Apologies for a VERY long post which I tried to avoid: Some do not consider this question as a major part of their belief; others do and I’m of the latter opinion. To me it can’t get much more serious than possibly losing your way to eternal joy forever!
Every man is blessed with a Free Will to choose and decide in every moment of life what course they take. These are decisions in the heart of hearts regarding moral & spiritual conduct. Man's basic nature is one of selfishness from the time the baby first fills his lungs and bellows out at delivery, and then for its first meal. "Make my discomfort go away now! I want it, and I want it now!" For some people that demanding of the easy & quick way out never changes until the grave yawns wide.
The first sin in the Bible in the Garden of Eden, and every single other sin described in the Bible, is ALWAYS the same sin: SELFISHNESS! It may be manifested in a trillion different ways but the SELF as the focus of our actions, mental and physical, is never separated from our sin and is the root cause every single time. Satan's and all of the fallen angels sin is described in Isaiah 14:12, "I WILL!", fully in contradiction to the Word of God who says, "I AM". We see SELF manifested and ruling God’s created beings.
On the other hand, the hand of God, John the Baptist explains the substance of the entire Bible and all of its teachings in 6 words, found in John 3:31, "He must increase; I must decrease.", the diametrical opposite of the demand of Satan and SELF! As God has revealed himself, and then all the more calls out to sinners for repentance to turn to His Love, He is asking man to turn his focus to GOD, instead of SELF.
Because every man has Free Will to choose, God NEVER FORCES ANYONE TO REPENTANCE, because it wouldn’t be true repentance. God, as God, has total and complete power over all things for all time. He has chosen to relinquish part of that power as a Gift to man, in allowing all men by free will to control their own intellect. God never takes back this blessed gift of the power to choose our own course for our lives, even our eternal destination. Because it is a Spiritual Gift it cannot be effected by events in the physical world. Even a man imprisoned in chains in a dark, stinking dungeon chooses at every ticking instant whether he LETS God increase, or LETS himself increase, in his spiritual being’s free will.
Once a man makes a decision to turn his WILL and life over to God he may partake in the salvation of Jesus Christ into eternal life. The men of old, before the sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God on the cross, could also inherit eternal life. If they, without Christ’s sacrifice, turned themselves entirely to the Will of God confessing Him as Lord then were they saved. Enoch in the book of Genesis is a good example, taken up in rapture from the earth to be with God in His presence, millenia before the events of the cross. Elijah is another, taken up dramatically in a fiery chariot appearing out of a whirlwind!
All men receive the desires of their heart of hearts, beyond the things of this world. In this world after Christ’s Gift we are given that same choice to choose our eternal destiny at the foot of the cross: we can walk on by or fall on our face, the choice is ours! We may choose in our heart of hearts to turn to God and give our life and TOTAL SELF to Him for eternal life; or cling fast to SELF and inherit eternal suffering. In between those two extremes are all manner of men trying desperately in self to grab hold of the best of both worlds.
Some maintain that once we have chosen God we are forever in His mighty hand; that nothing in creation can pry us out. This is true, but with one very important exception. The act of turning to God from self is not an act of total surrender: He never takes back our Free Will to choose! Following our Justification in Christ, Justified as washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb of sacrifice, our life in Him is a continual process of ongoing Sanctification, leading to the perfection of His Righteousness as we are Glorified in God the Father with Christ. We are immediately Sanctified but it’s also an ongoing moment by moment process of further Sacntification into His Image of Perfection. The Justification of His sacrifice removes our sin, but not our mind and heart of hearts in their free will. Throughout our life thereafter we maintain Free Will to choose in our every thought, decision and deed.
Therefore throughout Scripture we are cautioned to choose wisely, and to continuously choose God, to relinquish self. If we take God's salvation and for whatever reason decide instead to throw it back in His face, to deny Him as Lord of our lives, to instead turn to self as our god, we choose to deny His eternal life. God in His salvation doen not turn us into robots with no choice of Free Will. No, the choice is always ours: God or self? God never removes our Free Will because it was His Gift. If we later choose to reject His Gift and live in sin of self as our substance of life He allows it; but there is an indescribable penalty at the end of it. Some, even most of these are led astray by others as men and devils, not of their own heart, but no matter, the result & destination are the same.
