Question: Does the Bible provide conditional security for the salvation of believers? In other words, can a Christian after being saved, fall away from salvation to go to hell fire because of His works or attitude? Is there a Biblical justification for the falling away from faith?
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
This statement is from a group that believes salvation is not eternal but rather is conditional, which means if we fail to walk in faith we may even end up in hell fire. They have stated, 'The Bible clearly teaches that the believers who are justified and saved need to walk the Narrow Road and enter Heaven through the Small Gate (Matthew 7:13-14).' There is a difference between need to walk and if we fail we are followed with the consequent threat? Yes we need to walk in the faith we have inherited from God, but when we fail, God lifts us up to make us walk in the faith he has given us (Heb 12:6; 2 Tim 2:13), because he is the author and finisher of it all, so that we can be confident that He who began a good work of our salvation shall complete it until the end (Prov 24:16; Heb 12:2; Php 1:6).
Does this mean the small gate is to walk in works of faith, big gate is to walk in the works of unbelief? By no means. Actually, it means, if we accept Jesus Christ to get saved for eternity, we have chosen to walk the narrow path or small gate of faith, if we have rejected Him, we have chosen to walk in the worldly ways of unbelief which is big gate every person walks. Why do we say so like this? Because when certain people asked Jesus, what shall we do to do the works that God wants us to do? He replied, this is the work of God , that "you believe in Him whom He sent" (John 6:28-29). In other words, there is no separate work that qualifies any person who believes in Jesus, than to believe Him fully knowing that he cannot save himself for eternity except to believe that Jesus died for Him to be saved from sins (1 Cor 3:11-13). If it is so by our works added to salvation, according to the above statement made, my question is, how is that works can ever justify and save a person ever? Because we all fail now and then to walk in our own way, and will, and place, until God chastises to turn us away and lovingly draw near to us as sons and daughters of God. That means, salvation becomes a conditional gift and is not a free gift from God?
Does God give salvation and then changes his heart to take it away from us because of our works? If it is so, then God has emotionally saved us like humans when he felt good and when he feels bad humans are thrown away from it because of our bad behavior, which makes him take back his salvation according to his whims and fancies. It makes God so changeable, that we cannot even trust him to know whether we are saved or not? Also it means that God did not know before hand that we are useless and unprofitable servants for him, when he chose to save us from sin by redeeming us, so that later when we show our true color he is trying to discard and discredit us. It shows that God is not omniscient, if he acts like this, but in truth God knew all about our inherent sin nature which drives us and makes us his enemies, unporfitableness and uselessness spiritually for him, but in spite chose us and have called us to be saints in His Kingdom because of His unconditional love for us.
No humans can ever be saved by our behavior, whether good or bad, wicked or righteous? There is no human who ever does only good and never do evil, whether with salvation or after salvation, it both fits equally well (Eccl 7:20). Why because, we all have the sin nature within us which makes us depart from the Holy God our Creator and Lord of our lives. Only the believers life is different from all the unbelievers, because whenever he does wrong, he asks God for forgiveness and pleads for his grace so that he or she as a child of God might be able to overcome the sin which has caused them to get tripped away from the Presence of God and his holiness. But for the unbeliever who chooses to enjoy sin and walk in the very nature of iniquity, it makes them lose the consciousness of the Creator God more and more even to the point of becoming an atheist. That is the only difference, between the saved and the unsaved. In other words, the believers are saints who sin, unbelievers are sinners who live in sin!
But what does the Bible say regarding this matter? The Bible says, "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Num 23:19, NIV). According to the above Scripture, we have a God who never changes his mind and thus the promise of salvation is not temporal, but rather it is eternal and that is why the salvation of our souls is described in the Bible as "eternal Salvation" (Heb 5:9). Hallelujah! Glory to God!
So, Can a Christian fall away?
Even though the Scripture warns all Believers that they should walk in the "newness of life" (Rom 6:4) after salvation, it never tells them to do it as a commandment so that they can be saved. Instead in emphasizes it says that if they are saved, they should walk with God in his holiness out of gratefulness towards God for receiving the free salvation that Jesus has already provided (Rom 6:1-3, 5-8), further it says that each believers should choose to bear fruit of all the godly character in their lives to show to the world in darkness that we as believers belong to the kingdom of light because we are already the children of God (John 1:12-13; John 15:8). So the answer to the above question is a definite NO! Our faith works carries eternal reward, but it can never save us from sin even for a million years ahead (Rev 22:12).
SO SALVATION IS NOT A PRODUCT OF OUR WORKS, IT IS INDEED THE WORK OF JESUS ON THE CROSS, RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION FOREVER AND EVER, BUT THE WORKS AFTER SALVATION IS A MUST CHOICE OF WORK THAT IF WE STAY CLOSE AND ATTACHED TO GOD WE WILL PRODUCE IT FOR THE GLORY OF OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN WHICH CARRIES ETERNAL REWARD FOR US!
Union and fellowship are two different things in our Christian life. Union happens with God in our spirit to His Spirit when we are saved where God forgives all our past, present and future sins positionally forever, but fellowship with God happens after salvation when we walk with God in our daily life to produce fruit to bring glory and be a witness as a children of God. Conscious sins, pet sins and unknowing sins we commit and omit, these sins when unconfessed and not forsaken becomes a obstacle in our fellowship with God. So we must confess all our sins by faith to God before we can experience the fellowship of the Father in Heaven without any hindrance for the Glory of God!
