Hello JoanieMarie. Thank you for taking the time to address me personally and for the kind and respectful manner in which you did so. It is refreshing to meet someone who is willing to discuss doctrinal differences in a respectful manner. I don't encounter many people like you online so I'd would like to thank you.
Unlike many that I have encountered in the past, I choose not engage in name calling, or deny the salvation of those that I may disagree with, or make accusations based on false assumptions. I do my best not to make or take disagreements personal.
I have read your posts and agree with much of what you have stated. However, there is one area in which we disagree and that is whether or not righteousness is relational in nature as it is positional.
You and I both agree that it is Christ who makes us righteous and that it is faith which places IN CHRIST. It also appears that we would both agree that righteousness is a person, the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Where we disagree is on how righteousness is maintained.
From what I can gather, you appear to be a believer in the doctrine of "once saved, always saved" which teaches that righteousness is a one time gift that can not be revoked, even if a person chooses to engage in unrighteousness. However, I am of the mindset that righteousness is but one aspect of the gift that we receive at the moment of salvation, which is the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is my belief that, in the same manner in which we receive righteousness, which is through restored relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, righteousness is also kept (maintained).
In other words, just as we are made righteous through the inhabitation of Spirit of Christ, we remain righteous through daily relationship with the Spirit of Christ.
I, too, have a story that I like to use to illustrate this principle:
Let's say you were drowning in rough seas. A captain of a nearby boat sees you struggling, rushes over, and pulls you out of the water. He then gives you a change of clothes and allows you stay in his personal quarters, eating from his own table, for the remainder of the voyage. He tells you to stay off the deck because it is very possible that the waves could pull you back into the water where you could drown.
You are now faced with three options:
#1. Trust the Captain and stay inside the boat, no self effort involved.
#2. Ignore the Captain, and jump back into dangerous waters where you will probably die.
#3. Flirt with disaster by going on deck on assuming that, if you do fall in, the captain will be there to rescue you time and time again.
Now, common sense tells you that the easiest and safest option is to stay inside the boat. Biblical faith works similarly. Jesus saves us and accepts us into His Presence, which is life in the (Holy) Spirit. He then warns us to avoid temptation because to indulge in sin is to venture outside of His Presence:
"But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin." ~ 1 John 3:5
However, in regards to salvation, most believers choose the equivalent of option #3. They go about living their lives with little regard to what the Bible says about the dangers of sin, assuming that God will be there to bail them out of trouble again & again. Christ's primary role in daily their lives is that of a life preserver, needed only in emergencies.
True, biblical faith not only saves us but it also empowers us to live righteously. Yet, to remain righteous, today and each day onward, we must walk in the Spirit.
"He who walks in the Spirit need not indulge the lusts of the flesh." ~ Galatians 5:16
It is a matter of choice to walk daily in the presence He who makes us righteous. A person need not do anything to remain righteous other than rest in Christ, placing all trust in Him and His word. It's when we take our fate into our own hands and follow the desires of our flesh that we make the same mistake as Adam, resulting in separation from God.
I believe that just as there is nothing we can do to earn Salvation there is nothing we can do to maintain it.
I believe that a person who is truly saved will not walk in sin. If they did they would bring severe chastening on themselves or perhaps be called home early. Jesus will not allow a believer to compromise his/her testimony for very long or bring discredit on Himself. We are clearly told that there will be many who believe they are saved who in fact are not. We are also told that it is not our role to determine who they are. We are told to break fellowship with anyone living in sin who, after being exhorted persists, in wickedness.
1 Co 3:11-17
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
KJV
In verse 17 defile is in the present tense, which signifies persistent or ongoing behavior. I believe that the destruction referred to refers to the body. Once Eternal life has been given it can not be lost; or it wasn't eternal when we had it. Eternal Salvation is certainly not a license to sin.
Ro 8:1-15
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
KJV