Belief in Eternal Security is correct doctrine, because God alone is God and has chosen us in His Will as His children since before the foundations of the earth were laid out! That still blows what’s left of my mind! But the concept of Eternal Security may be taken far too far, thanks to our Free Will. A man may even be carried away to the position of Antinomianism, where a man calculates oh, so cleverly that he can choose God and His salvation then do whatever, whenever and however he wants morally, and God can't do anything about it! "I'm saved and have Eternal Security and ‘I will’ have a ball down here until you take me home to be in your heaven of heavens forever!" Anti-nomian means anti-Name, as anti-Name of Jesus; rejecting Him in His Righteousness.
Thoughts of Eternal Security lead in 2 directions. One is that we have continual encouragement in our heart in the worst of times that regardless of the attacks coming we cannot be stolen away from His Eternal Life; that we may fully trust in Him forever as our God. This is true and good, feeding energy into our Hope. It’s spelled out in Scripture by our blessed friend Paul, "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
Worthy of note within that quote: Paul never implies that WE cannot separate OURSELVES from God’s love! So, the other potential in thoughts of Eternal Security is to harden our hearts; that regardless of our actions we are still guaranteed Eternal Life. This is not true, or good and Paul himself and several other apostles say so!
In between those two there are all levels of ‘freedom’ given to ourselves, by ourselves, allowing far more leeway in sin than we are entitled to if we truly Love God in our heart of hearts. It’s fudging a little here and there and not worrying about it. Obviously, this too is not good and is offensive to God, insulting & denigrating His Perfect Sacrifice.
Some would say that those who might lose their salvation after claiming Christ as Lord were never saved in the first place. Problem: it’s impossible to state that as fact, because only God could know! Having said that: is it then possible that even this person who fell didn’t know if they were truly saved? Seems pretty obvious that when one claims that a former Christian in word, thought and deed who announced Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior then turns away into darkness of perdition never even knew themselves that they weren’t saved is a bit hard to swallow.
Overall the entire concept sounds suspect, because as far as the believer in question goes he apparently thought he was saved, and so did those who would view his actions. Paul was surely one the greatest minds that ever lived within things of God & Christ. He knew full well that we could not possibly know if a person loses salvation by misdeeds and foolishness, or whether they’re never saved in the first place. He stongly urges Corinthian believers with all his heart, "Therefore, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling!" The point is, if that person is us, we must surely do everything within our power, by the true Power of the Holy Spirit of God, to insure our own salvation by staying as much as possible in the center of God throughout our lives.
Do I suggest then that there are actually things we must do, as within our heart, mind, spirit and its actions, to maintain our Eternal Security? Do I say we should do more than bask in the Sonlight of God on the shores of forgiveness? Yes, and who could think otherwise? Do I say we must labor daily in our lives to guarantee that we enter in at the strait gate, where narrow is the way that leads to eternal life, to achieve our eternal reward? Yes! Does Scripture, the Word of God, in the written words of Jesus and every other writer in the Bible suggest the same thing for Christians, in every book found there? Yes! Is there a single book in the Bible that suggests that we do not have to labor in our lives towards righteousness, eschewing sin and self, to be one with God? NO, not one!
What is the problem with a concept of falling wholly upon Eternal Security as our chief doctrine of salvation? It opens the door to abuse of the Gift of God; and man in this world is first selfish, commonly desiring to choose self first, then working God into it if possible. Therefore I say labor under that Good Thing of God's Righteousness. Jesus says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is Light!" as the yoke of oneness with Him where the two shall become one flesh, as His bride: yoked together to carry the Light of the Truth of His Love in our hearts to freely give to every fellow man without measure.
We are to offer up all of our self as a burnt offering on the altar of Jesus Christ; with our life’s deeds laid out as showbreads in the tabernacle of our hearts, and our thoughts as a smoke of incense, as a gift of sacrifice of our will with sweet odors rising back to God.
JDFree
ffice