CHRISTIANS (those truly saved to begin with) CANNOT CONTINUE TO SIN WITHOUT LOSING their REWARD OF GOD IN THEIR PERSONAL LIVES in the area of spiritual, soulish, physical, financial and social area of their lives, WHICH IS THE REALM OF THEIR EARTHLY LIVES and FUTURE HEAVENLY REWARD WHICH WILL ALSO BE BASED ON THE EARTHLY SPIRITUAL PERFORMANCE, lived for the Glory of God:
1. Any who depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1), even though they might come to the Church, if they are not truly saved by faith, may depart again in to their old way of life and may even stop coming to church in the pride of their own heart to form a cult or even become a atheist (1 John 2:19).
2. Any who wander away from the faith (1 Tim. 6:10), will pierce themselves with earthly sorrows of the world in their lives, but it does not point them in the direction of losing salvation, but the loss of reward and earthly Shalom of prosperity in their soul lives (1 Cor 3:14-15).
3. Any who strays from the faith will lose their eternal reward (1 Tim. 6:21), it will happen only when the pure doctrine of Christ is abandoned by the believer to instead they start to hear the profane and idle chatter and contradictions which will be used by those who boast of their "knowledge" as unbelievers, but through it prove that they do not have anything spiritual within them (Gal 6:3-4; 1 Tim 3:6).
4. Any one as a believer if they cast of their first faith or love which works through faith toward God (1 Tim. 5:12; Rev 2:4-5; Gal 5:6), it shows how weak they spiritually are. In context, it speaks about young women who want to follow the faith initially but then later in their life give in to their fleshly desires to go in their own fleshly ways, the apostle Paul advises that the Church should not be burdened to provide ration to such women but rather to elderly woman who deserve it because they have no support from anybody to run their lives but are consistently devoted towards God and serve the people of God in their lives. Again when such things happen the adversary is given opportunity to speak reproachfully seeing a young woman of faith idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. It is better for such young women to get married and bear children than to stay single saying that they are devoted to Christ and then desire to marry later when they lose their first love and faith! Such people need to repent and do the first works or else will lose their reward in heaven, so must carefully keep their witness before the world of humans who see them as they follow Christ (Rev 2:5).
5. Anybody can make a shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim. 1:19), if they fail to keep their faith intact by keeping their conscience clear by asking forgiveness for their sins they commit. The faith-ship which get wrecked might stay afloat for sometime, but eventually will start to travel without direction and purpose. When it will start to travel anywhere the wind blows, many times it might even get drowned in the world of the sea of sin and darkness of the world or might be taken to some place by the waves of unbelief until it hits the shoreline of physical death (1 John 1:7, 9; Jam 1:6). Ship wrecked faith might make a believer get judged physically by God, as they might be deceived by Satan to even blaspheme the Lord who has saved them and may lose all the eternal reward totally except that their soul will get saved (1 Cor 3:14-15; 5:3-5; 2:5-11). Glory to God!
6. Anyone who fall from grace (Gal. 5:4), are the ones who have tried to set aside the grace of God by believing their own works of righteousness through the law, instead of trusting the works of faith which comes to them by continuing to believe the Gospel of Christ which has been preached to them for the Glory of God (Gal 2:21; 3:3-5). It is a subtle deception of Satan to make people trust in their own works after their salvation, by doing so they lose their great eternal reward because all works done without the guidance of Jesus Christ and his character are of no value eternally (John 15:5), and further without the direction and the power of the Spirit will end up as dead works (Heb 6:1). Anyone who has not walked in the liberty by which Christ has made us free through salvation, and instead choose foolishly to be religiously entangled again with the yoke of bondage by again following circumcision of the law, to him Christ will profit nothing both earthly and eternally, except the salvation that He has given to them for believing him initially will stay intact (Gal 5:1-2; John 10:27-30; 6:37). And also if that person thinks that by keeping the law, God will bless him, he needs to keep the whole law without even breaking one of them, which is impossible without the grace of our Lord Jesus and walking in the law of liberty of love (Jam 2:10; Gal 5:3; Rom 4:4; 11:35). So falling from grace is a term that conveys that even though a person is saved, if he has detached himself from Christ by later trying to justify himself by works before God, he has fallen from grace and therefore will not be able to receive the grace of God that produces fruit and works (Eph 2:8-10; John 15:1-8). Another category of those who fall from grace are those who are exposed to Gospel, but does not abide in Jesus by loving the word of God to be kept in their heart, he or she will not be really saved but rather is cast out as a branch and is withered to be burned in hell fire later as unbelievers who have rejected salvation, they thus have no ability to produce fruit forever and ever without receiving the new nature of God within (John 15:6; 1 John 4:13; Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:13-15; Matt 3:10). Such people who have fallen from Grace needs to repent from their dead works and religious works to follow Christ through faith again to be really saved for eternity!
7. If anyone turns you away from Him who called you [(i.e.) God the Father], to turn to a different gospel [of prosperity and health and wealth, saved by grace but getting perfected through works of the law, and the likes...] (Gal. 1:6), that person is in the danger of becoming accursed for troubling the Church and distorting the Gospel of Christ (Gal 1:7-8). Eternal rewards might go to someone who deserves it, when you lose your reward for having turned away from the true Gospel of Christ which gives eternal reward for all the overcomers over sin (Rev 3:11; 22:11-14, 15). So every one who has turned away from the Gospel should turn towards God and repent to receive the eternal reward!
