This has been a point of so much contention, albeit unnecessarily. Those who argue that a believer can lose his or her salvation do so from the point of view that God is a Holy God, and hence, once you commit sin, you automatically lose fellowship with Him. You will then have to go through a restoration process that begins with remorse, confession, forsaking, and pleading for restoration, and finally you are back on with God. And that you’ve got to do this again and again each time you sin.
Easy biblical reference is of course made to 1 John 1:9, Psalm 51, and so on.
Pious as this doctrine may seem, it is fraught with inherent fault lines. First, it doesn’t take God at His word in Hebrews 10:16.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, And in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.
The above verse is a New testament version of an Old Testament prophecy in
Psalm 103:12
“As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us”.
Secondly it minimizes the accomplishments of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, especially his declaration of “it is finished” upon the cross in John 19:30.
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost”.
What was finished?
The same Hebrews 10:18-22 tells us that:
“Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”.
Sin consciousness is purely a mind and conscience thing.
At salvation, you receive the same spirit that you will have throughout all eternity. It will not have to be changed again or cleansed again. It has been sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13) and is therefore sanctified and perfected forever (Heb 10:10, 14; and 12:23).
The rest of the Christian life is not trying to obtain faith, joy, love, etc., from God, but rather a release of what we already have in our spirits into our souls and bodies. Failure to understand this has caused some people to despair when they don’t see sufficient change in their lives after coming to the Lord for salvation. It must be understood that the change is internal in our spirits, and the outward change will take place as we renew our minds through God’s Word.
The verse above calls it ” a NEW AND LIVING WAY”.
Get it into your skull, God is telling you: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”.
Isaiah 55:9