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Jesus, the Son of God the Father, saves you and keeps you saved.
Your life on earth will not be as full if you overlook this truth.
Eternal life, you got it.
Believe this mystery you are about to hear and sinning won’t be as much fun
any more. When we are in complete freedom, we do not listen when we hear,
"DON’T DO THAT OR GOD WILL ZAP YOU."
The fun of sin diminishes and the joy of grace bubbles up as
we give reins to
the Son of God that is living in us. We have the choice to ask our new born
again spirit to live this day through me. We also have the choice to say,
"I will live this day my way, Jesus, you just don’t understand me."
Adam & Eve did not eat of the "tree of life" in the middle of
the garden because God did not tell them not to. (Now we will see
that God invites man to come partake of the bread and wine flowing from
"THE TREE OF LIFE. ")
Eternal Life has nothing what so ever to do with sin for these scriptures
show that Eternal Life could have been obtained by Adam & Eve: (1) Before
they sinned or (2.) After they sinned.
Eternal Life has nothing what so ever to do with sin. God made provisions for
Eternal Life without sin.
Prior to the fall, the fruit of "the tree of life" in the middle of
the garden was available to Adam & Eve because God did not restrict that
tree.
The "tree of life" grew in the middle of the garden a long side the
"tree of knowledge of good and evil."
Prior to the fall, there was no sin. After the fall, sin was in the
world and in Adam and Eve.
Sin had to be removed from the world and also from man.
After sin had come into the world, God could not make Eternal Life available
to the fallen sinful world or to man. Christ came to earth and died to remove
sin from the world so God could make Eternal Life available to man.
Now, because the wages of sin is death, God had to do one more thing. He had
removed sin but man and the world remained dead in sin.
Christ had to come alive in man and the world or both would remain dead.
Now that sin had been removed, God could give Eternal Life to the world
through the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. Both man and the world will be
reborn as new creatures. Man’s spirit can come alive today upon eating of the
fruit of life and the earth in God’s time.
Eternal Life was available to man until sin came.
Sin came and Eternal Life was no longer available to man.
Christ’s death removes sin from the man.
Christ’s resurrection makes Eternal Life available to man.
Read below the bible story that confirms what we just
read above.
GEN 1:29 Then
God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole
earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for
food.
GEN 2:9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees
that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden was
the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil.
GEN 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "YOU are
free to eat from any tree in the garden;
GEN 2:17 but you must not
eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD
God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not
eat from any tree in the garden’?"
GEN 3:3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit
from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. and you must
not touch it, or you will die."
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
GEN 3:6 When
the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and
pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and
ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with
her, and he ate it.
God was walking in the garden:
GEN 3:11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I
commanded you not to eat from?"
GEN 3:12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me— she gave me
some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
GEN 3:17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and
ate
from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of
it all the days of your life.
GEN 3:22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He
must not be
allowed to reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and
eat, and live. .FOREVER"
GEN 3:24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden
of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to
the tree of life.
REV 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat
from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
REV 22:2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the
river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
REV 22:14 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have
the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
JOHN 3:16 For God so loved the world that
He gave his one and only begotten son, that
whoever believes in Him shall have
Everlasting Life.
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If you believe you can get unsaved - before you read the document below go to
Gottaconfess first then come back here.
The paper below is written by Alan Morrison and no changes will be made.
However, at the end comments will be made that do not come from Morrison. At the
end of this paper is bible text for each scripture that is noted.
BLESSED ASSURANCE - Salvation - A Gift for Eternity - by Alan Morrison
The Christian’s story and song is the blessed assurance
that "Jesus is mine!" To be "in Christ" in this life
is truly "a foretaste of glory divine!" But how many Christians
— even if they heartily sing about it — actually believe it? It seems that
there has almost been a deliberate desire, bordering on the fanatical, to
undermine the "blessed assurance" of the believer during the past few
decades. It is now commonly taught that a believer can lose his or her
salvation. Indeed, to think that salvation is an irrevocable gift for eternity
is often disparaged as being highly dangerous to the believer’s spiritual
health, as it could lead him to imagine that he can behave however he wishes
because his salvation is secure, come what may.
As a pastor, one of the
most common questions I am asked is whether salvation is a once-for-all-time
gift of God. I am constantly astonished by the widespread notion that it is not.
