Some feel a need to note SOME Scriptures on this but ignore others; just pick which ones you believe and which you don't. Perhaps note the first "set" and ignore the second, or note the second and ignore the first. In other words, to accept SOME of what God so clearly states while rejecting SOME (or more piously, insisted God worded these very poorly and MEANT something totally differently).
Gospel:
Romans 8:29-39, For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. "
Mark 13:22, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect--if that were possible.
John 4:14, "but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 20:28, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
1 Thess. 5:24, "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Hebrews 10:14, "because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Rev. 3:5, "I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels."
All this is true.
Law:
John 15:4-7, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you... If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."
Rev. 2:10, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Matthew 10:22, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved."
1 Timothy 4:1, "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons."
Luke 8:13, "They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away."
John 8:31, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really My disciples."
Luke 21:19, "By standing firm you will gain life."
Hebrews 8:9, "They did not remain faithful to My covenant, and I turned away from them"
Gal. 5:4, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."
Col. 1:23, "If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel."
Hebrews 10:26, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
2 Peter 1:8-10, "But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure."
2 Peter 3:17, "Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position."
Rev. 3:5, He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white.
Luke 12:8, "He who disowns Me before men will be disowned before the angels of God."
All this is true.
Perhaps the best approach is not to subject one "set" to the other (one "set" is right, the other is wrong) but to see all as true. The issue is not how to reject what God says but how to apply them. Perhaps the issue is CONTEXT (here, Law or Gospel) rather than choosing which to accept and which to ignore.
A modern "take" on OSAS is to change it to IF the person has REAL, GENUINE, AUTHENTIC faith, they'll have it at the microsecond of death even if God has to re-give it." Two problems: Scripture never remotely teaches that. And it simply changes the point of security from the
OBJECT of faith (Christ) to the unknowable
QUALITY of our faith (as if God gives both real and unreal faith).
The historic (and IMO biblical) teaching here is that where there is faith in the SAVIOR, there is salvation. Where faith in Christ is absent, so is salvation. Pastorally, there has always been "room" for doubts and temporary lapses but the principle remains: The SAVIOR is Christ, and He is certain! So when we are "in Him", we are secure and saved. When we are not, we aren't. That seems to reflect what Scripture says. Pastorally, the one who fears that his life and doubts makes him unsaved, there is the Gospel. For the one who holds he can think, say and do whatever and God has to save him he needs the Law.
Blessings!
Josiah
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