Cubby:
Thank you, Ozzie for directing me to chapter 1 of Colossians, where St. Paul encourages us to persevere in the faith. If we continue to read that chapter of Colossasians we will find the following verses (21-23): 21 And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds 22 he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, 23 provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, am a minister. We’ll see you around the Kingdom, thanks to the redemptive grace from Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, if you persevere!
First of all I am amazed at how delighted you were in thinking you found a loophole in God’s Word that you think defeats the sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross to forever save the one who turns from unbelief to belief in Him. Secondly, When did I ever say that true believers are not to persevere in the faith? The fact that I present on this thread the Biblical truth of salvation, justification, and future glorification of the true believer by grace alone through faith alone doesn’t at all conclude that the faithful are not required to persevere in the truths regarding the faith. In fact, this is exactly what Paul expresses in Col. 1:23.
But before his admonishment to persevere in the faith he first establishes the divine fact that the Father has already
“qualified” (past tense, in Christ) us to share in the inheritance of the saints…“for He (God the Father)
delivered (past tense) us from the domain of darkness, and
transferred (past tense) us to the kingdom of His beloved son, IN WHOM we
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (present/continuous tense). He goes on to establish the fact that although the Colossians, as Gentiles, were formally alienated from God, hostile in mind and engaged in evil deeds (paganism), He
reconciled (past tense) them to Himself through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross IN ORDER (for the purpose of) to present them before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Col. 1:22). ALL these things are theirs through their faith in Christ. They are absolute!
Now the warning in verse twenty-three is not an added condition laid upon the individual believer whom God the Father has, through faith in Christ, already reconciled to Himself; not a threat that he will find himself un-reconciled and un-redeemed at the end of his life if he did not perform and persevere properly. But Col. 1:23 is a warning against
apostasy in general. That the Colossians, corporately, as a people, to whom the message of the gospel of grace was preached, must not
“move away” from the hope of this gospel (i.e., “salvation by grace through faith alone”) which Paul proclaimed to them and was made a minister. They must continue to persevere in these divine truths and pass them down to the next generation or they will lose them forever, and the salvation that accompanies that gospel message.
This is a favorite passage of the legalists who diligently searche the Scriptures to try and prove God wrong via His own Word concerning Christ and the joy and freedom He has, through Him, to save forever, i.e.,
reconcile, redeem, justify and eventually
glorify, all who will put their trust totally in His beloved Son and His historic, finished, work on the cross, and His present High Priestly work in Heaven, on their behalf.