It can only be in the interests of Satan to undermine assurance to such an
extent that today there are probably more professing Christians who believe they
can lose their salvation than there are those who believe that they are
irrevocably saved for eternity. In Thomas Brook’s book "Precious Remedies
Against Satan’s Devices", he devotes nearly one hundred pages to showing
that one of the devil’s main aims is to put believers in a "sad,
doubting, questioning and uncomfortable condition". (And he also
supplies the remedies!). Surely the widespread delusion that a believer can lose
his or her salvation must be one of the main devices of Satan for attempting to
undermining the faith of the faithful.
What is the clear teaching
of Scripture on the matter? The clear teaching of Scripture is that the believer
has been taken forever out of the power of darkness (Col.1:12-13), that he has
been adopted into God’s family by the power of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12-13;
Gal.4:4-7; Rom.8:15), that he is an heir of eternal salvation (Rom.8:16-17;
Eph.1:11-14), that he will — by divine preservation — persevere to the end
(Scripture proofs follow), and that he will never, ever be disowned by his
Savour (Matt.28:20b; Heb.13:5). Salvation is a gift for eternity. It is true
that the believer can temporarily "backslide" through disobedience,
and he can fall into sin; but he will always repent and return to the Lord and
can never finally fall away (apostatize) and be lost. This is known as the
doctrine of "The Perseverance of the Saints". Here are the abundant
Scripture proofs that believers cannot possibly apostatize and are kept faithful
to the end of their lives by the power of God:
"The steps of a good man are
ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be
utterly cast down; For the Lord upholds him with His hand"
(Psa.37:23-24)
"The righteous will hold to his way, and
he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger" (Job 17:9)
"Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade 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" (1 Pet.1:3-5)
"All that the Father gives Me will come
to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come
down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This
is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who
sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting
life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:37-40)
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them
to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My
Father’s hand" (John 10:27-29)
"In My Father’s house are many
mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3)
"And this is the testimony: that God has
given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life;
he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have
written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life..." (1 Jn.5:11-13)
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who
hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall
not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (Jn.5:24)
"For the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable" (Rom.11:29)
"Sin shall not have dominion over you,
for you are not under law but under grace" (Rom.6:14)
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph.4:30)
"In Him you also trusted, after you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of
His glory" (Eph.1:13-14)
"And the Lord will deliver me from every
evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom"
(2 Tim.4:18)"For our citizenship is in heaven..." (Phil.3:20)
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you
from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savour, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. Amen" (Jude 24-25)
Added to these irrefutable
Scriptures there is the teaching of the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to
the Romans, which is devoted to proving that the saints are saved forever,
and that there is nothing which can come between them and their faith. Just look
at the relevant verses:
Verse 1: "There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...". The
price has been paid, the condemnation was poured out on Christ on the cross. So
if the penalty for the believer’s sin has already been dealt with on the
cross, how could there be any further condemnation remaining for him? "By
His stripes, we are healed" — the healing of the soul and of our
relationship with the Lord. It is a healing which lasts. Jesus' healings
are not partial or temporary.
Verse 11: "But if the
Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who
dwells in you". Believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is our
guarantee of future glory in the resurrection (cf. 2 Cor.1:21-22; 2 Cor.5:5;
Eph.1:14-15. God’s guarantees are never broken.
Verses 15-17: "For you
did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit
of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs
— heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that
we may also be glorified together". The believer has been adopted by grace
into the family of God and is an heir of a certain future glory. The indwelling
Holy Spirit — who is the guarantee of that future glory — bears witness to
that.
Verse 30: "Moreover
whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also
justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified". This verse
contains what is known as the Golden Chain of Redemption. It is an unbreakable
chain. One thing leads to the other. Predestination, effectual calling,
justification, and glorification. Although the last element — glorification
— does not happen in fullness during the believer’s earthly life, it is
plain from this verse that it is an irrevocable reality for the believer. The
same tense is used in the Greek for each of the elements in this verse,
signifying that they have already been ratified — including being "glorified".
The believer going to glory is as good as done in the eyes and mind of God. That
is a hearty expression of eternal security.
Verses 31-39: "What
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He
who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's
elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died,
and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter’. Yet in all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
Nothing — not even their own foolish sins — can break the reality of future
glory for believers. What place could there be here for a believer to fall away
and go to eternal punishment? The whole passage is a hymn to the
divinely-assisted Perseverance of the Saints.
Paul plainly believed in
"once saved, always saved". He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to
write it down for us. How come so many professing Christians today would rather
believe otherwise?
