A Christian losing their salvation is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a person comprehending the "Grace Message". It remains a pity we need to segregate ourselves to say "Grace Message" from the regular "Gospel", but the reality remains that much of what is preached as "the Gospel" today does not portray the Grace of God in its unadulterated radicality. I don't mean to come across as being an imperialist, by no means at all! If such a statement causes me to come across in such a light, forgive me. But we have to continue to make such statements to differentiate the message of what we declare to so much of what the Christian world is fed in their hyped up, look-at-me bookstores. The Grace Message. It's different to anything you ever knew.

Now, back to my point... A Christian losing their salvation. It amazes me how big a stumbling block this is to some Christians. A person's response to a Christian not losing their salvation is usually a revealing guide to their grid of understanding the character of God. If they respond in disgust and are quick to refute the point, then clearly there are streaks of religion in there ready to fight tooth and nail for our own ability to work for our salvation.

Which is exactly what the point of "eternal security" is about.

Who works for the salvation of the believer?
I would say as much as 95% of the church worldwide would all agree that we are saved by Grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – (9) not by works, so that no one can boast.

Galatians 3:1-2
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. (2) I would like to learn just one thing from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?

But if we are saved by Grace, why can't Grace keep us?

1. If our works can't get us saved, what makes us think our works can get us unsaved?

We are saved entirely outside of our works. Anything we can do. In other words... nothing we can do in our own ability and strength can gain us entry into the Kingdom of God. There is nothing we can do.
According to Galatians 3 and Romans 10 (and the confirmation of many other Scriptures that I don't have time for now) all that is required is for us to hear the Radical Message of the Gospel. That's it.

Romans 5:18
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

Taking into account only these 3 Scriptures I have shared with you thus far... Think logically... If there is absolutely nothing one can do to gain entry to God's Kingdom, nothing at all... What makes us think there is something we can do to be expelled?

Have a look at Romans 5:18 there... Jesus did one thing, and His one act resulted in righteousness for billions! One man's act! Nothing they did, but everything Jesus did!

If our righteousness is not based on what we do, it stands to pure theological (and logical) reason that no act of sin we perform can change our righteousness! Because our righteousness isn't based on anything we do!

Do you understand this?? I hope you are starting to see just why the Gospel is called "Good News"!


2. We were born with imperishable seed

1 Peter 1:23
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Um, could someone just give me the definition of "imperishable" please?

You have to be pretty dumb to not realise that "imperishable" means it can never die. Never degrade. Nothing can cause it to perish! That is who you truly are! A New Creation Spirit being made of imperishable God-DNA!

I remain an evangelical. By that I mean one needs to be "born again" to enter/experience the Kingdom of God. (There is much debate in circles at the moment around this topic, one which I am studying up on and considering, but I still believe there is a fundamental key to being "born again")

Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 that to enter/experience/see the Kingdom of God, one needs to be "born again".

Evangelicals agree that something happens in our spirit-being when we say "yes to God". We are born of the Spirit of God. Our spirits come alive within us. Alive to God. Alive to His Realm. That is our true nature. It is that nature that will be in Heaven when/if our bodies die. Our bodies remain here, back to the dust, our spirits continue to live forever with God.

1 Peter is saying those spirits are imperishable. Nothing we can physically do with our mortal body can cause those spirits alive within us to die. Once they're born, they're born. And they can't be unborn.


3. Jesus Himself said we shall never perish, and nothing and no-one can snatch us out of His hand

John 10:28
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Many people who don't understand eternal security don't even know this verse exists. But it's there. Go check it out in John 10. The words of Jesus our Saviour Himself.

We will never perish. Never. And no-one can snatch us out of His hand. No-one. Do you understand "never" and "no-one"? His Work is far too powerful to allow our works to hinder His...

Which brings me to my final point...


4. The Work of Jesus is far greater than the work of Adam

Romans 5:15-17
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (16) Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. (17) For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

I highlighted the words "much more" in verse 17 because that is an imperative to the understanding of the Finished Work of Jesus. His Work is "much more" powerful than the work of Adam!

