nikolai_42
Well-known member
You left out what He said here:
"Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life" (Jn.5:24).
"Has" eternal life and will not be judged. How can someone lose their eternal life in the Son if they will not come into judgment?
And we can see that Christians already possess eternal life and that life is in the Son:
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 Jn.5:11).
We also know that eternal life is a "gift" from God (Ro.6:23) and He will not take back His gifts:
"for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable" (Ro.11:29).
So we can understand that the Christian already possesses eternal life in the Son and he won't come into judgment and he will never perish and the LORD will not take back that eternal life but yet you say that a Christian's salvation isn't complete!
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
John 8:31
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Romans 11:22
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;
Colossians 1:23
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
I Timothy 2:15
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
I John 2:18-19
Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
I John 2:23-24
And here's the point. This isn't about specific things that someone has to go through to become saved. In one sense we are already saved. But we do not possess it all at that point. We have access to it all but do not possess it all. We are not "there" yet. From an eternal standpoint, it is already accomplished. If you think, for example, of the vision Daniel had of the image with the head of gold. That was something in heaven that appeared instantaneously that had to be "dragged through" time to show it completely. There was no way to experience all those empires in an instant. So it is that it does not appear what we shall be - only that we will be like Him when we see Him as He is. We can't - in this realm of time - come to know that except over time.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Revelation 22:11-13
The beginning and the end...He is looking at things as accomplished because they are. Those who are wicked will do wickedly and those who are not will do good. From an eternal perspective, the wicked man's "goodness" won't do him any good. And the righteous man's holiness isn't his own - it isn't the thing that earns him heaven - it only evidences that he has been prepared for it by God.
Those who are saved will persevere. But to the individual who is bound in time, these are commands. These are injunctions. These are warnings and evidences that allow us to see if we are really saved or not.
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
2 Corinthians 13:5
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:3-11
You may point out verse 3 that His divine power has give us all things that pertain to life and godliness. But there again, you are looking at it eternally and then want to apply it temporally. Eternally, all is immediately (though that is even the wrong word since it implies time) visible. It is where we see that which is (all at once, so to speak). But in time, we don't have it worked out in us. We don't have it evidenced in us - so we are commanded to pursue holiness. Pursue Godliness. If we do, we are only evidencing that we are His. If we don't we are evidencing that we are not. In Revelation 22, that man's work that is rewarded is not really (in origin) his own - it is God's.
Those that say "I'm saved since I've received Christ" and leave it at that are resting (often) on a single decision of their own. They are resting on a prayer prayed at one time. They are resting, ultimately, on what they did and not what God has done (and is doing) in them. As Peter indicates, it is only the one who God is continuing to work in that shows that he is truly born of God. Hebrews puts it negatively that those who God doesn't chastise are illegitimate. Same idea, though. If God is working in a man, that's the only thing that can be relied upon for salvation. If He isn't and that man is saying he was changed once, prayed once etc... and has not progressed, that man has every right to be concerned that he was never truly saved. God's timing may be different from one person to another, but at some point we have to reckon with fruit (or a lack thereof) and consider whether we are actually continuing on.
Until we are before Him, there must be growth. A thing that is alive but doesn't grow? Rather suspect.
So to wrap this back to the original thought that prompted me to respond to CR, Paul's cry in Philippians 3 is a deep-seated desire to continue to grow up into the head (Christ) and be identified more and more with Him and less and less with Paul. It is to really become identified with His suffering (and it's not as if Paul wasn't already suffering persecution) and know Him in a way that can't be had merely by reading a book. It has to be the work of God in a man and it is only realized progressively. The seed may contain the whole tree it will grow into (so to speak) but it doesn't appear right away. Only over time is that proved.