This was also Jesus’
teaching in the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son does not represent
everyone in the world, for everyone in the world is not a son of God. He
represents a child of God — one of the elect — who wanders off from his
heavenly Father for a while but soon finds that the world cannot satisfy his
spiritual hunger and eventually returns to his Father. This is the perseverance
of the saints in action — just as Jesus had said about His children elsewhere: "No one can snatch them out of My hand". They cannot
finally fall away, but will always return.
Having said all the above,
there are many who would still be waving their hands at us, anxious to point out
a handful of Scriptures which they believe undermine any other Scriptures and
which prove conclusively that salvation can be lost. However, in their almost
frantic desire to undermine the faith of the faithful, they have forgotten the
great principles of Bible hermeneutics (interpretation): That passages must be
taken in their context and that darker passages must always be read in the light
of what is everywhere plainly taught.
The Scriptures which are
commonly said to prove that Christians can lose their salvation are Rom.14:15; 1
Cor.8:11 and Heb.6:4-6. Now there can be no genuine contradiction in Scripture;
so these texts cannot possibly contradict what is plainly taught elsewhere about
the divinely ordained perseverance of the saints. So what could they mean? Let
us first take Rom.14:15 and 1 Cor.8:11 together as they express more or less the
same thing:
"Do not destroy with
your food the one for whom Christ died" (Rom.14:11)
"And because of your
knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" (1
Cor.8:11)
These two verses cannot be
referring to the possibility of eternal punishment for believers because we
already know — as shown above from abundant Scriptures — that those for whom
Christ died are saved forever and that, as He Himself said, no one can snatch
them out of His hand. So when these verses speak of the destruction and
perishing of the one for whom Christ died, they surely refer not to the soul in
eternal punishment but to the material aspects of life — either earthly ruin
as a result of our sins or physical death accelerated by our own actions. Even
the saints can be severely chastised and even dealt an early death by the Lord
for their behavior (e.g. 1 Cor.11:30). The verses in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians
8 are simply speaking about the possibility of a weaker Christian being led into
sin to such an extent that he could meet earthly ruin or an early death. Paul is
merely showing us that we must be sensitive to the weaknesses of our brothers
and sisters. There is nothing here to provide us with proof about lost salvation
or eternal punishment for believers.
Then we have what must be
the prime influential text on those who believe that the Christian can lose his
or her salvation:
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and
have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they
fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for
themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame"
(Heb.6:4-6)
We need to be quite clear
about the person to whom this passage refers. If we already accept — as we
must — that Scripture everywhere teaches that it is impossible for the true
believer to fall away, then the "falling away" mentioned in these
verses cannot possibly refer to a true believer. In fact, what we have here is a
classic description of a cleverly disguised false Christian, one who professes
faith but who, in reality, is not a true Christian. Churches are full of such
people. They may even be ministers! To the undiscerning eye, they look like the
real thing; but they will be revealed for who they are in the Day of Judgment.
Jesus referred to such people as "tares", compared to the
"wheat" or true believers (Matt.13:24-30, 36-43). Just look at how
such a person is described in Heb.6:4-6. Let us here blow this text wide
open.
This man has indeed been "enlightened".
He has sat under numerous sermons and read much, if not all, of the Bible --
maybe a number of times. He has heard many Gospel messages. His mind has
been enlightened by what he has heard and read, but there is no real work of
grace in his heart. Balaam was a man whose "eyes were opened"
and who had "the knowledge of the Most High" (Num.24:15-16),
but that did not alter the fact that for him "is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever" (2 Per.2:17).
The man in Heb.6:4-6 is
also said to have "tasted the heavenly gift". He has had some
notions about the work of God and the gift of faith — after all, he has most
likely had some kind of religious experience and even been baptized. He has read
the Bible. He might even have taught Bible! He has tasted, but he has not
received it. One may go into a cheese shop and sample a cheese and even like it;
but if one doesn’t buy it, one doesn’t have it!
Furthermore, such a person
may indeed also have been a "partaker of the Holy Spirit". One
does not need to be a Christian to be a partaker of the Holy Spirit, or to have
some operations of the Holy Spirit in one’s life, for this is not the same as
being permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Look at King Saul. He was a
classic case of an unbeliever who had outward trappings of faith. He also had
some operations of the Holy Spirit in his life (e.g. 1Sam.10:10; 11:6). The
Bible also shows that unbelievers can be partakers of the Holy Spirit if they
cast out demons and perform miracles in Christ’s name through some operations
of the Spirit. Judas Iscariot was surely a prime example. Along with the other
apostles he must have performed such works. He was a partaker of the Holy
Spirit, but he was never a believer. The Lord Jesus spoke about such people in
Matt.7:21-23:
"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders
in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart
from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’"
These are just the kind of
people referred to in Heb.6:2-4. They can be "partakers of the Holy
Spirit". However, they are false believers, fooling themselves and
usually all those around them throughout their lives. But they can never fool
God.