We were stuck in a sinful condition not by anything we did. We were the unfortunate recipients of a heritage of sin. And nothing we could do could change that.

And if the Work of Jesus is far greater than the work of Adam (which it is!) then it stands to reason that once we are born into the Kingdom of God, nothing we can do can change that!!! The Saving Work of Jesus is far, far greater and superior to the condemning work of Adam! Far greater!

If we say our works can affect our salvation, in essence we are saying that Adam has more power than Jesus. This is why Jesus is called the "last" Adam. He is not called the "2nd Adam", but the "last" Adam. Why? Because His Work is so complete and final that there is no need for anything else to be done! The salvation work of Jesus is complete! God's requirement for the salvation and redemption of mankind was completed entirely at the Cross!

-----

I hope this has encouraged you. I hope it has brought faith and security to your heart. That is what the Gospel is intended to do. It's purpose is to raise faith in God's children and bring security and peace to your heart. I know for a fact that the Truth that I cannot lose my salvation brings me such peace and comfort to my heart that I can't help but be thankful to my Father in Heaven.

You may start to have questions rising up within you, questions which I get asked so often after this message. Let me very, very briefly offer a solution to these...

Question 1: "does that means I can go out and sin all I want?"
I'm not going to lie to you... Technically the answer to this is "yes". But when you hear this Message, do you actually want to? No born-again believer wants to go out sin. Follow your True nature within. And don't be afraid of people sinning because they believe this to be true. Your security should be in God, not in your hearer's (or your) ability to not sin.

Question 2: "What about Matthew 7:21 and Jesus says 'not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord.'?"
Matthew 5 to 7 is the Sermon on the Mount, early in Jesus' ministry, where He was talking to Jews (most of His ministry). And in particular a lot of what He was saying in the Sermon on the Mount was to the Pharisees. What he is saying in Matt. 7:21 is that Jews believed they were the chosen race, and they had the access to God. But Jesus was saying that means nothing without receiving Him as Saviour. He is the Messiah. And whether they are Jewish or not, their salvation depends on Him and Hi alone. The entire book of Hebrews was written in this context; to Jews who believed they were the saved, chosen race and salvation was through Jewish custom; whereas of course the author (Paul?) is saying the Jewish customs are over! It's Christ and Christ alone! And if they don't receive Jesus as the Christ, they've missed the boat.

Question 3: "what about the verses in 1 Corinthians and Galatians that talk about not inheriting the Kingdom of God"?
The great DR Michael Eaton has some remarkable insight into these passages which I would encourage you to find should you have the opportunity.

Each of these passages are written in the present tense. When Paul wrote them he was talking about "living in the reality of the Kingdom of God", which we know is "righteousness, peace and joy". If you act according to the flesh (anger, jealousy, etc.) you will hinder the flow of the Kingdom's river into your life, and you won't experience the peace and joy which God's Kingdom brings. So the key is to not allow yourself to get angry, jealous, etc. and hand it over to God, and instead allow Him to bring His River of Peace into your heart.
Besides... if those "acts of the flesh" listed in those passages were talking about salvation, then let's look at some of the less serious acts listed. We as Christians so quickly look at the serious acts like "orgies, sexual immorality, drunkenness" etc. But those passages also talk about "envy, discord, selfish ambition". If those passages were talking about our salvation, then we would be in a lot of trouble! I doubt there would be many Christians at all going to Heaven! So you see, it doesn't make sense to use these passages in a claim that our salvation is not eternally secure.

We must interpret Scripture with Scripture. The weight of Scripture points to eternal salvation. We cannot allow one or two (easily interpreted) passages refute what the weight of Scripture promises!


I hope this has blessed you! Thanks for reading, and please feel free to share this post with friends, and comment in the section below. Please, no slander will be tolerated in the comments section.

In His Grace forever,

James

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I know this is a little off topic for this Blog, but this "Meme" I created for Facebook has been gaining popularity so I thought I'd share it here.

I hope all you awesome email subscribers don't mind me indulging myself a little! ;)

If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that I am a passionate sport fan. And this weekend the Springboks played arguably their biggest game since the Rugby World Cup 2011, and until 2015.

