You and I would agree, the believers righteousness is faith in Christ. That is our justification/righteousness before the Father, and what stands between us and hell/eternal damnation.
A person can get saved when they are dead in transgression/sin(Eph2:5) All they have to do is repent, ask Christ into their lives as Lord and saviour and they are saved. They then set out on the Christian path. Their sin is irrelevant as long as they stay on the true path. The sanctification process begins and God will deal with issues in each of our lives according to the importance of what needs to be dealt with naturally. And as long as we are looking to Christ, and seeking to live an evermore holy life in him we have peace, despite the imperfections in our flesh. Think of a traffic light, the light is green, everything is fine.
But the Christian can step outside of that path, they can stop following after the Holy Spirit in the truth of the Gospel message:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal5:16-21
But the Christian can step outside of that path, they can stop following after the Holy Spirit in the truth of the Gospel message:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal5:16-21
1 John 3:9 - No one who is born of God "practices" sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, we see a similar list of sins that were mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21, and Paul goes on to describe such people who practice these sins, in contrast with those who don't. 9 Or do you not know that the UNRIGHTEOUS will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 *Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
*Notice that Paul refers to these people who will not inherit the kingdom of God as the UNRIGHTEOUS, not the righteous. *They were not genuine believers.
So in practical terms, what happens if you step outside of the true path you should be on and follow after the flesh, what are the implications of that? I always use this example. A convert meets a pretty woman, he sleeps with her. He has now followed after the flesh not the Spirit. Can he now say ‘’Everythings fine, I am a work in progress, Jesus died for my sins, I’m ok.’’ Of course he cannot, no born again Christian could do that. He will be struck with remorse, and his faith has suffered. He repents of his folly, not because he fears hell if he does not, but because he regrets what he has done and wants his peace back. and hopefully he gets straight back on the path he should be on. But what if he does not? What if he sleeps with the woman again? Easier to do the second time. What results? His faith suffers, and sin starts to take a hold of him in this area of his life. He continues on in such sin. He can no longer look to Jesus and in his heart trust he is saved because Jesus died for him can he, that is not how it works. He is no longer following after the Spirit in the truth of the message on the correct path but has pandered to the flesh. What is the result? His faith suffers, it becomes weaker and weaker as the flesh becomes stronger and stronger. In the end, due to living a sinfull lifestyle for long enough, he has no faith left. He can no longer trust Christ is his righteousness before the Father. Head assertion does not count, heartfelt belief has gone. He no longer has his justification in the Father’s sight. He is now in an unsaved state.
Now who would be most likely to go down this path? A person who made a commitment without counting the cost of discipleship(Luke ch14) someone who only made a shallow commitment (the second example in the parable of the sower) Someone who was willing to make a full commitment would not err to such a degree. So because a shallow commitment was made, the man gets pulled away to a lifestyle of sin, because that happens he ends up losing the only righteousness he can have: Faith in Christ. His sin we can say caused him to lose his salvation for it robbed him of his righteousness before God, faith in Christ
Have we biblical verses to back this up? Yes:
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel Col 1:22&23
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel Col 1:22&23
It's only natural that Paul would speak this way, for he is addressing groups of people who profess to be Christians, without being able to know the actual state of every person's heart. How can Paul avoid giving them false assurance here that they will be eternally saved when in fact they may not? Whenever you have a group (especially a very large group) of professing Christians, it's not hard to find nominal Christians mixed in with a group of genuine Christians. Which makes sense why Paul would write this way. Paul knows that faith which is firmly grounded and established in the gospel from the start will continue. Those who continue in the faith show thereby that they are genuine believers. But those who do not continue show that their shallow faith was not grounded in the gospel to begin with and they were not saved.
Concerning your 101 verses. The bible is a big book, and different things are written to different people. When the rich young ruler asked Christ what he must do to inherit eternal life, why did Jesus not respond with John3:16? Because he knew the young man before he spoke to him. Different words for different situations/people.
I'm still looking for a verse in the Bible that unequivocally says a really "saved" person really "lost their salvation," but am yet to find it.
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