Making grace a license to sin is not descriptive of a child of God (1 John 3:7-10).
You said it, not me, lol.
I believe that anybody who lives a life of willful sin, because they think grace allows them to do that, has either never been truly born again, or has fallen away from believing and are lost. So I agree that making grace a license to sin an actual practiced lifestyle is not what people who continue to believe in Christ do.
Only unbelievers and ex-believers do that. The sad part being, they think they are saved.
Continued trust in Christ is a sign of genuine conversion.
More accurately, continued trust in Christ is the sign of
a continuing conversion.
Those who allegedly stop believing had a temporary, shallow belief that had no root and such is a sign of no genuine conversion, which explains why they were not true saints who are preserved forever.
Well, you're certainly entitled to believe this horribly insecure doctrine. You folks can never know if you're truly born again until all opportunities to test you and see if you'll persevere have been exhausted. Which means you can never know if you are truly born again in this life. And that's supposed to be the doctrine of security.
On the other hand, the
Biblical doctrine of security is that you are eternally secure as long as you are believing. It's that simple. Keep believing so you will stay secure in the life of Christ that will never end. He is worthy of such trust, so don't give up trusting. That is what the Bible actually teaches.
Keep yourselves in the love of God is supplemented with three participles of means in the original; they answer the question, "How does one keep himself in the love of God?" By building yourselves up in your most holy faith; by praying in the Holy Spirit; and by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
I don't see a "lose your salvation" warning in this exhortation.
It's interesting in your doctrine that God is strong enough to keep you saved but not strong enough to keep you in his love, I mean assuming those are two different things entirely. Of course, they have to be two different things entirely in your doctrine, or else your doctrine can't be true. That's not a good way to interpret the Bible. It's the famous circular reasoning of the OSAS argument. It goes like this: He can't be talking about continuing in God's love in salvation because one can never lose their salvation. That's called circular reasoning. I see it all the time in OSAS arguments.
Was Peter, Barnabas and the rest of the Jews keeping themselves in the love of God in this situation at Antioch in Galatians 2:11-15?
No, they weren't. Why are you asking this? Are you now suggesting 'keeping yourself in God's love' IS a salvation issue??? You just got done saying it wasn't.
Was anything said about them losing their salvation?
Yes. Paul says in Galatians 5:4 that what they were doing would result in Christ being of no use to them in justification, a fall from grace, so, yes, he did say this is a salvation issue. Of course, we know ultimately, they did not do that. But if they had decided to turn back to the law they would have in fact lost their justification. There would be no need for Paul to warn the church about this matter of turning back to the law to be justified if it did not result in a loss of justification in Christ. Think about it.
Even Christians have their weak moments.
It's the stubborn, conscious decision to turn away from Christ that causes one to lose their justification in Christ, not the temptations and struggles of being in the faith. If the person toying with abandoning Christ responds to correction they will remain saved. If they choose to ignore correction and willfully abandon Christ, they will lose their justification.
Obviously, Peter heeded Paul's correction and made no permanent, willful decision to go back to trust in the law for justification. The temptation to do so is not what condemns. Willfully and stubbornly doing that does.
The phrase "keep yourselves in His love" does not convey the idea that we need to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and keep ourselves saved by acts of love.
Right, he's not saying 'do acts of love'. He's exhorting the church to stay in the love of God in Christ. Just as Paul does, similarly, in Romans 11:22 when he talks about continuing in the kindness of God or risk being cut out of the tree for reason of unbelief.
The word "keep" means to attend to carefully, take care of, guard. We do this by building ourselves up in our most holy faith; by praying in the Holy Spirit; and by looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
It's funny how you can say this and it doesn't mean a works gospel, but if I say the exact same thing I'm called an unsaved person trying to save myself.
I don't see building myself up in my most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit and keeping myself in the love of God as a works gospel because I don't see it as a means of helping Christ to keep me saved.
I don't see it as a works gospel either,
because continuing in God's love and kindness by believing in Christ is not the definition of the works gospel.