But despite the importance of this weekend's game, referee Romain Poite was not up to the task and shockingly gave Bismarck Du Plessis two highly debatable yellow cards, meaning the Springboks had the impossible task of playing against the world's number one rugby team at their fortress home ground for 40 minutes. The sporting world are all in agreement that those two terrible decisions ruined the greatest rugby contest of the year, reducing it to a formality of going through the motions until the 80 minutes were up.

In my passionate despair, I was trawling the internet for news on the incident. In my searching, I found a picture of the moment referee Romain Poite dished out one of his two yellow cards to player of the day Bismarck Du Plessis. In light of everything that had transpired, I couldn't help but imagine in my mind what the referee could've said to Bismarck. Especially considering he would've known full well what expelling South Africa's top player would have meant.

So in that moment, I decided to create my very first "Meme".

I've always wanted to create a Meme, but between being extremely active on Social Medial, Blogging, running a business, pastoring a church and loving my family, there wasn't much point. Until this moment.

I think this one works quite nicely. And if you understand the context, it's pretty humorous. If you don't understand the context, it means nothing to you. In which case, I do apologise. Skip this Blog until next week. ;)

If you like it, then please share it using the Social Media buttons at the bottom of this Blog Post.
Much appreciated everyone.

And if you're visiting my Blog for the first time, be sure to subscribe on the right or at the top for FREE weekly inspiration to equip you as a worldchanger!

What about YOU? Are you a rugby fan? What did you think of the debacle? What are you hoping comes out of this controversy?

A big thanks to my friend Phil Drysdale for sharing this on his Facebook Page a few weeks back.

I have been a fan of Dave Ramsey since Jon Acuff, author of "Stuff Christians Like" moved across America to join his stuff. You know you're a big deal when successful authors are moving across country to join your staff.

Dave Ramsey's primary mission for people to be financially free by giving them tools to plan and budget their financial futures, get out of debt, etc. Sounds like a great resource if you want to be changing the world! (You can't change the world in poverty). Check out Dave's podcasts and resources here.

Anyway... my friend Phil Drysdale shared this video the other day, one which I hadn't seen yet. It's a really basic introduction to the wise way of buying a car.

This is basic knowledge that if you stick to from a young age, will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life!

Check it out...
(Remember, if you're reading this Blog in your Email, you'll need to open the Post in your browser in order to check out the video. Here's a direct link if you want to go straight to the video...
http://youtu.be/BKyV8CTHeJ0)

Enjoy!

I am about to get a soft. And I am not too unashamed about it. I say "not too", because a part of me is a little embarrassed  But hey, I figure it's worth you knowing... Here goes...

I shed a ted after watching this video.

Yes. That is the honest truth. I watched this video and tears welled up in my eyes. Many of you may not give a hoot about what Richard Branson is up to. But when I see people with a big HUGE vision to radically transform the lives of thousands, and get close to seeing that vision become a reality, I get emotional. Almost every time. It's what makes me tick.

Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, X-Prize creator Peter Diamandis and countless others saw something that 99.9% of the world didn't see. Or chose not to see because there were "more important" things to deal with. They saw something that would alter millions of lives, and the very limits of our transportation methods of the modern age.

Going to space is one step away from becoming a reality for average people. That's a bit ironic. "Average" people going into space in a Blog about wild dreamers. Anyways...

When I say "average", I mean people who weren't educated as Rocket Scientists and didn't have the drive to go to the Airforce kind of people.

Going to space has been described by the 500 odd people who actually have as lifechanging. The experience changed their perspective for good. Going to space must be one of the greatest experiences of one's life. And most of us are going to live to see it become a reality for the average joe on the street.

Sure, the first 15 years will be reserved for the mega wealthy. But Branson's goal is to make it achievable for anyone. And with Virgin Galactic's incredible team of engineers, that goal is one step away from reality.

Anyways, just a little video to encourage you to never give up on your dreams. Please. And dream big. Please. Enough of this small-minded, get-through-the-day stuff.

Watch. And be inspired. Until next week...