8. If anyone receives the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1), it means he has denied and rejected the Gospel of salvation which has been sent towards Him by God to get him saved from sin and death (2 Cor 6:2). No human should ever receive the grace of God now in vain, because the wisdom of God to save cannot be useful to a unsaved dead man after his physical death (Prov 1:20-33).
9. Anyone who swerve or strayed from the truth, upsetting the faith of some by spreading false doctrine like saying that the resurrection of believers has already happened, and that there is no more rapture of the Church (2 Tim. 2:18), are those who overthrow the faith of those who believed in the Gospel which restores them from sin now and also helps them live in hope to be resurrected again to live forever with God (1 Cor 15:12-19; Rom 7:24-25; 8:23-25). Every true believer should repent from all false doctrines by holding on to the pure doctrine of the Gospel of Christ through learning it from the Holy Spirit, and clear their doubts from reputed and authentic men and women of God (Tit 2:4-8; Heb 13:7; 1 Tim 2:12-14, 15; 3:5; Jam 5:14, 20; 1 John 2:20, 27)!
10. Anyone who drift away from the truth (Heb. 2:1), is someone who does not give the more earnest heed to the things told to them by the Holy Spirit and the Gospel speakers of the five-fold ministry of God (John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13-15; Rom 10:14, 17; Eph 4:11-16). No humans should ever neglect "so great a salvation" which was first spoken by Jesus and by those who first heard him speak who later were witnesses to spread to all people and places around them, God also bearing witness through signs, wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit has authenticated it as sent from Him, that is from the highest heaven which is His throne (Heb 2:3-4). If someone continue to drift away from the truth after they are saved, they might lose their eternal reward, but if before salvation anyone have started to drift, then the way to hell is wide open to consume such persons who has no value for the Gospel which saves them from the wrath of God to come (1 Thess 5:9). So we all need to repent constantly and be saved from all sins continually till we meet God face to face!
11. If anyone has an evil, unbelieving heart, leading themselves and others around them to fall away from the living God by hardening their heart when they speak to us which might influence our heart if we let it freely, we should fear of physical judgment that might come upon us to leave this earth before our appointed time due to our continual disobedience with an insensitive heart (Heb. 3:12). All the Israelites who were saved through the water and they lived under the cloud symbolizing the word of God and the Holy Spirit, died in the wilderness due to their evil unbelieving heart which led them astray constantly (1 Cor 10:1-6; John 15:3; Eph 5:26; 1 Pet 1:23; Luke 3:16). Even if we are saved, and still continue to live without the fear of God, we might even be chastised even to physical death which is the maximum but eternally saved by the works of Christ and His grace (Heb 12:6; 1 Cor 11:27-29, 30, 31, 33). It is no child's play to sin, because if we are playing with sin we will be chastised by God, and if we continue to sin willfully against God by constantly living by the desires of the fleshly nature, then there can be no chance for repentance as it is a gift of God, then we might have to be judged physically by God (Heb 10:26-31; 1 John 2:28; 2 Tim 2:25). So it is better to repent now from living in the hardness of our unbelieving heart, than to regret for the lack of eternal reward when we live in eternity!
12. If anyone is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:12-14), the only way out of that spiritual stagnation and darkness that surrounds it is to "exhort one another daily" so that we will repent of our sins to God and not be "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb 3:13). In other words, unconfessed sin hardens our heart, but confessing it to God and one another in fellowship makes us be cleansed in the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7, 9), so that we will continue to hold on to the beginning of our confidence of faith steadfast to the end (1 Thess 5:11; Rom 10:17). Even the social media we have can be used in a spiritual way to encourage one another in our faith, and look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus for the Church as we see the end of end times are upon us all in a unprecedented way (Heb 10:25). Hallelujah!
13. Anyone who fails to reach the promise of entering into His rest (Heb. 4:1), will be because of being disobedient to the voice of God and conviction of the Holy Spirit in failing to believe Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to receive His grace in their lives (John 16:7-11; 1 Cor 12:3). Those who have entered God's rest are the believers who have ceased from their works to please God (Heb 4:9-10), why because they have come to understand that believing Jesus is the work of God that God desires from them and nothing else (John 6:28-29). Also the believers when they feel that when their lives become labor heavy and heavy laden, they go to Jesus and pour out all their cares upon Him because He hears it and then cares to solve it all for them in His time and in His way and in His will through faith of the believers (Matt 11:28; 1 Peter 5:6-7). Until the time comes for the miracle to happen in their lives, the believers humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and the counsel of the elders of the Church, and as a result they take the hardship that they experience as the will of God and continue to face the trial by yoking themselves with Jesus which makes their character get refined and fine tuned to be like Jesus for eternity ahead (Matt 11:29-30). By walking with Jesus in prayer and doing the work of being positive in faith and rejoicing, they find rest for their souls by receiving the joy, peace and righteousness of the Holy Spirit (Matt 11:29-30; Rom 14:17). Until the times comes in the will of God and they receive the miracles of their lives in a moment of time (1 Cor 4:20). Hallelujah! Glory to God!
