Then some people ask, well wait then if you are saved already, what sense is there for the great white throne judgment? Well if you ever studied the great white throne judgment, you will notice that no one there is ever acquitted. Everyone there is sentenced. Everyone that is before the bar is condemned and cast into the lake of fire. Those of us who are saved, our judgment has already taken place.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed [already] from death unto life.
Hath means has, HAS eternal life, present possession. Has it right now, not later. Our judgment took place upon the cross on Calvary. The fact that we are eternally secure depends not upon our faithfulness, or faith, or abstinence from sinning, or performing moral works.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
God does all the saving, we do all the being saved. We do the only thing we can do without doing anything and that is to trust in what another has done for us.
Can a saved person ever be lost? If we recognize what salvation is, that it includes many things, then we recognize that a saved person can never be lost. If those 36 values of the cross became mine the moment I did nothing except trust in what another has done, then how could I lose my salvation. No one can undo the work of God the Son upon His cross! ! ! If you can lose what you have by being bad, you must of gotten it by being good, but Romans says God justifies the ungodly.
Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
We were without strength and we were ungodly. Then Romans says God commended his love
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[in the Greek, it's God is presently demonstrating his love] in while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. It was his cross, but our death. He had no death of his own to die for. He had no sins of his own, no sinful nature. So he died our death, for our sins, for our sinful nature. The problem in Christendom is that Christians and non Christians have viewed salvation as simply the forgiveness of sins, and sadly there, just the forgiveness of past sins.
If we look at just the doctrine of forgiveness in scripture, just the doctrine of forgiveness, we find that the believer has not only been forgiven for past sins, but for present and future sins. In Colossians we read, haven forgiven all offences,
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
All offences must include past present and future, and remember when Christ died for your sins and mine, all of them were still future. Forgiveness is also only 1 of the 36 values of the cross. So it's wrong to conceive of salvation simply as forgiveness. We must recognize salvation is 35 other things as well. And then again its doubly wrong to conceive that salvation is simply just forgiveness of past sins because its forgiveness of future sins as well.
So while we are individuals, we still all came from Adam. Christ went to the cross not only to die for that original sin that was credited to our accounts as lost sinners in Adam, but he also died while there upon the cross for every sin you and I have ever committed. He died for every last sin, even those we don't like to remember, or don't remember or don't think of as sins.
Just like Lord of the Flies, given enough time we can sin. The bible teaches that we cannot make a Christian out of our old nature, our flesh. It's not only spoken of in the Bible as corrupt, but in Ephesians it says it is also corrupting. How can something that is totally corrupt get worse? Well does garbage get worse as it stays out. The old sin nature gets craftier and bolder. So after I have been a Christian for say 40 or 50 years, my old sin nature is not only not any better, but it's much worse. Christ died onto our old sin nature.
Did you ever stop to think how terrible it would be if Christ left one of my sins or one of your sins unpaid for. How much sin did it take for Adam to lose his ball game? For God said to him, Adam for the day you eat of the fruit thou shalt surely die. So on that day he ate of the fruit he died spiritually. One of the consequences of that spiritual death is that he would die physically as well. These are the things we have to consider when considering eternal security.
One thing to look at and distinguish is the concept of salvation and probation. They could both never be the same thing. Probation is being given a chance, being given an opportunity to prove oneself, an opportunity to succeed. But the Bible already wrote us off as bad investments as total losses, as absolutely ruined human beings. What good would a second chance do to a dead man. Adam was in a state of perfection having never sinned and without a sinful nature. He was given free will, he wasn't a robot that had to do something. He was given the opportunity to lock himself into holiness by obeying God or to reject holiness by rebelling against God. Adam in a state of perfection made a wrong choice, sinned one sin and not only lost his ball game, but the ball game for you and me. He lost the ball game for the whole human race, as Romans teaches he did:
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
And so death passed upon all for that all sinned because all sinned in Adam because he was the whole human race at the time. When he fell you and I fell, when he sinned, you and I sinned, when he rebelled, you and I rebelled, when he became lost you and I became lost, when he died spiritually, you and I died spiritually. That's the teaching of Romans. Adam became a sinner by sinning, but you and I sin because we are born sinners. Some may think that's unfair but let's first recognize that God didn't accomplish that, Adam did. Adam was made in the image of God but now Adam could only produce children unto his own image.
Before man's creation, God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," but after the fall we read that Adam "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Gen. 1:26, cf. 5:3).
