B
What do I mean by the fact that salvation cannot be lost but it can be forfeited? Well, let me give you an example: If I had some coins in my pocket while I was running thru a forest and some of them fell out my pocket along my route, I would consider those coins lost unless I spent the time looking for them. But if I chose to just throw a bunch of coins into an open forest, I am willingly forfeiting those coins of my own choice.
For the act of forfeiting something involves a free will choice on the part of the individual. Losing something implies it is taken from you or it is lost to you by either unprepared negligence and or by some external outside force that you cannot control.
As for implying that I believe salvation is something I do or of my own effort: Well, God's Word does not consider confessing sin and refusing to do evil things as works. Good works are things that you do according to His Word. Not hating someone is a passive action on your part. Loving your brother is a proactive action on your part.
But when it really comes down to it. You don't do the good works. That is why it is not salvation by works or in something you do. God does the good work in the believer once they repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ (Whereby they have a spiritual transformation).
For the act of forfeiting something involves a free will choice on the part of the individual. Losing something implies it is taken from you or it is lost to you by either unprepared negligence and or by some external outside force that you cannot control.
As for implying that I believe salvation is something I do or of my own effort: Well, God's Word does not consider confessing sin and refusing to do evil things as works. Good works are things that you do according to His Word. Not hating someone is a passive action on your part. Loving your brother is a proactive action on your part.
But when it really comes down to it. You don't do the good works. That is why it is not salvation by works or in something you do. God does the good work in the believer once they repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ (Whereby they have a spiritual transformation).
Jason, you want so much to accuse believers of antinomianism because you have a terrible blind spot about the eternal reality of our salvation that we have in Christ and you want to be able to use the works that you do after salvation to justify condemnation against those who believe in God's eternal redemption that goes way beyond sin and any weakness of the flesh. We receive God's eternal salvation by grace through faith, it is maintained by God who is the author of it and gave it unto us as an imputed gift by grace through faith and we receive the reward of that salvation from God by grace through faith.
We can do nothing in our volition to forfeit anything that God imputes unto us in Christ. We have the freedom in our own volition to give into the flesh and to go out and live in terrible sin (and mark it down, it won't be good for us to do that) and God will never leave us or forsake us or stop his work in us, nor can we forfeit a single thing he has done for us or to us when we first believed upon his Son. God is not looking for me to confess my sin because I have already seen the error of my way, but he is looking for me to respond to his grace so that I might be restored in him.
Yes Jason, we have been eternally locked in Christ by grace and we can't unlock that position we have with him through our human volition. It can't happen, it won't happen and never has happened to anyone. Being locked in does not mean that I can do what ever I want with no consequences. Those consequences will most likely include God's heavy hand of chastisement but will not include being stripped of, losing or forfeiting the imputation of God's righteousness through his Son that was put on my account when I believed upon the work of Christ, nor will my name be blotted out of the Lamb's book of life. But there will be a book of remembrance and also those that contain our works done in the flesh and in the Spirit that will suffer loss or receive reward.