14. Anyone who falls by disobedience to enter His rest through working themselves through their own religious righteousness to please God may end up frustrated and sorrowful because of failing to keep the perfection of the law again and again (Heb. 4:11; Rom 4:4; 11:35; Gal 2:21; 1 Tim 6:10). Such people need to build up their faith by becoming a disciple of Jesus to believe him and walk in His will and way to enter in to His rest for the Glory of God! Once a person enters in to the rest of faith, God will be pleased through his life and does not want them to draw back to destruction of unbelief, instead wants them to continue as a soldier and a warrior of faith to remain as overcomer till the end of their lives (Heb 10:37-38, 39; 2 Tim 2:3; 1 John 5:4, 5). Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
15. Those who continue to sin by starting to enjoy the "passing pleasures of sin" (Heb 11:25), will fall away in to sin-confess-sin cycle without true repentance of overcoming sin as they crucify the Lord Jesus Christ again and again as it becomes impossible for them to be restored unto repentance (Heb. 6:4-6). If they open their eyes to the "near to being cursed" situation to again recognize the chastisement of the Lord to turn from sin and again become a overcomer through faith, the blessings of God will be restored back doubly as the Lord is gracious and merciful to all his sons who return back to him in repentance (Heb 12:3-6; 7, 8-11; Jam 5:11)!!!
16. Those who deliberately go on sinning, no longer have a sacrifice for sins (Heb.10:26-27), as the only cleansing blood of Jesus is thrown down by them and even trampled when they love sin more than the God who died for them. So such attitude to love sin must be thrown away and humbled before God at the feet of Jesus, and it must be all crucified by faith so that the judgment of the Lord can be stopped from being executed in such a person's lives through repentance and restoration of faith for the glory of God (Heb 10:30-31, 32; Psa 97:10; Rom 6:3-4, 5). Praise the Lord!
17. Anyone who shrinks back in to unbelief after being saved, God has no pleasure in such a person, but if he repents for his sins to again seek the Lord in faith and humility, the whole of heaven along with God the Father will be rejoicing to see such a person in display before all (Heb. 10:38; Luke 15:7; Job 1:8; 2:2).
18. Anyone who fail to obtain the grace of God (Heb. 12:15), will continue to fail spiritually, until they take a good choice to forgive and let go of all the bitterness and jealousy that has taken over their heart in to the hands of God. In other words, one who loves the unseen God must also learn to love the Brother or Sister whom God has kept before their very eyes (1 John 4:20-21). In other words, Esau was a fornicator spiritually because in unbelief he sold his birthright for one morsel of food (Heb 12:16). He did not realize his mistake, but instead was jealous of his Brother Jacob and wanted to kill him (Matt 5:21-26; Gen 27:41). Later when he wanted to inherit the blessings of God by seeking diligently with tears, he was rejected and found no place of repentance to receive it (Heb 12:16-17). The root of bitterness against others which spring up in our heart gets used by Satan to cause trouble of hate and violence against others, and make our self defiled by it (2 Cor 2:10-11; Eph 4:25-27, 27, 29-32; Col 2:13-14). So anyone who fail to obtain the grace of God is to fail to get saved, having taken it so lightly in their lives but later in their life realizing how much blessing of God they have missed for neglecting so great a salvation. But then Esau sets his heart right with his Brother, and then God later settles him and his descendants in a hill region with all the physical blessing but no spiritual blessing forever and ever (Deut 2:22, 5; Gen 33:1-20; Jos 24:4; Eze 35:15). Edom which is Esau's descendants are today, Mount Seir (the mountainous region of Seir or the hill country of Seir) is in the country of Jordan. It is known in Arabic as Jibal ash-Sharah. Glory to God!
19. When anyone wanders from the truth (James 5:19-20), when someone who has faith for other person who have sinned (John 20:22-23), and turns that sinner from the error of his ways, that person has saved a soul from physical death and covers multitude of sins. This is true elder-ship of the Church, that bring healing to the body and spiritual health to the soul for the Glory of God (Jam 5:13-18). The Church should never underestimate the power of prayer to change the world and establish the truth of God on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). Praise the Lord! GLORY TO GOD!
20. Any one who forsakes the right way (2 Peter 2:15), by loving the wages of unrighteousness will be rebuked by the donkeys of the world. If he repents for his own good and gets saved, God will have mercy on such a person. But if he continues to do the works of unrighteousness for more money, to make a business out of the spiritual gifts that God has given him, the end of that unsaved will be eternal death and hell fire (Num 31:8, 15-16; Jos 13:22; Jude 10-11; Rev 2:14).
21. Anyone who becomes entangled in the pollution's of the world AFTER having escaped them by hearing the Gospel of freedom and liberty, and then they begin to use the freedom to love sin and become entangled and overcome by it (2 Peter 2:20-21), it would have been better if they had not heard the Gospel because at the end of their life in this earth and then in eternity there will be very severe judgment from the Lord (Jam 3:1; Luk 12:44-48; 2 Pet 2:13-17), which will be so much worse than their beginning when they came to the Church to hear about the good news of Jesus Christ as a unbeliever. Because like a dog and pig their sinful nature continued to work freely without even a slightest change, it proves that they were never saved and never kept the holy commandment to love others and God at all to walk in the righteousness of God, these will be sent directly to hell fire eternally which is the worse darkness and torment than anything they would have experienced before in this earthly life (Matt 26:24). So all the hypocrites of the religious order should repent within the church and in all other religions of the world, to seek the Lord and change from their evil ways and stop making money as a business through the religious gifts they receive in the name of God or gods, or else hell is excited to receive them very soon along with their master Satan and all the demons (Matt 25:41, 46). What ever a human sows, that they will also reap as God cannot be mocked, for the sinner to sin freely and think that God is not concerned about it at all and therefore he will do nothing about it is self-deceived to be led in to their own destruction (Gal 6:7). Glory to God!
