Hello folks,
Was unable to get on the net and login for about a week, so did not get to follow all that has been happening.
Anyways, Debbi I quite agree with you on the part that we have to walk the narrow way and use our discretion, be circumspect etc. in the way we conduct ourselves. But none of us is perfect, we are being continually made perfect as we learn to walk with our Lord day by day. We stumble, we fall, we lag behind, we stand still at a place at times, but our Lord in His grace and mercy restores us in His own way when we call out to Him. The scriptures repeatedly remind God's people to walk worthy of their calling, to seek for things above, to live a life under the control of the Holy Spirit, to rise up and away from fleshly living etc. and this by itself indicates that those to whom the epistles were written were probably not living the way should have been and so God's Spirit through His apostles reminded and admonished them; and does so to us too today through the very same scriptures.
The confusion on this topic stems from the ability to know who is truly born again and saved and who is just pretending! I have the same means as you or anybody else has to determine this - namely the life style of the person. But then this criteria is not a foolproof way of being sure on determining anyones salvation. In the end only God knows the true state of affairs. Hence we have so many in our midst who claim to be saved, but are actually not and are a stumbling block for others and at the final count will be placed where they belong. God in His grace and mercy allows even them to 'grow' along with His actual children. The parable of the Wheat and the Tares - Matthew 13:24-30 illustrates this. Just because God did not immediately judge them does not mean He will never judge them - in His time He will. Also, from this same parable, the wheat was gathered into the barn - not brecause of the fruit it bore but because of the root it had. Its 'wheat' nature was not lost even though it had many tares around it. I wonder if you have ever gone into the fields and seen this practically. I have, and believe me before the fruit comes, it is difficult to differentiate between the wheat plant and the tare plant, thats why the farmer i.e. God said in verse 29 "But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them."
Once we are born again and God's nature is put into us, there is no way we can 'undo' His nature and take on the old nature again. If that could happen, we would be superior to God and His nature. It would be in our hands how and when to take it upon us or put it off depending on our percieved circumstances or needs.
I said it earlier, I say it again - if you obtain salvation by works, you can maintain salvation by works; Jesus on the cross paid for each and every one of my sins that I would commit throughout my lifetime from my first breath to my last one, a couple of thousand of years before I was even born on this earth. He did not simply pay for that part of my burden of sin which I would commit before my repentance and left it upon me to figure out how to be rid of that which I would do after repentance, since He had already throughly cleansed me once and can't be doing it again and again; or face the prospect of loosing my salvation and bring to nothing His atoning work and power.
If I live a wayard life, I loose my rewards in heaven, and for sure I suffer here on earth - God does not overlook it or condone it just because I am His child. Like all parents who take corrective measures to ensure that their children obey and grow up well, He does too. But He does not cast us away - if we are His child to start with. Being saved is certainly not a free licencse to live a wayward life and only an unsaved person would interpret and use it that way.
About the spotless bride - very true, no doubts. Jesus is coming for His spotless bride, but who makes/renders her spotless and clean? Does the bride do it? Read Ephesians 6:26, 27 "that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." Jesus Himself does the sanctifying and the cleansing, not the bride!
So dear sister in the Lord, my submission remains, If one is saved, it is for eternity, to loose salvation one would have to be mightier and superior to God - an impossibility.
I love you brother.
