Only for those with eyes to see and ears to hear

[SIC]

22 minutes ago, shiloh357 said:

We walk in the light BECAUSE we have received eternal salvation (Eph. 2:8-10).   I serve God not to stay saved, but rather as a result having been transformed through the salvation He has given me.  Our good works are the means by which we demonstrate that we are saved, not the means by which we are saved.

If you are living a life of hedonism you are not saved in the first place.  Those who are truly saved, are transformed and have a heart that longs to serve God.   We all stumble on occasions in a sincere attempt to serve God, but you cannot sin and enjoy it, if you are truly born again.

If you still trying to attain salvation, you're not saved.    Salvation isn't something I am trying to get; it is a free gift given to me the minute I got saved.  Eternal life starts in the here and now, not after I die.

So are you saying once a person is saved there is no way he/she may lose the salvation irrespective of what he/she does?

[post]

9 minutes ago, SIC said:

So are you saying once a person is saved there is no way he/she may lose the salvation irrespective of what he/she does?

how are we saved? 

is your faith in your own faithfulness? 

or in Christ's faithfulness towards you? 

[SIC]

Just now, post said:

how are we saved? 

is your faith is your own faithfulness? 

or in Christ's faithfulness towards you? 

It starts as Christ's faithfulness. After a point it becomes my faithfulness too. If my faithfulness had no part then Judas would not have fallen away

[post]

4 minutes ago, SIC said:

It starts as Christ's faithfulness. After a point it becomes my faithfulness too. If my faithfulness had no part then Judas would not have fallen away

have you read this? 

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
(Galaians 3:1-3) 

what do you think Paul is talking about here? 
he's using pretty strong language!
Paul would receive 'warning points' on this forum for sure; probably be banned from the thread for such rude behavior! 

outright calling people fools?? why, that's not Biblical! harumph. he ought to be more gentle and have concern for other's feelings 

[SIC]

Just now, post said:

have you read this? 

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
(Galaians 3:1-3) 

what do you think Paul is talking about here? 
he's using pretty strong language!

We aren't saved by works. But we need to be faithful till the very end.

what about this verse then?

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

If my faithfulness had 0 part then why does Jesus use the word ENDURE?

[post]

2 minutes ago, SIC said:

We aren't saved by works. But we need to be faithful till the very end.

what about this verse then?

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

If my faithfulness had 0 part then why does Jesus use the word ENDURE?

this is as i pointed out in Hebrews. endure in the confidence of the belief in Christ's faithfulness to forgive you. in His faithfulness to transform you by the Spirit He sealed you with. endure in the faith -- and the scripture also says, "if we are faithless, He remains faithful - for He cannot deny Himself" -- what does this mean? 
what does it mean, "He cannot deny Himself" ? ((2 Timothy 2:13))

you who have been appointed for eternal life, have been sealed by the Holy Spirit when you heard and believed. He knows His own sheep. He bought them, and He will lose none of them. 
the alternative is that He will lose some of His sheep - or that they are not His sheep at all, but He will buy the ones later that stick around. that you were not sealed at all, but that you were just given a second shot at keeping a law that you could never keep in the first place. the alternative is that He is not necessarily faithful to the promise you believed: that He would bless you and keep you and save you and redeem you and transform you and hold you and lead you into His light. the alternative is that He will not finish the work that HE began -- that you are the author and finisher of your faith. 

but the scripture says, Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of our faith. He began the work; endure in the faith that He will complete it also. 
it never says, "restore to us the anxiety of our possibly salvation but possibly not, depends on us" -- it says restore to us the joy of our salvation!

why do we have joy? 
where do you get joy from knowing that you can slip up and He will revoke all the promises He made to you - promises that were never contingent on you establishing your own righteousness? 


 

[SIC]

1 minute ago, post said:

this is as i pointed out in Hebrews. endure in the confidence of the belief in Christ's faithfulness to forgive you. in His faithfulness to transform you by the Spirit He sealed you with. endure in the faith -- and the scripture also says, "if we are faithless, He remains faithful - for He cannot deny Himself" -- what does this mean? 
what does it mean, "He cannot deny Himself" ? ((2 Timothy 2:13))

you who have been appointed for eternal life, have been sealed by the Holy Spirit when you heard and believed. He knows His own sheep. He bought them, and He will lose none of them. 
the alternative is that He will lose some of His sheep - or that they are not His sheep at all, but He will buy the ones later that stick around. that you were not sealed at all, but that you were just given a second shot at keeping a law that you could never keep in the first place. the alternative is that He is not necessarily faithful to the promise you believed: that He would bless you and keep you and save you and redeem you and transform you and hold you and lead you into His light. the alternative is that He will not finish the work that HE began -- that you are the author and finisher of your faith. 

but the scripture says, Jesus Christ is the author and the perfecter of our faith. He began the work; endure in the faith that He will complete it also. 
it never says, "restore to us the anxiety of our possibly salvation but possibly not, depends on us" -- it says restore to us the joy of our salvation!

why do we have joy? 
where do you get joy from knowing that you can slip up and He will revoke all the promises He made to you - promises that were never contingent on you establishing your own righteousness? 


 

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

If it is only about His Faithfulness, He is impartial and long suffering, why do people abandon faith then?

[angels4u]

21 minutes ago, SIC said:

It starts as Christ's faithfulness. After a point it becomes my faithfulness too. If my faithfulness had no part then Judas would not have fallen away

Judas never belonged to Jesus~~

[post]

friend, the word "redeemed" in the scripture is a special legal term from the slave trade.

it means that a person's price, the debt they owed for which they became slaves in the first place, has been completely paid -- they have been taken off the trading block, and cannot be sold back into slavery again. 
this word "redeemed" means that they are set free -- no longer either liable for their debt or eligible to be pressed into any service. 

if we now become servants, it is by free-will. 

we present our bodies as living sacrifices in a spiritual act of worship ((Romans 12:1-2)) -- a free-will offering, not a required act of atonement. all atonement has already been made; we are righteous and clean in His eyes by the word He spoke to us. 

Thy people are free-will gifts in the day of Thy strength,
in the honours of holiness,
From the womb, from the morning, Thou hast the dew of thy youth.
(Psalm 110:3, Young's Literal Translation)

[post]

2 minutes ago, SIC said:

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

If it is only about His Faithfulness, He is impartial and long suffering, why do people abandon faith then?

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
(1 John 2:19) 


whoever is truly His, cannot continue in sin. you may be trapped in it for a season, and it may even lead to your death if you provoke the Spirit. but becoming a new creature in Christ is a real thing -- not just a flowery way of talking. i am actually changed and cannot do those things anymore; what i once loved, i now hate, and what used to be totally alien to me, is my home.