I also said that I do believe that some minor doctrines, if taken to far can lead into major consequences, sometimes eternal consequences. I want to try and explain this a little further.
I want to start with a doctrine that I believe is a very great truth that I do wish all Christians believed, but one that I am well aware of the grave consequences that can come of it. That is of a believers eternal security, or commonly known as "once saved, always saved".
I believe that once God saves an individual that person is born again as a new creature in Christ and is sealed for all eternity, never to lose their salvation.
A common misunderstanding is that this then gives the Christian freedom to sin as they please because it doesn't matter, they can't lose their salvation right? Wrong!! Unfortunately, some people think this way. This usually happens because they have not been told or do not hold high esteem for God's command for repentance.
God commands us to repent, and if an individual is truly grieved at how sinful they are from within their heart, not just about the mistakes they've made or consequences of such, then God will give them a new heart with new attitudes and desires for righteousness, and they will sin less but they won't be sinless.
If someone continues in sin then as John says, "If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (1Jn 1:6). And I say that person was never saved in the first place. Paul says it well in Romans 6;
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Butthanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Another concern for those who do not believe they can lose their salvation is that I believe although they strive for holiness, they may become a little indifferent to minor sins. That is why I pray for God's heart concerning all sin, and that God would continuously reveal my sin to me and that it may grieve my heart.<--------------------------------\/--------------------------------->
One more doctrine that I will touch on for now is that of being able to lose ones salvation.
This teaching I believe has at least two consequencial implications. One being that I believe it puts a great burden upon those who believe that they can lose their salvation.
If you believe this, then the Christian will spend so much of their time worrying that anything that they do wrong may have caused them to fall from God's graces. Face it, while we are here in these mortal bodies we will sin until the day we die and you will probably live in guilt and worry most of that time.
Another great concern is that these people become very legalistic and can get to the point where they believe that you must never sin again or you are not saved. John responds to this thinkning in 1 John 1:8 and 10 "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"..."If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
Something I would say to that also is, that there is and never was or will be anything that we can do to earn our salvation, therefore there is nothing that we can do to keep our salvation either. Our salvation has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are now seen as righteous before God because of Jesus' life not our own.
I believe the writer to the Hebrews addresses this as well in Hebrews 6:4-6;
"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt".
I think what he's saying is that if you thought you were saved and then lost it, then that's it, because you'd essentially have to crucify Jesus again to regain your salvation, and I don't think that is going to happen.
As I'm sure you noticed in the title that this is only part 1 for this topic and there will obviously be other posts for this in the future. For now, ponder these things and remember to always cross check everything I say with the Scriptures for they alone are the sole authority.
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