AllisonW70 said:
John 10:28-29
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.
I interpret this to mean no man can pluck you from the Lord's hand.....NO MAN......that includes me and you!
Hi, Allyson.
Are you saying that once we "confess Christ," nothing more is expected of us? I would be interested to hear your interpretation of these three verses of scripture:
Matthew 7:21 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
James 2:22, 24 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and
by works was faith made perfect? Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
I'll tell you how I interpret them:
(Matthew 7:21) I believe that in the Savior's own words, obedience to God's commandments is required for entrance into His presence. Lip service alone is insufficient.
(Hebrews 5:9) Jesus Christ is the means by which the truly repentent may be forgiven of their sins.
(James 2:22,24) While works cannot save, it is by our works that we demonstrate the sincerity of our words. In other words, our faith must be a living faith, and not a dead faith.
Also, I believe that no one sin is greater than another.
But in John 19:10-11, we read Jesus words to Pilate in which he specifically describes Judas' sin as being more serious than Pilate's sin:
Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore
he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
When we are saved, we are washed clean from all sin, past, present and future, in God's eyes. That doesn't mean that we are not still going to sin. We wil never be "perfect" this side of Heaven. What it does mean is that In God's Eyes, we are SAVED from the eternal consequences of our sins because we have accepted the forgiving grace of Jesus. Salvation is given through grace; not through our deeds. If we cannot earn it through our own merit (the Bible clearly states that) then we caanot lose it through deeds. The Bible says the only unpardonable sin is denying the Holy Spirit. Which makes sense to me given that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Jesus that dwells within us. If deny the Holy Spirit, we are denying Jesus.
I agree that no matter how hard we may try, we are incapable of perfection. Unlike you, I don't see salvation as being an event but a process and I never use the word "save" in the present tense, believing, as I do, that "...he that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved." I do believe in a promise of salvation and that we can have this promise at any point during our lives. It believe that it requires that we enter into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. Living up to the terms of this covenant -- i.e. continued obedience, including repentance when we have sinned -- will assure us of salvation. But we have been given free will, and just as we can choose to recognize Christ's atoning sacrifice, we can subsequently choose to turn our back on Him. If we do, we will pay the consequences.