OSAS= House Built on Sand

How do you get eternal life without believing?

Believing is how you access the grace of God that does the saving. Stop believing and you lose access to the grace of God in salvation.



That person is in contemptuous unbelief. Remember, to believe in the sacrifice of Christ is to trust in the sacrifice of Christ, not just believe that it's real. The person who willfully sins after being saved is hardly demonstrating trust in the sacrifice for salvation from sin and it's eternal penalty. They are trampling on the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified. They will lose the benefit of the sacrifice they are trampling on and have nothing left to look forward to but to be destroyed as an enemy of God at Christ's coming.



Staying saved is about continuing to trust in the sacrifice of Jesus for the payment of your sins to your last dying breath. It's not new trust, it's not additional trust. It's the trust you started out with on day one and it must continue to the very end for the sacrifice you are trusting in to be applied to you to the very end. Stop trusting in it and it stops being applied to you for the forgiveness of your sins.

Like Abraham, the father of faith, the footprints of justifying faith are your works of obedience.

It’s us by the Spirit obeying the truth.

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Galatians 6:7-8


again


13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13

• if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

God who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, Romans 2:6-8

• but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath,

JPT

The letter written to Hebrews teaches opposite to what you have written here.

As well, keeping yourself saved requires perfection which you do not have.

In John 3:16 you would do well to know that "whoever believes" is a nominative present participle portraying a single moment of believing and not a continuous one.
Meaning eternal life is immediately received when one believes in the Christ as Saviour.

As well, according to scripture a continuous and perfect state of believing in Christ is not possible in our fallen state, since this would necessitate sinless perfection. Every sin that a believer commits is reflective of some degree of unbelief.

Therefore, you have placed yourself in an impossible position of attaining salvation/eternal life based on your own imperfect ability to maintain belief perfectly.

And you have made belief an ongoing work which is contrary to the gospel of grace.

I note in Luke 15 that it's not just "someone" going after that which was lost. In the case of the sheep, it was the shepherd. In the case of the coin, it was the woman. In the case of the son, it was the father who waited earnestly for his return.

The shepherd, the woman, the father didn't send another to search or watch.

And none of the examples support your assertion of "eternal death" because all were restored.

Jesus teaches His disciples what it takes to restore a person who wanders away and becomes lost: Repentance.

A Christian who wanders away from the truth, from the Lord, has become lost.


Very simple.


Is someone who is lost, facing eternal life or eternal death?



There is nothing hidden, it's all right here for all to see.


4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:4-7

• likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

A Christian who becomes lost is a sinner in need of repentance: No longer justified [righteous before God]



Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20

• will save a soul from death

A Christian who becomes lost is in danger of eternal death unless he repents.

A Christian who is in a "lost" state, is not reconciled to God, and is no longer justified: They are lost.




JPT

Meaning eternal life is immediately received when one believes in the Christ as Saviour.

So then someone is no longer justified has their sins imputed back to them, and the judgement and decree of God that the person was declared innocent and the payment was paid in full is now overturned.

So now you have made the Judge a liar because He stated the person was justified when He said the debt was paid in full.

Your only choice is to believe the debt was not paid in full, in which case we could not use the word justified, the scripture would have to say quasi-justified and it does not.

How is continuing to believe equal to perfection????

I asked essentially the same thing and was given the non-answer that Jesus was perfect.

It was an excellent answer, Jesus believed perfectly something you and I will never do.

That's not the way the covenant works. Believers don't become unjustified when they sin. Believers become unjustified when they become unbelievers, break the covenant and abandon the faith.

Which (i.e., his perfect obedience) makes our justification and redemption possible despite our having imperfect faith.

So then someone is no longer justified has their sins imputed back to them, and the judgement and decree of God that the person was declared innocent and the payment was paid in full is now overturned.

So now you have made the Judge a liar because He stated the person was justified when He said the debt was paid in full.

Your only choice is to believe the debt was not paid in full, in which case we could not use the word justified, the scripture would have to say quasi-justified and it does not.

The decree of the judge is final, otherwise you make him a liar.

That's funny because that's exactly where it comes from.



How is continuing to believe equal to perfection????



Yes, the believer receives eternal life the instant he believes. This is not in debate. What is in debate is whether or not you have to keep believing, and if you're going to keep believing, so you can continue to have access to God's eternal life.



There are sins committed because of a lack of trust in Christ's help in daily life. And then there is the whole different matter of sins committed because of a lack of trust in Christ's sacrifice to forgive you and keep you clean before the Father. It is the end of your faith in Christ's forgiveness that causes you to forfeit the salvation you have, not the lack of your faith in whether he will protect and help you in this life or not.



I can only believe with God's help. Even if believing were all up to me without God's help who told you that believing is me trying to earn my own salvation???? Do you have chapter and verse for this? You show me where that is in the Bible and I will show you where believing is exactly the thing you do to be justified/saved. Believing is not among the works that Paul said can not justify. How did you come to the conclusion that believing is also on the side of the things that constitute the works gospel that cannot save?




Trust me on this, unbelievers and ex-believers will NOT be saved when Christ returns. No unbeliever gets to enter into the kingdom when he returns. You have to be a believer when he comes back to enter into the kingdom. That's why you must continue to believe to the very end to be saved in the very end at his coming.

If that's true then Jesus made his Father a liar.

That was the old covenant, we have a new covenant with a new Adam and the covenant cannot be broken.

When we are born from above we have accepted payment for the fine (justified) and the payment is irrevocable. That is what justified is, paid in full.
We may have the will to reject Christ but we do not have the choice.
The decree of the judge is final, otherwise you make him a liar.

The is only one Gospel.

The Gospel of the kingdom of God.

The Gospel of God’s grace.



JPT