Another element mentioned
in Heb.6:5 is that these false Christians can "taste the good word of
God". Well this is another mere tasting experience. It is identical to
the man in the parable of the sower, who "hears the word and immediately
receives it with joy" (Matt.13:20). He has "tasted the good
word of God", but ultimately he rejects its teachings in his life. For "he
has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or
persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles"
(Matt.13:21). It is not enough merely to taste the good word of God. One
has also to do the things it teaches (cf. Matt.7:24-27; Jas.1:22-24). It must
find a real place in our hearts, otherwise great will be our fall (Matt.7:27),
just as it says in Heb.6:4-6.
Such people also can "taste...the
powers of the age to come" (Heb.6:5). They can have some fantasies
about what heaven is like and can be very afraid of hell. But even these notions
are not enough to save them. The demons also have similar head-knowledge and
beliefs as the man in Heb.6:4-6 and, like him, they are not true believers
(Jas.2:19). So the man in Heb.6:4-6 can have all these experiences and feelings,
but if he subsequently loses interest and falls away even from his pretence, he
will receive a double blow for not acting on the privileged knowledge he has
received. For from him, "even what he seems to have will be
taken away from him" (Luke 8:18).
One of the great precursor
signs of the revealing of the Antichrist is a global falling away on a vast
scale of many in the church (2 Thess.2:3). However, they will not have fallen
away from true faith but from their former pretence of Christianity. True
Christians do not finally fall away. As C.H. Spurgeon put it: "The
believer, like a man on board a ship, may fall again and again on the deck, but
he will never fall overboard".
The fact that people have
imagined that a true believer is being described in Heb.6:4-6 is a great sign of
the superficial view people today have of the Christian faith. For the believer
has SO MUCH MORE than what is described there. The true believer is not merely "enlightened"
but he has "the mind of Christ" (1Cor.2:16) and "knows
all things" (1 Jn.2:20). The true believer does not merely "taste
the heavenly gift" but He has received it completely (Rom.6:23). The
true believer is not merely a "partaker of the Holy Spirit" but
the Holy Spirit has made His home with him (Jn.14:23). The true believer does
not merely "taste the good word of God", he lives it!
(Rev.14:12). The true believer does not merely "taste the powers of the
age to come", for he has entered into that age and is a citizen of its
kingdom (Phil.3:20). Only those with a superficial or defective
understanding of Christianity could ever imagine that a real Christian is being
described in Heb.6:4-6.
It is nothing short of
wicked to attempt to convince Christians that they can finally lose their
salvation and that they do not have eternal security. There is no more pitiable
thing than a Christian who is forever doubting that he or she will spend
eternity with Christ. The Word of God makes it very clear that the children of
God have a right to complete assurance. After all, "we know we have
passed from death to life" (1 Jn.3:14). "It is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal.2:20). We have been "bought
at a price" (1 Cor.6:20), and He will never leave us or forsake us
(Heb.13:5).
There are those who say
that the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints will cause people to abandon
themselves to sin because they know they cannot lose their salvation under any
circumstances. But such antinomian thinking and acting is impossible for a true
Christian, who is only too well aware of the awful price which was paid to
secure His salvation. The love of Christ constrains us.
It is surely no coincidence
that the notion that a Christian can lose his or her salvation has prospered
most readily in circles which involve what is known as "easy
believism". If you can become a Christian simply through making some
superficial decision of your own as a result of an outwardly emotional appeal,
then you can just as easily lose the kind of "Christianity" which that
decision brings about. Easy believism leads to easy UNbelievism! If you
saved yourself through your own decision then you can just as easily undo that
through your own actions. But if you were saved entirely by the power of God,
then you will also be preserved by that same power, and certainly raised by that
same power at the Last Day. For "we are His workmanship",
not our own (Eph.2:8-10).
So the real question is not
"Can believers lose their salvation?" It is: "Am I a real
Christian?" And if you have truly believed and been born again, then
this is a question to which one can provide an undeniable answer, "being
confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will
complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil.1:6). Amen. By:
by Alan Morrison
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