I keep hearing things, like, "you can't do anything after conversion to lose your salvation." I would like to know how that is, whether you're saying 1. You no longer sin 2. No matter what you do, what sins you sin, how rebellious you become, Jesus paid it all, so it's alright .
The problems with these ideas & others is one single thing: faith. We entered into this covenant by faith, we live in this covenant by faith, & when we end doing so WE BREAK THE COVENANT. The entirety of this covenant is BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.....not a one-time "decision" for Jesus Christ & kick back & slide in, but starting in faith, running the race by faith, & finishing our course by faith. Ignorance isn't acceptable, faithlessness isn't acceptable, & thinking it's all over 'cuz of a one-time "decision" isn't acceptable. THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.....not by grace alone! And not a "saying" faith, either!
Note the scriptures:
Hebrews 10:19-29 (NASB)
[SUP]19 [/SUP]Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, [SUP]20 [/SUP]by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, [SUP]21 [/SUP]and since we have a great priest over the house of God, [SUP]22 [/SUP]let us draw near
with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. [SUP]23 [/SUP]Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; [SUP]24 [/SUP]and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, [SUP]25 [/SUP]not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. [SUP]26 [/SUP]For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [SUP]27 [/SUP]but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY of a fire which will consume the adversaries. [SUP]28 [/SUP]Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. [SUP]29 [/SUP]How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Do we see the comparison between the two covenants? The writer is saying in a nutshell, "better covenant, more severe punishment (in Hell & lake of fire) for unbelief. Israel was promised a "promise land" & was commanded to take it by faith, & many died in the wilderness for unbelief.
How is it then, when these two covenants are compared with the same kind of judgement for BOTH, plainly stated, yet so many believe they can slide on in without living a life of obedience thru faith?
Here's where those folks mess it up royally..... DISOBEDIENCE IS UNBELIEF! The two cannot be separated. Rebelling from obedience is still as the sin of witchcraft, for the people strive to live a supernatural life "for God" using their own rules & methods. "Doing what's right in their own eyes".
THIS COVENANT IS BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH..... THROUGH MEANING THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, THROUGHOUT OUR COURSE, THROUGHOUT OUR RACE..... This is "keeping the faith".
1 Corinthians 9:24 (KJV)
[SUP]24 [/SUP]Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
[HR][/HR]Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)
[SUP]1 [/SUP]Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
[HR][/HR]2 Timothy 4:7 (KJV) [SUP]7 [/SUP]I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
[HR][/HR]1 Peter 1:5 (KJV)
[SUP]5 [/SUP]Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
[HR][/HR]Revelation 14:12 (KJV)
[SUP]12 [/SUP]Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.