Originally Posted by SHW
Please explain the blessing of your confidence and assurance in salvation, that you believe in, by using the following Scripture passage. Please explain how a person remains saved after just one transgression:
Ezekiel 33:12-20 "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people:
‘The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness;** nor shall the righteous be able to live (eternal life) because of his righteousness in the day that he sins**.’ 13 When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die (be damned).
Originally posted by Seeking12: This is speaking of an unbelieving heart, not a righteous heart, this is what God is saying here. These are the same self righteous people we see today that honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him.
I disagree. God is speaking of a “
righteous” person who transgresses, not a “self-righteous” person who transgresses. A righteous person in God’s eyes is definitely not a self-righteous person. God states that the righteous person loses eternal life (dies) on the day that he transgresses (sins). God states that on the day that the righteous person transgresses, that his righteous works done while he was righteous are no longer remembered.
Originally posted by Seeking12: This is also speaking of people under the law, we are under grace, the law was given to show man his iniquity before God. God does not change the way people are saved; it has always been God’s grace. this is another reason why baptism of water does not save; does God change?
I am “under grace” only when I am imitating Christ and I and God are abiding in one another. (God can not and does not abide in a sinful defiled temple/soul.)
We place ourselves
under the law when we break God’s commandments and we are then judged by the law.
James 2:8-11 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9
but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.”
Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.”
We are judged by the law of liberty (grace)
if we are obeying God’s commandments because we are living a righteous life.
If we break God’s commandments, then we are transgressors of the law, and we will be judged as transgressors of the law and we are therefore no longer righteous.
So, Ezekiel is stating that when a righteous man transgresses (sins), then he is no longer righteous. His righteous acts that he did while he was righteous are also no longer remembered.
This is why when many persons who are expecting eternal life, claim on Judgment Day that they did many things in His name, Jesus will say to them:
“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘
I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Matthew 7:22-23
No good acts are remembered by God when we are in a state of mortal sin.
It takes just one mortal sin to lose eternal life. Adam found this to be true and he is the example for all of us. Adam made all of us enemies of God. (Romans 5) Jesus made our reconciliation with God possible, but He did not guarantee our salvation.
Our free will choices determine whether we are saved or not on Judgment Day because we are judged according to our works.
Revelation 20:12-13 “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.
And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.” See also Matthew 25:31-46
2 Corinthians 5:9-11 "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;"
2 Thessalonians 1:8 “in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and
on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 8:13 "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."
SHW