“Perseverance / “Once-Saved-Always-Saved”? Finale`” by Romans
Tonight, we are concluding our current Series, "Perseverance / "Once-Saved-Always-Saved?" Perseverance, is, as I have been saying throughout this Series, a feature of Christianity that I think needs to be more emphasized than it is. As Christians, we should not view our membership in the Family and Kingdom of God in the same way that we view a lifetime membership in a Health Club where we can still be regarded as members in good standing even if we never darken their door after signing on the dotted line. This is not what being a Christian is all about.
We moved from seeing the urgent need for perseverance being repeatedly urged in God's Word, to my asking the question, “If the 'Once-Save-Always-Saved' Doctrine is true, why must we persevere? From there, I began to unfold the many Scriptural proofs that “Once-Saved-Always-Saved,” as it is currently being taught, is not based God's Word. I am well aware that this is a sensitive and controversial issue. But I present this material not to be controversial, but to correct what I consider to be, not just a doctrinal error, but a false teaching with the very real potential for catastrophic consequences.
I can see how sensitive a matter this subject is is in the significant reduction of people who read my Notes that I post at the4gospels.net Forum. The first five Installment of this Series were titled, “Perseverance.” But when I added the words “Once-Saved-Always-Saved?” to that original title, readership of my Notes dropped. People don’t even want to read what I have to say, or even see if I was writing in agreement with or disagreement with the doctrine.
This doctrine of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” presumes that believers are saved, now, and that believers cannot lose their salvation, both of which I have shown are not correct. Contrary to this, Scripture clearly tells us, first, that our salvation is yet future. We read Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:13, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same SHALL BE saved.” The end has not yet come. Decades after Jesus' resurrection and the Day of Pentecost, Paul wrote that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). Anything that is only nearer to us cannot also be here, now.
Think of this doctrine this way: If a mom was visited by a daughter who lived across town, and, as she was leaving, the mom said, “Call me once you get home,” it would be understood by both that her daughter would not call until she safely arrived home. Allow me to say as clearly as I can that the Bible indeed teaches “Once-Saved-Always-Saved.” So... Yes! “ONCE-Saved…” But we are not yet saved, yet. When we are saved, THEN we shall be “always saved,” but not before.
I also want to repeat in this last Installment, that our salvation, which Jesus referred to as our “redemption,” does not appear until Jesus appears. When speaking of End Time events, Jesus said, “... when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28). If, in an End-Times context, and two-thousand years after Jesus spoke the words that our redemption is still only nigh, then we are saved not, now, and we cannot be saved, now, and will not experience Salvation until Jesus’ Second Coming.
We are not saved, now. The Apostle Paul speaks of our past, present and future status of Christians in several ways in his epistle to the Romans. Notice the progression that he establishes, and also where he clearly delineates what is past, present and future.
He writes, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while WE WERE yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being NOW justified by his blood, we SHALL BE SAVED from wrath through him.” So we WERE sinners, we ARE “justified” now, but we SHALL BE SAVED in the future.
He continues, “For if, when we WERE enemies, we WERE reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, BEING reconciled, we SHALL BE SAVED by his life” (Romans 5:8-10). In this verse, Paul tells us that we WERE reconciled, and again repeats that we “SHALL BE SAVED.” And that is where the “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” teaching jumps the track. It confuses our currently being forgiven and justified and reconciled to God, with our also being saved, now. But Scripture nowhere teaches that.
Next, let us review and examine a few Scriptures than undeniably present Salvation as a future event that will coincide with Jesus’ Second Coming. Pay attention to the wording: First, we read in 1 Peter 1:3-5: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
When does Peter say Salvation will be revealed? In “the last time,” and not now. Salvation will be revealed in “the last time.” Now, I think that all of us may believe that we are living in the “last time” or the “End Time,” now. But Jesus has not yet returned. When He returns we shall obtain Salvation in full, and in a manner that it will never be withdrawn after we receive it. When we see the signs of His return, Jesus said in Luke 21:28, that it is at that time that our redemption still only draweth nigh.
Notice, next, how Hebrews 9:28 also sets the time of our Salvation coinciding with Jesus' return. There we read, "So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation." Over and over and over Salvation is linked to the time of Christ’s Second Coming. I cannot fathom how and why this truth is not seen. And if it is seen, why it is not believed or taught. I cannot explain the cherry-picking of some Scriptures, and the glossing over of other Scriptures, by ministers and other Bible teachers. I can only teach what is there.