In all of the above warnings, not even one verse speaks about God threatening the believers that if they fail Him, they will end up in hell fire. That is not God's way of reaching out to humanity, in fact, Jesus who came from the Father in Heaven, said, "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10). God also have never told anyone about revoking and taking the salvation he has given to them, instead he has promised to all believers that because they are saved, not even one of them will be lost. We as believers have the responsibility to be a over-comer by faith after salvation, and need to bear fruit so that the Father in Heaven who has called us to salvation in Christ Jesus might be glorified through our lives. Will a investor invest in to a project without expecting anything in return, yet God invested his only begotten Son to die for us, so that in freedom we can bring as much glory as we walk in His will and way, so that our Father in Heaven might be pleased to reward us eternally when we are attending the marriage of the Lamb as the bride of Christ, and then resettle us after that in the new heaven and new earth! Glory to God!
Much Blessings...
No humans can ever be saved by our behavior, whether good or bad, wicked or righteous? There is no human who ever does only good and never do evil, whether with salvation or after salvation, it both fits equally well (Eccl 7:20). Why because, we all have the sin nature within us which makes us depart from the Holy God our Creator and Lord of our lives. Only the believers life is different from all the unbelievers, because whenever he does wrong, he asks God for forgiveness and pleads for his grace so that he or she as a child of God might be able to overcome the sin which has caused them to get tripped away from the Presence of God and his holiness. But for the unbeliever who chooses to enjoy sin and walk in the very nature of iniquity, it makes them lose the consciousness of the Creator God more and more even to the point of becoming an atheist. That is the only difference, between the saved and the unsaved. In other words, the believers are saints who sin, unbelievers are sinners who live in sin!
But what does the Bible say regarding this matter? The Bible says, "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Num 23:19, NIV). According to the above Scripture, we have a God who never changes his mind and thus the promise of salvation is not temporal, but rather it is eternal and that is why the salvation of our souls is described in the Bible as "eternal Salvation" (Heb 5:9). Hallelujah! Glory to God!
So, Can a Christian fall away?
Even though the Scripture warns all Believers that they should walk in the "newness of life" (Rom 6:4) after salvation, it never tells them to do it as a commandment so that they can be saved. Instead in emphasizes it says that if they are saved, they should walk with God in his holiness out of gratefulness towards God for receiving the free salvation that Jesus has already provided (Rom 6:1-3, 5-8), further it says that each believers should choose to bear fruit of all the godly character in their lives to show to the world in darkness that we as believers belong to the kingdom of light because we are already the children of God (John 1:12-13; John 15:8). So the answer to the above question is a definite NO! Our faith works carries eternal reward, but it can never save us from sin even for a million years ahead (Rev 22:12).
SO SALVATION IS NOT A PRODUCT OF OUR WORKS, IT IS INDEED THE WORK OF JESUS ON THE CROSS, RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION FOREVER AND EVER, BUT THE WORKS AFTER SALVATION IS A MUST CHOICE OF WORK THAT IF WE STAY CLOSE AND ATTACHED TO GOD WE WILL PRODUCE IT FOR THE GLORY OF OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN WHICH CARRIES ETERNAL REWARD FOR US!
Union and fellowship are two different things in our Christian life. Union happens with God in our spirit to His Spirit when we are saved where God forgives all our past, present and future sins positionally forever, but fellowship with God happens after salvation when we walk with God in our daily life to produce fruit to bring glory and be a witness as a children of God. Conscious sins, pet sins and unknowing sins we commit and omit, these sins when unconfessed and not forsaken becomes a obstacle in our fellowship with God. So we must confess all our sins by faith to God before we can experience the fellowship of the Father in Heaven without any hindrance for the Glory of God!
CHRISTIANS (those truly saved to begin with) CANNOT CONTINUE TO SIN WITHOUT LOSING their REWARD OF GOD IN THEIR PERSONAL LIVES in the area of spiritual, soulish, physical, financial and social area of their lives, WHICH IS THE REALM OF THEIR EARTHLY LIVES and FUTURE HEAVENLY REWARD WHICH WILL ALSO BE BASED ON THE EARTHLY SPIRITUAL PERFORMANCE, lived for the Glory of God:
1. Any who depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1), even though they might come to the Church, if they are not truly saved by faith, may depart again in to their old way of life and may even stop coming to church in the pride of their own heart to form a cult or even become a atheist (1 John 2:19).
2. Any who wander away from the faith (1 Tim. 6:10), will pierce themselves with earthly sorrows of the world in their lives, but it does not point them in the direction of losing salvation, but the loss of reward and earthly Shalom of prosperity in their soul lives (1 Cor 3:14-15).
3. Any who strays from the faith will lose their eternal reward (1 Tim. 6:21), it will happen only when the pure doctrine of Christ is abandoned by the believer to instead they start to hear the profane and idle chatter and contradictions which will be used by those who boast of their "knowledge" as unbelievers, but through it prove that they do not have anything spiritual within them (Gal 6:3-4; 1 Tim 3:6).
