ABlessedMan
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- Joined
- Jan 12, 2015
- Messages
- 31
I think that verse goes with the verse that follows it, and we need both to fully understand.It' s true Augustine originated predestination, Calvin took it to its conclusion step by step. He finished what Augustine started.
What do you think of this verse?
Hebrews 3:14
"For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;"
Hebrews 3:14-15
14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence firm until the end. 15 As it says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Verse 15 speaks of those who hear, but do not receive. They rebel and harden their hearts against the truth. In verse 14, the believer, who did not rebel in such a way, has the "initial confidence" (or, in Greek, 'the beginning of confidence'). Verse 15 in the Greek actually begins with 'while it is said' and some translations do not place a period at the end of 14 (in Koine Greek there were no verse numbers or punctuation). And what is bolded in v15 above is actually quoted from Ps 95:7-8.
So in Verse 14 we see that the believer is held to the confidence that he was first given....until the end. He won't lose it. Why?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
You are not your own. You belong to God now. You were bought with a price.
John 10:28-30
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”
So do you think that you are special, that you can snatch yourself away from God. Nobody else can. The Father and Jesus have you and nobody, not even youself, can take them from God's hand.
Do you think that God will call you, then when you accept the call, justify you, regenerate you and send the Holy Spirit to indwell in you and begin the process of sanctification, if he knows (and he is omniscient, is he not?) that you will one day renounce your faith, become unsaved?
How does he keep you? Well, besides being in his hand, his, not your own, there is the Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
You are sealed with the Holy Spirit, from the time you are saved until Jesus returns to redeem you. Do you think you can break God's seal? Do you think God is incapable of keeping his Word in this?
So point me to a verse that specifically speaks of how one unregenerates. Or how God unjustifies you, taking away the imputation of righteousness that Jesus robed you with.
No, salvation is not ours to give to ourselves (we can't save ourselves); nor is it something that we can take away from ourselves (we can't unsave ourselves). God, and God alone, deals in salvation.