As I have shown in the last five Installments, Scripture clearly, consistently, and repeatedly warns members of the Body of Christ who fall away after they have been “partakers of the Holy Spirit” (Hebrews 6:4), and who “sin willfully” (Hebrews 10:26), and who were “sanctified” (Hebrews 10:29). For them awaits, “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27). If this is not being “unaccepted,” then I don't know what being unaccepted is?
As I conclude this Series, there are yet a few significant points that I need to share with you that exposes as false the doctrine of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved.” These points are not my own ideas or interpretations. All of these points are clear and indisputable Scriptural points that I present to you to better determine whether “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” is true.
I have already pointed out in previous Installments two parables that demonstrate that a Christian can turn away from Christ and be rejected: There is the salt that loses its savour is cast out, and the branch that bears no fruit is broken off, and gathered to be burned. But Jesus also speaks directly of servants who turn away from Christ, and suffer the consequences, and without the use of symbolism that is open to interpretation:
Beginning in Luke 12:43, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder {“will cut him in pieces,” ESV} and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”
Notice that the subject, here, is “the servant” who says “My Lord delayeth His coming.” It is not atheists or critics of Christianity or unbelievers who say “My Lord delays His Coming” or “My Lord,” at all. And, “my Lord” or not, they don’t say that Jesus “delayeth His coming.” They outright reject His first coming, much less any notion of His Second Coming. Peter tells us plainly that, “… there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
Jesus describes the subject of this teaching a “servant” who will say “My Lord delayeth His coming,” and as a result will fall away into beating his fellow-servants, and will begin to “eat and drink and to be drunken.” Jesus continued, “The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him…” Who, do you suppose, is the Lord coming unexpectantly?It should be obvious that Jesus is speaking of Himself, and His Second Coming.
And who is the wayward and backslidden servant of that Lord who will be cut in pieces, and be appointed to have his portion with unbelievers? It is a believer, a member of the Body of Christ, who turns away from Christ, returns to a life of worldliness and ungodly activity, and, if he or she believed in “Once-Saved-Always-Saved,” finds out that “eternal assurance” has no Scriptural support, and that he or she can experience the catastrophe of being “unaccepted”!
Changing the subject only slightly, let us next consider what happens at the end of every Revival Meeting I have ever seen: there is an Altar Call. Billy Graham, or whoever the evangelist is who is conducting the revival, invites those in attendance to come up and “have their sins washed away,” and to “give their hearts to the Lord” and be saved. But there is an aspect of repentance and becoming a Christian that Jesus spoke of, that I personally have never heard any evangelist include in his Altar Call at the end of the Revival Meeting. This omission is also true of every minister I have heard in his Altar Call at the end of the weekly Church Service.
Jesus spoke of “counting the cost.” He said, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:26-30).
In the same way that the repeated, urgent warnings for believers to persevere, and run the race and fight the good fight would not be necessary to declare to believers if “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” were true, Jesus woulds not need to speak to His followers about counting the cost of their discipleship beforehand, lest they are unable to finish what they started. If “Once-Saved-Always-Saved,” as it is currently taught, were true, all this would be completely unnecessary.
Of Jesus’ teaching of “counting the cost,” Matthew Henry writes, “When our duty to our parents comes in competition with our evident duty to Christ, we must give Christ the preference. If we must either deny Christ or be banished from our families and relations (as many of the primitive Christians were), we must rather lose their society than his favour.
Every man loves his own life, no man ever yet hated it; and we cannot be Christ's disciples if we do not love him better than our own lives, so as rather to have our lives embittered by cruel bondage, nay, and taken away by cruel deaths, than to dishonour Christ, or depart from any of his truths and ways…
Since he has been so just to us as to tell us plainly what difficulties we shall meet with in following him, let us be so just to ourselves as to weigh the matter seriously before we take upon us a profession of religion. It is better never to begin than not to proceed; and therefore before we begin we must consider what it is to proceed. This is to act rationally, and as becomes men, and as we do in other cases.
When we take upon us a profession of religion we are like a man that undertakes to build a tower, and therefore must consider the expense of it (Luke_14:28-30): Which of you, intending to build a tower or stately house for himself, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost? and he must be sure to count upon a great deal more than his workmen will tell him it will cost. Let him compare the charge with his purse, lest he make himself to be laughed at, by beginning to build what he is not able to finish.”