4. Any one as a believer if they cast of their first faith or love which works through faith toward God (1 Tim. 5:12; Rev 2:4-5; Gal 5:6), it shows how weak they spiritually are. In context, it speaks about young women who want to follow the faith initially but then later in their life give in to their fleshly desires to go in their own fleshly ways, the apostle Paul advises that the Church should not be burdened to provide ration to such women but rather to elderly woman who deserve it because they have no support from anybody to run their lives but are consistently devoted towards God and serve the people of God in their lives. Again when such things happen the adversary is given opportunity to speak reproachfully seeing a young woman of faith idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. It is better for such young women to get married and bear children than to stay single saying that they are devoted to Christ and then desire to marry later when they lose their first love and faith! Such people need to repent and do the first works or else will lose their reward in heaven, so must carefully keep their witness before the world of humans who see them as they follow Christ (Rev 2:5).
5. Anybody can make a shipwreck of their faith (1 Tim. 1:19), if they fail to keep their faith intact by keeping their conscience clear by asking forgiveness for their sins they commit. The faith-ship which get wrecked might stay afloat for sometime, but eventually will start to travel without direction and purpose. When it will start to travel anywhere the wind blows, many times it might even get drowned in the world of the sea of sin and darkness of the world or might be taken to some place by the waves of unbelief until it hits the shoreline of physical death (1 John 1:7, 9; Jam 1:6). Ship wrecked faith might make a believer get judged physically by God, as they might be deceived by Satan to even blaspheme the Lord who has saved them and may lose all the eternal reward totally except that their soul will get saved (1 Cor 3:14-15; 5:3-5; 2:5-11). Glory to God!
6. Anyone who fall from grace (Gal. 5:4), are the ones who have tried to set aside the grace of God by believing their own works of righteousness through the law, instead of trusting the works of faith which comes to them by continuing to believe the Gospel of Christ which has been preached to them for the Glory of God (Gal 2:21; 3:3-5). It is a subtle deception of Satan to make people trust in their own works after their salvation, by doing so they lose their great eternal reward because all works done without the guidance of Jesus Christ and his character are of no value eternally (John 15:5), and further without the direction and the power of the Spirit will end up as dead works (Heb 6:1). Anyone who has not walked in the liberty by which Christ has made us free through salvation, and instead choose foolishly to be religiously entangled again with the yoke of bondage by again following circumcision of the law, to him Christ will profit nothing both earthly and eternally, except the salvation that He has given to them for believing him initially will stay intact (Gal 5:1-2; John 10:27-30; 6:37). And also if that person thinks that by keeping the law, God will bless him, he needs to keep the whole law without even breaking one of them, which is impossible without the grace of our Lord Jesus and walking in the law of liberty of love (Jam 2:10; Gal 5:3; Rom 4:4; 11:35). So falling from grace is a term that conveys that even though a person is saved, if he has detached himself from Christ by later trying to justify himself by works before God, he has fallen from grace and therefore will not be able to receive the grace of God that produces fruit and works (Eph 2:8-10; John 15:1-8). Another category of those who fall from grace are those who are exposed to Gospel, but does not abide in Jesus by loving the word of God to be kept in their heart, he or she will not be really saved but rather is cast out as a branch and is withered to be burned in hell fire later as unbelievers who have rejected salvation, they thus have no ability to produce fruit forever and ever without receiving the new nature of God within (John 15:6; 1 John 4:13; Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:13-15; Matt 3:10). Such people who have fallen from Grace needs to repent from their dead works and religious works to follow Christ through faith again to be really saved for eternity!
7. If anyone turns you away from Him who called you [(i.e.) God the Father], to turn to a different gospel [of prosperity and health and wealth, saved by grace but getting perfected through works of the law, and the likes...] (Gal. 1:6), that person is in the danger of becoming accursed for troubling the Church and distorting the Gospel of Christ (Gal 1:7-8). Eternal rewards might go to someone who deserves it, when you lose your reward for having turned away from the true Gospel of Christ which gives eternal reward for all the overcomers over sin (Rev 3:11; 22:11-14, 15). So every one who has turned away from the Gospel should turn towards God and repent to receive the eternal reward!
8. If anyone receives the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1), it means he has denied and rejected the Gospel of salvation which has been sent towards Him by God to get him saved from sin and death (2 Cor 6:2). No human should ever receive the grace of God now in vain, because the wisdom of God to save cannot be useful to a unsaved dead man after his physical death (Prov 1:20-33).
9. Anyone who swerve or strayed from the truth, upsetting the faith of some by spreading false doctrine like saying that the resurrection of believers has already happened, and that there is no more rapture of the Church (2 Tim. 2:18), are those who overthrow the faith of those who believed in the Gospel which restores them from sin now and also helps them live in hope to be resurrected again to live forever with God (1 Cor 15:12-19; Rom 7:24-25; 8:23-25). Every true believer should repent from all false doctrines by holding on to the pure doctrine of the Gospel of Christ through learning it from the Holy Spirit, and clear their doubts from reputed and authentic men and women of God (Tit 2:4-8; Heb 13:7; 1 Tim 2:12-14, 15; 3:5; Jam 5:14, 20; 1 John 2:20, 27)!