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed [already] from death unto life.
Hath means has, HAS eternal life, present possession. Has it right now, not later. Our judgment took place upon the cross on Calvary. The fact that we are eternally secure depends not upon our faithfulness, or faith, or abstinence from sinning, or performing moral works.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
God does all the saving, we do all the being saved. We do the only thing we can do without doing anything and that is to trust in what another has done for us.
Can a saved person ever be lost? If we recognize what salvation is, that it includes many things, then we recognize that a saved person can never be lost. If those 36 values of the cross became mine the moment I did nothing except trust in what another has done, then how could I lose my salvation. No one can undo the work of God the Son upon His cross! ! ! If you can lose what you have by being bad, you must of gotten it by being good, but Romans says God justifies the ungodly.
Romans 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
We were without strength and we were ungodly. Then Romans says God commended his love
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[in the Greek, it's God is presently demonstrating his love] in while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. It was his cross, but our death. He had no death of his own to die for. He had no sins of his own, no sinful nature. So he died our death, for our sins, for our sinful nature. The problem in Christendom is that Christians and non Christians have viewed salvation as simply the forgiveness of sins, and sadly there, just the forgiveness of past sins.
If we look at just the doctrine of forgiveness in scripture, just the doctrine of forgiveness, we find that the believer has not only been forgiven for past sins, but for present and future sins. In Colossians we read, haven forgiven all offences,
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
All offences must include past present and future, and remember when Christ died for your sins and mine, all of them were still future. Forgiveness is also only 1 of the 36 values of the cross. So it's wrong to conceive of salvation simply as forgiveness. We must recognize salvation is 35 other things as well. And then again its doubly wrong to conceive that salvation is simply just forgiveness of past sins because its forgiveness of future sins as well.
So while we are individuals, we still all came from Adam. Christ went to the cross not only to die for that original sin that was credited to our accounts as lost sinners in Adam, but he also died while there upon the cross for every sin you and I have ever committed. He died for every last sin, even those we don't like to remember, or don't remember or don't think of as sins.
Just like Lord of the Flies, given enough time we can sin. The bible teaches that we cannot make a Christian out of our old nature, our flesh. It's not only spoken of in the Bible as corrupt, but in Ephesians it says it is also corrupting. How can something that is totally corrupt get worse? Well does garbage get worse as it stays out. The old sin nature gets craftier and bolder. So after I have been a Christian for say 40 or 50 years, my old sin nature is not only not any better, but it's much worse. Christ died onto our old sin nature.
Did you ever stop to think how terrible it would be if Christ left one of my sins or one of your sins unpaid for. How much sin did it take for Adam to lose his ball game? For God said to him, Adam for the day you eat of the fruit thou shalt surely die. So on that day he ate of the fruit he died spiritually. One of the consequences of that spiritual death is that he would die physically as well. These are the things we have to consider when considering eternal security.
One thing to look at and distinguish is the concept of salvation and probation. They could both never be the same thing. Probation is being given a chance, being given an opportunity to prove oneself, an opportunity to succeed. But the Bible already wrote us off as bad investments as total losses, as absolutely ruined human beings. What good would a second chance do to a dead man. Adam was in a state of perfection having never sinned and without a sinful nature. He was given free will, he wasn't a robot that had to do something. He was given the opportunity to lock himself into holiness by obeying God or to reject holiness by rebelling against God. Adam in a state of perfection made a wrong choice, sinned one sin and not only lost his ball game, but the ball game for you and me. He lost the ball game for the whole human race, as Romans teaches he did:
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
And so death passed upon all for that all sinned because all sinned in Adam because he was the whole human race at the time. When he fell you and I fell, when he sinned, you and I sinned, when he rebelled, you and I rebelled, when he became lost you and I became lost, when he died spiritually, you and I died spiritually. That's the teaching of Romans. Adam became a sinner by sinning, but you and I sin because we are born sinners. Some may think that's unfair but let's first recognize that God didn't accomplish that, Adam did. Adam was made in the image of God but now Adam could only produce children unto his own image.
Before man's creation, God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," but after the fall we read that Adam "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Gen. 1:26, cf. 5:3).
, its that God did not send a bag of proof texts off to Rome to straighten them out on salvation and to straighten out all the other assemblies and to straighten us out in our day and age. What He sent was a very logical, legal, consistent, progressive book thats line upon line and precept upon precept. Now God could have sent a bag full of proof texts if that was the right way to do anything, but it isnt.