Why would Jesus’ prerequisite warning to “count the cost” not also be included in an Altar Call? Is it because the evangelist subscribes to the doctrine of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved”? Is it because they believe that whoever comes up to the front, and repeats the “Sinner’s Prayer,” is saved right there and then, and that his or her salvation is “eternally secure” from that point until they die? Then Jesus would never have told us to “count the cost” before becoming a Christian. And this is why I believe the doctrine of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” is not only false, it is catastrophically false. New converts to Christianity are not being cautioned in advance to “count the cost” of their discipleship before becoming a disciple.
After his Revival, The Billy Graham Organization conducted a follow-up with the local Churches where their Revivals were held. They wanted to see what actual increase in attendance was at local Churches, compared to the number who answered the Altar Call and came forward. They determined that on average, only 4% of the people who went up front, and repeated the “Sinner’s Prayer,” actually continued their interest in Christianity long enough to begin attending Church Services in the few weeks that followed the Revival. And that was without the prerequisite “count the cost” warning being mentioned in the Altar Call.
But… there are some who embrace the doctrine of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” who believe and teach that if a person answers the Altar Call, and repeats the “Sinner’s Prayer,” they’re IN… they are Saved, and they cannot lose their Salvation. They cannot be “unaccepted” no matter how they live the rest of their lives. Counting the cost, perseverance, fighting the good fight and overcoming to the end are all unnecessary and irrelevant.
In stark contrast to this, I would like you to consider the many times a clear and consistent conditional “if” reality for continuing in God’s Word, and in abiding in Christ appears in the epistles that are written to members of the Church. In all of the following verses that I will cite, I would like you to notice the use of the pronoun “we” that applies exclusively to Church members. Some of these verses were cited in previous Installments in this Series, but they bear repeating. I will present these all in rapid fire. If time allows, I will add commentary insights to the most significant verses. As I read these verse, please notice the pronoun “we” being used, identifying the participants as Church members.
Galatians 6:9: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, IF WE faint not.”
Hebrews 2:3: “How shall we escape, IF WE neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;”
Hebrews 3:6: “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, IF WE hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Hebrews 3:14: “For we are made partakers of Christ, IF WE hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;”
Hebrews 10:26: “For IF WE sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,”
Hebrews 12:25: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, IF WE turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:”
Next let’s look at all of the conditional IF statements that are written with the pronoun “ye” involved, which, as with the pronoun “we” applies exclusively to Church members who are the recipients to the epistles being written, and not outsiders.
Colossians 1:21 and 23: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled… IF YE continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
1 Thessalonians 3:8: “For now we live, IF YE stand fast in the Lord.”
Hebrews 3:15: “While it is said, To day IF YE will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”
2 Peter1:10: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for IF YE do these things, ye shall never fall:” “These things” are adding to our faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity.” Peter states in verse 9, “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” These words do not even remotely hint at any “eternal assurance.”
I want to read one more particularly powerful verse conditional “IF WE” statement that I saved to the end. It is found in Paul final epistle: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: IF WE deny him, he also will deny us:” (2 Timothy 2:12.).
I have encountered some people who, when they realizing I am quoting Paul to defend a belief, assign less weight to it, They prefer believing something if Jesus, Himself, said it. Albert Barnes offers a cross-reference to a corroborating statement made by Jesus.
We read, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33). By clearly stating, “If WE deny Him, He also will deny US,” Paul includes Church members in Jesus' “whosoever shall deny me” in the potential for denying Christ, and being denied by Him.
Of this, Albert Barnes comments, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me ... - The same word in the original is translated “confess” and “profess,” 1 Timothy_6:12-13; 2 John_1:7; Romans 10:10. It means to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, and our dependence on him for salvation, and our attachment to him, in every proper manner. This profession may be made in uniting with a church, at the communion, in conversation, and in conduct. The Scriptures mean, by a profession of religion, an exhibition of it in every circumstance of the life and before all people.
It is not merely in one act that we must do it, but in every act. We must be ashamed neither of the person, the character, the doctrines, nor the requirements of Christ. If we are; if we deny him in these things before people; if we are unwilling to express our attachment to him in every way possible, then it is right that he should “disown all connection with us,” or deny us before God, and he will do it.”