10. Anyone who drift away from the truth (Heb. 2:1), is someone who does not give the more earnest heed to the things told to them by the Holy Spirit and the Gospel speakers of the five-fold ministry of God (John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13-15; Rom 10:14, 17; Eph 4:11-16). No humans should ever neglect "so great a salvation" which was first spoken by Jesus and by those who first heard him speak who later were witnesses to spread to all people and places around them, God also bearing witness through signs, wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit has authenticated it as sent from Him, that is from the highest heaven which is His throne (Heb 2:3-4). If someone continue to drift away from the truth after they are saved, they might lose their eternal reward, but if before salvation anyone have started to drift, then the way to hell is wide open to consume such persons who has no value for the Gospel which saves them from the wrath of God to come (1 Thess 5:9). So we all need to repent constantly and be saved from all sins continually till we meet God face to face!
11. If anyone has an evil, unbelieving heart, leading themselves and others around them to fall away from the living God by hardening their heart when they speak to us which might influence our heart if we let it freely, we should fear of physical judgment that might come upon us to leave this earth before our appointed time due to our continual disobedience with an insensitive heart (Heb. 3:12). All the Israelites who were saved through the water and they lived under the cloud symbolizing the word of God and the Holy Spirit, died in the wilderness due to their evil unbelieving heart which led them astray constantly (1 Cor 10:1-6; John 15:3; Eph 5:26; 1 Pet 1:23; Luke 3:16). Even if we are saved, and still continue to live without the fear of God, we might even be chastised even to physical death which is the maximum but eternally saved by the works of Christ and His grace (Heb 12:6; 1 Cor 11:27-29, 30, 31, 33). It is no child's play to sin, because if we are playing with sin we will be chastised by God, and if we continue to sin willfully against God by constantly living by the desires of the fleshly nature, then there can be no chance for repentance as it is a gift of God, then we might have to be judged physically by God (Heb 10:26-31; 1 John 2:28; 2 Tim 2:25). So it is better to repent now from living in the hardness of our unbelieving heart, than to regret for the lack of eternal reward when we live in eternity!
12. If anyone is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:12-14), the only way out of that spiritual stagnation and darkness that surrounds it is to "exhort one another daily" so that we will repent of our sins to God and not be "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb 3:13). In other words, unconfessed sin hardens our heart, but confessing it to God and one another in fellowship makes us be cleansed in the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7, 9), so that we will continue to hold on to the beginning of our confidence of faith steadfast to the end (1 Thess 5:11; Rom 10:17). Even the social media we have can be used in a spiritual way to encourage one another in our faith, and look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus for the Church as we see the end of end times are upon us all in a unprecedented way (Heb 10:25). Hallelujah!
13. Anyone who fails to reach the promise of entering into His rest (Heb. 4:1), will be because of being disobedient to the voice of God and conviction of the Holy Spirit in failing to believe Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to receive His grace in their lives (John 16:7-11; 1 Cor 12:3). Those who have entered God's rest are the believers who have ceased from their works to please God (Heb 4:9-10), why because they have come to understand that believing Jesus is the work of God that God desires from them and nothing else (John 6:28-29). Also the believers when they feel that when their lives become labor heavy and heavy laden, they go to Jesus and pour out all their cares upon Him because He hears it and then cares to solve it all for them in His time and in His way and in His will through faith of the believers (Matt 11:28; 1 Peter 5:6-7). Until the time comes for the miracle to happen in their lives, the believers humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and the counsel of the elders of the Church, and as a result they take the hardship that they experience as the will of God and continue to face the trial by yoking themselves with Jesus which makes their character get refined and fine tuned to be like Jesus for eternity ahead (Matt 11:29-30). By walking with Jesus in prayer and doing the work of being positive in faith and rejoicing, they find rest for their souls by receiving the joy, peace and righteousness of the Holy Spirit (Matt 11:29-30; Rom 14:17). Until the times comes in the will of God and they receive the miracles of their lives in a moment of time (1 Cor 4:20). Hallelujah! Glory to God!
14. Anyone who falls by disobedience to enter His rest through working themselves through their own religious righteousness to please God may end up frustrated and sorrowful because of failing to keep the perfection of the law again and again (Heb. 4:11; Rom 4:4; 11:35; Gal 2:21; 1 Tim 6:10). Such people need to build up their faith by becoming a disciple of Jesus to believe him and walk in His will and way to enter in to His rest for the Glory of God! Once a person enters in to the rest of faith, God will be pleased through his life and does not want them to draw back to destruction of unbelief, instead wants them to continue as a soldier and a warrior of faith to remain as overcomer till the end of their lives (Heb 10:37-38, 39; 2 Tim 2:3; 1 John 5:4, 5). Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
15. Those who continue to sin by starting to enjoy the "passing pleasures of sin" (Heb 11:25), will fall away in to sin-confess-sin cycle without true repentance of overcoming sin as they crucify the Lord Jesus Christ again and again as it becomes impossible for them to be restored unto repentance (Heb. 6:4-6). If they open their eyes to the "near to being cursed" situation to again recognize the chastisement of the Lord to turn from sin and again become a overcomer through faith, the blessings of God will be restored back doubly as the Lord is gracious and merciful to all his sons who return back to him in repentance (Heb 12:3-6; 7, 8-11; Jam 5:11)!!!
