything all over again and even lose my kids because what He gave me in return is more than any finite mind could dream!
William, I just cannot tell you how thankful I am for this post of yours. Family members sometimes drift even though I know they are children of God. Such a comfort to read these verses again with renewed hope and thanksgiving. So glad you are back....I have been praying for you
ReplyDeletePraise God that you were strengthened and thank you for your prayers.
DeleteMichael- You just posted a very good example of our free will. You ...out of your free will...prayed earnestly to God the sacrifices you were willing to make...Very similar to when Abraham ..through his free will proceeded to follow God's orders for him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice showing God what was in his heart....then an angel intervened and spared his child.
ReplyDeleteAbraham used his free will and went the right direction with it.
Rom 3:25 and 2 Pet 1:9 come to mind which state that we are forgiven of our past sins. I'm unaware of any scriptures that specifically state that we are automatically forgiven of future sins. The perfect tense in the Greek indicates a past completed action, the results of which continue into the present but not the future. Is my understanding incorrect?
ReplyDeleteThe present was the future one second ago
DeleteSo the Greek perfect tense includes the future? A simple yes or no would suffice.
DeleteThe perfect tense in Eph 2:8 is indicative of the state of salvation which persists through present time. Present time is always at the time that the reader reads Paul's statement. As such Paul is not referencing future sins yet to be committed.
I have something else to add, which may in fact be a fundamental clue on how to be saved!
ReplyDeleteWe already know that nobody who takes the mark of the beast will be saved, but did you know that everybody who isn't saved will worship the image of the beast?
Rev 13:8:"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Revelation 15:2 reveals everyone who IS saved will not do this.
"And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God."
This is huge. So, whatever you need to do to be saved, MUST be about whether or not you'd be willing to worship an idol instead of God.
Also, how do you think 6 billion people (1 billion being saved, I'm being generous here) can get a mark anyway? Even at 25 people per second, it'd take more than the 3.5 years of tribulation we have. But note that nobody takes the mark without worshipping the image, or vice versa. (As both are done if you aren't saved, as proven by Rev 14:9-11)
This also means the way to receive the mark of the beast is by worshipping his image. (Perhaps some kind of witchcraft? This is the New World Order we're talking about here)
Reading the Bible can reveal the answers to questions that seem so mysterious-You just have to put the pieces together, like we did here!
Anyone who truly believes that Jesus died for us and is our LORD and savior (Don't forget about the Lord part), will not abandon him for the beast. I think we found the key to salvation.
Salvation is by grace through faith in the shed blood of the Messiah--the Lord Jesus Christ. Always has been always will be.
DeleteAnyone who takes the mark will not be saved. Those who are not saved may or may not take the mark. Example; how about an infant? How about a remote tribe in the Jungle?
The mark could be given to all who want it in a short amount of time--they would just have to show up at voting locations, fire depts, banks., etc. Could be done worldwide in a relatively short amount of time.
Remember how a false Christ, Maitreya, may be arriving soon? How Maitreya will "fulfill" every eye seeing him?
DeleteEverybody will see the antichrist (who might just appear as "Maitreya"), just like everybody will see the REAL Jesus. Even the most remote tribes will see him. But, you do raise a good point regarding infants:They won't be able to make a choice at all! I haven't figured out whether infants are saved or not. But, the Bible probably has the solution to that too:We just need to investigate this mystery further.
The antichrist will try to fulfill as many prophecies of the rapture and second coming as he can, to gather followers. However, he won't be able to fulfill ALL of them, and will surely fulfill the prophecies about himself, so those who carefully watch what's going on and read the Bible will be able to spot the fake. There's enough information within the Bible for us to be 100% sure who the real Christ is, and who the fake is.
Revelation 13:7-8 reveals all whose names are not in the book of life WILL worship the antichrist! And whether your name is in the book or not depends on whether you're saved or not!
However, the way of salvation is what you just said. And worshipping a fake Christ to be allowed to buy and sell means you don't actually have that kind of faith:Not if you're willing to sell him out like that!
The mark and the beast himself are related-Revelation speaks of two groups-Those who neither take the mark nor worship the beast (Rev 15:2), and those who do both (Rev 14:9-11)
Why would the word of God be leaving out the people who only do one of these things? Simple! There just won't be anybody who does just one! The fact that taking the mark means you're not saved, and yet only those who aren't saved will worship the beast, means that everybody who recieves the mark will ALSO be worshipping the beast. And the people worship the beast before the mark arrives a few verses later.
Of course, there's also the possibility that recieving the mark is a WAY to worship the beast as well:It's best to prepare for both possibilites. Either way, don't take the mark, don't worship the beast, and don't worship his image. If one is truly faithful to Christ, they will NOT abandon their only way of salvation!
I have debated many on this subject and have found that those who believe in eternal security rarely, if ever, change their position despite scriptural evidence to the contrary and at best we end up agreeing to disagree. However when I propose this scenario to them and ask how they would answer they tend to avoid answering because it demonstrates in a practical manner that their position may be an untenable one. If they do answer, they respond by saying what someone else might do – not what they might do. Thus it is important to ask what the person – himself/herself – would personally do. The scenario is:
ReplyDeleteIf Jesus does not return before the great tribulation and you find yourself in the position of having to decide whether or not to take the mark of the beast, would YOU take the mark?
As far as I know, they have 3 possible options:
1. Yes, take the mark because I’m eternally secure. This response indicates that the person is at least consistent in their belief. However I’ve found no one responding in this manner because they know that this affirmative response directly contradicts the plain warning given in Rev 14:9-11.
2. No, don’t take the mark because if I do it would demonstrate that I was never a believer to begin with. This option puts to rest the notion that those who continue to sin or no longer believe were never believers in the first place. The person knows that he/she is a genuine believer yet at the same time has to acknowledge the consequences of his/her losing salvation upon taking the mark. It puts them in a quandary because they would never consider themselves to be unbelievers who fall away from the faith. It demonstrates in a practical manner that they as regenerate believers can indeed lose their secure position if they take the mark. They can no longer use the excuse that persons who fall away from the faith never really believed.
3. No, don’t take the mark because if I do I’m condemned to the lake of fire. If this option is taken, a person who adheres to eternal security acknowledges that the warning of taking the mark applies to him/her personally and the doctrine of eternal security is no longer a valid belief.
A person who believes in the pre-trib rapture might protest and claim that this is not valid and is only a hypothetical example since the church is raptured before the great tribulation. However Rev 14:12 notes that the saints are still present at the time when the mark is presented. Whether this is the entire church or only tribulation saints is another matter for discussion. The main point is that v.12 commands the saints to persevere and be patient by keeping God’s commandments and their faith. Taking the mark would demonstrate that the saint has not kept the commandments and his/her faith.