It is vital that we realize that this statement of both Jesus and Paul that if we deny Christ, He will deny us, must be understood in its full application. I must remind everyone that, in a moment of weakness and apparently fear for his own life, Peter denied Christ not once but three times. But I also remind you that that immediately after the rooster crowed, we are told that he “went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).
The denial we are speaking of hear is not a momentary weakness. It is a settled and final abandonment and desertion of Christ, and a premeditated return to the world, to a life of ungodliness and carnality. It is a deliberate and wilfull throwing Christ under the bus, and Christianity to the curb. This person denies Christ, and then expresses zero remorse, and does not afterward deeply and wholeheartedly repent. This is the person whom Christ will also deny. Are any here capable of this?
People seem to be so terrified at the idea of being unaccepted by Christ, and losing their Salvation, but that loss of Salvation is not being God rejected us. We read of Jesus' words, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). If anyone loses their Salvation, it is not because He leaves or forsakes us, it is because we choose to turn our backs on Him. The person who loses his or her Salvation after slamming the door in Jesus' face, and willfully relapsing back into the ways of this world. Peter graphically described it as “the dog returning to his vomit” (2 Peter 2:22). Who among us is that person?
Consider Peter's entire thought in his Second Epistle: “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.'” (2 Peter 2:20-22). Here, once again, are people who were members of the Church, but “turned back from the holy commandment.
As we move forward, in the Book of Revelation, Seven Letters are sent from Jesus to the Seven Churches in Asia. Five of these Seven Letter are letters rebuking and chastising these Churches for various ungodly activities. I want to focus on two of these letters which show beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the claim that a Church member “cannot be unaccepted” is in direct contradiction to what is written in these letters.
To the Church at Ephesus, Jesus writes, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:4-5).
Of this, Albert Barnes writes, “The meaning is, that the church gave light in Ephesus; and that what he would do in regard to that place would be like removing a lamp, and leaving a place in darkness. The expression is equivalent to saying that the church there would cease to exist. The proper idea of the passage is, that the church would be wholly extinct; and it is observable that this is a judgment more distinctly disclosed in reference to this church than to any other of the seven churches.
There is not the least evidence that the church at Ephesus did repent, and the threatening has been most signally fulfilled. Long since the church has become utterly extinct, and for ages there was not a single professing Christian there. Every memorial of there having been a church there has departed, and there are nowhere, not even in Nineveh, Babylon, or Tyre, more affecting demonstrations of the fulfillment of ancient prophecy than in the present state of the ruins of Ephesus.”
The Apostle Paul attempted to head off the ruin of the Church at Ephesus. In chapter five of his epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul urged them in Ephesians 5:1-2: “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour”; “… in in Ephesians 5:8 we read, “ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light”;
In Ephesians 5:14-15 he wrote, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” And then in Ephesians 6:10-11, he writes, “… my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Years later, Jesus writes, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:5).
Next, Jesus wrote to the Church of the Laodiceans. He did not write to those who were outside the Church, or to the unbelievers of Laodicea. He wrote to the Church that was there, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth… As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:15-16, and 19).
Here, again, we see the clear and undeniable threat of not only a Church member, but an entire Church being “unaccepted” except they repent. Again, as Jesus phrased it, “I will spue thee out of my mouth.” That is a powerful and graphic rejection of apostasy and falling away from Christ that utterly renounces the current false teaching of “Once-Saved-Always-Saved.”
Is there any way that anyone can read these words, and still maintain that Christians cannot be “unaccepted”?
Let’s see:
John MacArthur writes in the Notes of the MacArthur Daily Bible, “The Church at Laodicea was neither cold, openly rejecting Christ, nor hot, filled with spiritual zeal. Instead, its members were lukewarm, hypocrites professing to know Christ, but not truly belonging to Him.” Here, again, as with the explaining away the punishment for apostate believers in Hebrews 6 and 10, John MacArthur attempts to explain away the direct hit on “Once-Saved-Always-Saved” by claiming that these were only hypocrites that did not belong to Christ. Mere spectators and hypocrites are not called the Church anywhere in the New Testament. This letter was addressed to members of the Church at Laodicea.