16. Those who deliberately go on sinning, no longer have a sacrifice for sins (Heb.10:26-27), as the only cleansing blood of Jesus is thrown down by them and even trampled when they love sin more than the God who died for them. So such attitude to love sin must be thrown away and humbled before God at the feet of Jesus, and it must be all crucified by faith so that the judgment of the Lord can be stopped from being executed in such a person's lives through repentance and restoration of faith for the glory of God (Heb 10:30-31, 32; Psa 97:10; Rom 6:3-4, 5). Praise the Lord!
17. Anyone who shrinks back in to unbelief after being saved, God has no pleasure in such a person, but if he repents for his sins to again seek the Lord in faith and humility, the whole of heaven along with God the Father will be rejoicing to see such a person in display before all (Heb. 10:38; Luke 15:7; Job 1:8; 2:2).
18. Anyone who fail to obtain the grace of God (Heb. 12:15), will continue to fail spiritually, until they take a good choice to forgive and let go of all the bitterness and jealousy that has taken over their heart in to the hands of God. In other words, one who loves the unseen God must also learn to love the Brother or Sister whom God has kept before their very eyes (1 John 4:20-21). In other words, Esau was a fornicator spiritually because in unbelief he sold his birthright for one morsel of food (Heb 12:16). He did not realize his mistake, but instead was jealous of his Brother Jacob and wanted to kill him (Matt 5:21-26; Gen 27:41). Later when he wanted to inherit the blessings of God by seeking diligently with tears, he was rejected and found no place of repentance to receive it (Heb 12:16-17). The root of bitterness against others which spring up in our heart gets used by Satan to cause trouble of hate and violence against others, and make our self defiled by it (2 Cor 2:10-11; Eph 4:25-27, 27, 29-32; Col 2:13-14). So anyone who fail to obtain the grace of God is to fail to get saved, having taken it so lightly in their lives but later in their life realizing how much blessing of God they have missed for neglecting so great a salvation. But then Esau sets his heart right with his Brother, and then God later settles him and his descendants in a hill region with all the physical blessing but no spiritual blessing forever and ever (Deut 2:22, 5; Gen 33:1-20; Jos 24:4; Eze 35:15). Edom which is Esau's descendants are today, Mount Seir (the mountainous region of Seir or the hill country of Seir) is in the country of Jordan. It is known in Arabic as Jibal ash-Sharah. Glory to God!
19. When anyone wanders from the truth (James 5:19-20), when someone who has faith for other person who have sinned (John 20:22-23), and turns that sinner from the error of his ways, that person has saved a soul from physical death and covers multitude of sins. This is true elder-ship of the Church, that bring healing to the body and spiritual health to the soul for the Glory of God (Jam 5:13-18). The Church should never underestimate the power of prayer to change the world and establish the truth of God on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). Praise the Lord! GLORY TO GOD!
20. Any one who forsakes the right way (2 Peter 2:15), by loving the wages of unrighteousness will be rebuked by the donkeys of the world. If he repents for his own good and gets saved, God will have mercy on such a person. But if he continues to do the works of unrighteousness for more money, to make a business out of the spiritual gifts that God has given him, the end of that unsaved will be eternal death and hell fire (Num 31:8, 15-16; Jos 13:22; Jude 10-11; Rev 2:14).
21. Anyone who becomes entangled in the pollution's of the world AFTER having escaped them by hearing the Gospel of freedom and liberty, and then they begin to use the freedom to love sin and become entangled and overcome by it (2 Peter 2:20-21), it would have been better if they had not heard the Gospel because at the end of their life in this earth and then in eternity there will be very severe judgment from the Lord (Jam 3:1; Luk 12:44-48; 2 Pet 2:13-17), which will be so much worse than their beginning when they came to the Church to hear about the good news of Jesus Christ as a unbeliever. Because like a dog and pig their sinful nature continued to work freely without even a slightest change, it proves that they were never saved and never kept the holy commandment to love others and God at all to walk in the righteousness of God, these will be sent directly to hell fire eternally which is the worse darkness and torment than anything they would have experienced before in this earthly life (Matt 26:24). So all the hypocrites of the religious order should repent within the church and in all other religions of the world, to seek the Lord and change from their evil ways and stop making money as a business through the religious gifts they receive in the name of God or gods, or else hell is excited to receive them very soon along with their master Satan and all the demons (Matt 25:41, 46). What ever a human sows, that they will also reap as God cannot be mocked, for the sinner to sin freely and think that God is not concerned about it at all and therefore he will do nothing about it is self-deceived to be led in to their own destruction (Gal 6:7). Glory to God!
In all of the above warnings, not even one verse speaks about God threatening the believers that if they fail Him, they will end up in hell fire. That is not God's way of reaching out to humanity, in fact, Jesus who came from the Father in Heaven, said, "the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10). God also have never told anyone about revoking and taking the salvation he has given to them, instead he has promised to all believers that because they are saved, not even one of them will be lost. We as believers have the responsibility to be a over-comer by faith after salvation, and need to bear fruit so that the Father in Heaven who has called us to salvation in Christ Jesus might be glorified through our lives. Will a investor invest in to a project without expecting anything in return, yet God invested his only begotten Son to die for us, so that in freedom we can bring as much glory as we walk in His will and way, so that our Father in Heaven might be pleased to reward us eternally when we are attending the marriage of the Lamb as the bride of Christ, and then resettle us after that in the new heaven and new earth! Glory to God!
Much Blessings...
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