Galatians 4:19 says, 19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,
This is a very important passage, which is not about unsaved persons; these are Paul's little children; persons He led to the Lord who became born again. Yet in the Christian there are two morphēs. Morphē = form; but in contrast to schēma, morphē is not just outward form but reaches down in the essence. Salvation is about meta-morph-o-sis (Greek morphemes, in Latin morphemes = transFORMation.) The metamorphosis of the Christian is described in Rom 12:1-2 and 2 Cor 3:18. Be ye transformed. As Rom 13 puts it, Put on Christ. The metaphor is like putting on clothes. And there are 2 sets of clothes a Christian may wear: Old Man and Christ/New Man. The Christian is a doctor Jekyl and Mr. Hyde with two forms (morphēs).
Paul calls the Galatians to put on Christ in Gal 4:19. They have a problem with carnality, wearing the flesh, the Old Man. Gal 5 delineates the two kinds of behaviors: Walking by the Spirit vs Walking by the flesh (sarx). Both forces are at war in the Christian, with the flesh every making suggestions on behavior. The flesh lusts vs the Spirit & vice versa.
The imagery Paul uses here regarding a church which fallen away into Judaism and idolatry, a church in which he is fearful for (verse 11) and in wonder that he has labor in vain for, is interesting and making me rethink OSAS.
Do you have verses for idolatry? Nothing comes to my mind on that one. Indeed, in Galatia (Antioch of Pisidia, Lystra, Iconium, Derbe) there was an infiltration or attack by Judaizers. I believe it is described at the end of Acts 14 and led to a settlement of the problem at the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15, which I date right after the conflict at Galatia described in Galatians 2, where Paul rebuked Peter.
Paul mentions that he has to go labor again for the sake of making them Christ like, Christ "formed" in them. He equates this as giving birth again, a rebirth. I always thought that that once you have been born again, you couldn't be unborn.
Of course Paul uses graphic figure of speech. Compare Ephesians and Colossians were the Old Man is put off and the New Man put on. The persons he addresses are called presently "his children." Thus the problem is not that they are unsaved now after having been saved (oxymoron language). The problem is that they need to manifest their godly nature and be led by the Holy Spirit. It is Paul who is "in travail." That is not God in travail to bring forth new Christians. The new birth is from God, not from Paul.
Perhaps Paul doesn't agree with me here!? If they all were born once and could regress, then why would Paul be fearful for them, they are saved right? I'd be more fearful for those unsaved, the ones they are preaching to, that these Galatians would teach falsehood and make false converts..
In considering the subject of eternal security, one really needs to focus on the subject itself, verses that speak of eternal life and salvation, instead of taking verses which do not use those terms. It is like swatting a bunch of flies to respond to , "Well what about this, what about that?" And the passages say nothing about salvation or eternal life.
I can't imagine myself ever going back to me old way of life, it is unthinkable. The Love of God has taken hold of me, I can never give it up, even if I tried. In this respect I feel my salvation is secure.
The security of the believer is not predicated on me, myself, & I. It is predicated upon the power and promise of God. My security (I did a my!) is based upon the blood of the Lord Jesus, His substitutionary payment for all my sins.
Also in Galatians 5:4 Paul says that they (the Galatians) have been estranged from Christ. In order to be "estranged" (NKJV) from Christ, you had to be at once in Christ.
The text doesn't say they were once in Christ. One principle of interpretation is the analogy of the faith, no scripture is of any private interpretation; it must all be taken together, correlated, harmonized.
The NASB says they have been "severed" from Christ. The actual Greek word is Katargeo, which could mean "to render idle, inactive" or "to cease or cut off from." If they attempted to go back to law, they have fallen from grace. They must have had it at one time to fall from it. Does fallen from grace mean loss of Salvation? It doesn't say that.
"Christ became of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh through love."
It is interesting how so many who want to deny eternal security do it on the grounds that salvation must be earned by good works, in effect justified by law. Yet that is a means to secure damnation. To take that approach after having been taught about grace, is to fall from grace as a method of salvation. The expression does not imply they were ever saved. The passage teaches how to live the Christian life for those who are saved, in Christ. It is faith, just as faith was the means of initial salvation. We trust the Lord Jesus (Gal 2:20ff). In the power of the Spirit then we expect righteousness to occur in our lives. The law does not avail for the Christian (in Christ), but faith does; and faith works through love. We trust the Lord Jesus, then the fruit of the Spirit results, chiefly love.
One meaning of the term you render "fallen" [from grace] is to drift or be blown off course and run aground, drift off course, run aground, a nautical term, used also in Acts 27.
I can see good arguments from both side being made regarding both of these passages.
The main point is that focusing on passages like this is not the way to affirm or deny eternal security. The passages to focus on are those that address the topics of salvation and eternal life in certain terms.
What is more important is that we agree that we all need to examine ourselves to make sure we are in the faith. The book of 1 John gives 4 test to KNOW if we are true children of God:
1) do you have the right theology of Christ. Jesus is the son of God and is God, God in the flesh.
2) do you obey His (Jesus') Commandments?
3) do you love your brother? are you willing to die for him?
4) does the Holy Spirit testify to your soul that you belong to God. do you feel the HS leading you?
1 John addresses abiding in Christ and can be viewed as an expansion of John 15. There is content on assurance of being saved. The existence of good works is a part of that assurance, which should not be overlooked. However, at the core, we hear God's promises on the subject and trust Him. As 1 John says, we may know that we have eternal life if we believe (trust) the Lord Jesus as our Savior. Trusting in our good works as a means of salvation (instead of the fruit of salvation) is a sign of being unsaved.
If you pass these four tests, all of them, not just one or two or three, then I would have to say you are a Child of God, and secure in Him.
There is but one test for eternal security: Do you trust the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary death on the cross as full payment for all your sins? If you trust in your good works, then you fall away from grace, and Christ will do you do good. If you are into gross sin as a life style, then you know you never trusted Him as Savior. One cannot be saved without being saved. Recognition of Christians by human beings is a different subject from eternal security, which is based on God's promises.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
1 John 5:10-13
Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
End of Rom 8:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to
his purpose. For whom
he foreknew,
he also foreordained
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom
he foreordained, them
he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom
he justified, them
he also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God
is for us, who
is against us?
3He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