Jesus stated in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My Church.” The Greek word translated “Church” is “ekklesia,” meaning “called out” is used both in Matthew 16:18, and in this letter to the Church at Laodicea. If this group were never a body of believers, Jesus would not have called them the Church. There is nowhere else in the Book of Revelation or anywhere else in Scripture that Jesus or God wrote a personal letter to those who were never associated with Him. There is no letter from God to the Canaanites or to the Amalekites. There is no letter from Jesus addressed to the Gnostics or to the Nicolaitans.
The fact Jesus is writing to Laodiceans at all, and that they are included with six other Churches is proof that these members of the Church at Laodicea were apostate Christians being addressed, and being graphically described with disgust, and being threatened with rejection for not abiding in Him. The groundless doctrine of “eternal assurance” cannot stand against the words that Jesus wrote, here.
“Once-Saved-Always-Saved’ lures Christians to not put on the whole armour of God, to lose their first love, to allow lukewarmness to overtake them, and to not see the urgent need to run the race and fight the good fight (2 Timothy 4:7) and finish the course and “work out their own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) based on the baseless assurance, taught by people in whom they invest undeserving trust, that they that they cannot be “unaccepted”!
Regarding Jesus’ letter to the lukewarm Church at Laodicea, Matthew Henry writes, “A severe punishment threatened: I will spue thee out of my mouth. As lukewarm water turns the stomach, and provokes to a vomit, lukewarm professors turn the heart of Christ against them. He is sick of them, and cannot long bear them. They may call their lukewarmness charity, meekness, moderation, and a largeness of soul; it is nauseous to Christ, and makes those so that allow themselves in it. They shall be rejected, and finally rejected; for far be it from the holy Jesus to return to that which has been thus rejected.”
Finally, I want to make sure you understand what I am saying, here: “Once-Saved-Always-Saved,” as it actually appears in God’s Word, is absolutely true. We cannot lose our Salvation once we are saved but… as I have clearly established, our Salvation is yet future. That truth is clearly and repeatedly established in the Word of God.
Just in case you were wondering, I have not glossed over the fact that there are a number of verses that say that we are saved, present tense. Let’s look at each: In Romans 8:24 we read, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” Here Salvation is described as being based on hope, and a future fulfillment. In 1 Corinthians 15:2, we read: “By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.” Here, again, Salvation is listed as being conditional: “IF YE keep in memory what I preached unto you.”
In the remaining three verses, we do read that we are saved: 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God”; 2 Corinthians 2:15: “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:”; and Ephesians 2:5: “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
These references to being saved now cannot and do not contradict all that we have seen in the final five Installments of this Series that clearly show that our Salvation is a yet-future Event, and that a member of the Church can be “unaccepted.” The answer is that when we first come to Christ, we are saved from the punishment that we incurred for the sins that we previously committed. The problem is that we have all sinned, and daily, since we originally accepted Christ as our Savior.
For those daily, ongoing sins that we commit, we are called to confess them to God, and to repent of them. When we do, “God is faithful to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). But also consider this: It is not an accident that the petition in the Lord’s Prayer for forgiveness immediately follows our asking God to “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread and forgiveness are two daily necessities. But I hasten to add, that when we ask God for forgiveness, we ask Him with these words: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
It occurs to me that in asking God to “forgive us as we forgive,” that in reality we are asking God, “Forgive us only if we forgive others.” That is not my interpretation: Immediately after concluding the words of The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus makes that same exact point as He reiterates the terms of our asking for, and being forgiven: He says, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Forgiveness is a deep and oft-repeated subject in God's Word. And I will use the verses regarding forgiveness that I have already quoted to introduce the topic of our next Series: “Forgiveness.” I plan next week, God Willing, to review and examine what Scripture has to say about forgiveness. I invite all of you who are hearing or reading my words to join us at this same place and time next week.
This concludes this Evening's Discussion and this Series, “Perseverance / 'Once-Save-Always-Saved'? Finale`.”
These are the Notes for a Discussion that was never aired "live." Those who were normally in attendance, and had been for years, let me know that they did not agree with "my" teaching on this subject, and that if I continued to teach it, they would not attend. It was not "my" words of doctrine, correction, reproof and instruction that they rejected, and refused to hear. See 2 Timothy 3:16-17, and 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
As of this writing, I do not know if I will ever return to the "live" Discussion platform on the Discord App, or if these are my last Notes, here in this Forum.
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