Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God…
If you think a man can lose or somehow forfeit his salvation. Then the problem is more about how you understand what it means to be born again. Than what you believe a believer’s responsibilities are before God.
Being born again is not merely a change of mind from believing in idols to believing in Jesus. Or forgiveness of naughty behavior you may have done. It is so much more than that.
A person who is born again is sealed by God for eternity with Him. So that losing or turning away from the Lord is made impossible. Because while we have a role to play in joining with God in coming to salvation. It is the Holy Spirit who afterwards seals us, and not ourselves.
This is why John says in 1John3:9 that the man that has been born of God can not sin. He can not not believe in Jesus. And is also why Jesus said in John10:28,29 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
Being born again was made necessary from the time God made Adam. Not because God knew Adam would sin. Or even that anyone would sin. But, because Adam was made a natural being when he was made. He had no spiritual part in him. 1Cor.15:45-48
All men since that time are also natural and not spiritual. So regardless of whether a man sins or not he is in need of Jesus because flesh and blood, the natural man, can not inherit the kingdom of God. 1Cor.15:50. He can not even perceive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.
Not because the flesh is evil as gnostics teach. But, because it is natural. The way God intended from the beginning for the purpose that men could choose whether they would be children of God. And not simply programmed that way.
This is why when we believe in Jesus we are made new creatures. Because being born again is a birth, or creation if you will, of a spirit in us. One of choice and not of respect of persons. For God is not a respecter of persons.
This is a spirit no man has until he is born again. So that we are a spiritual man that never existed before until after Jesus came only when we trust in Jesus and His resurrection. This is the new creature Paul spoke of in 2Cor.5:17.
And just to make sure they understood what he was telling them. And that they did not confuse their guilty conscience with the purpose for which Jesus came. Paul says just 2 verses later that the real reason for the cross was that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
So it is because the natural man can not perceive the spirit of God. 1Cor.2:14. And he needs to for him to be able to worship God in spirit and in truth. John4:24.
And has little to nothing to do with his guilty conscience. Other than to change his thinking so that he no longer views guilt and shame as barriers to God. But, instead as one of the tools Satan uses to create such a barrier. If we let him.
Because God is not imputing trespasses to us. So they can not be a barrier between us and God. Our need for Jesus is one born out of our being natural and needing to be spiritual. It is not about naughty vs nice as the church that follows Augustine teaches.
So in summation we recognize that it is because we have been made this new spiritual creature, a spiritual man, that once we are saved we will forever be saved. And Eph.4:30 is the seal that stands on this new creation. And that unto the day of redemption. And as Rom.8:383,39 declares regarding the love of God and our never being separated from Him because of it.
So if you have confessed the Lord Jesus. And believed in your heart that He has raised from the dead. And meant it from your heart. Then you are sealed unto the day of redemption. You are a new creature in Christ that can never lose, misplace, forfeit, or turn away from being the new creature.
So, if you are going to preach on sin then preach it the way Jesus did. He defined it in John16:9 as “they believe not on me.” This means it is unbelief that is the sin of the world that keeps men separated from God. And is also what separated Jesus on the cross from the Father when He said, “Father why hast thou forsaken me.”
This is what was meant by Paul in 2Cor.5:21 when he wrote that Jesus “became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” And not the non-imputed sin defined by the law. That was only ever a problem for those who were under the law.
But, if you are under the law. That is, if you believe that keeping the law is part of being a new covenant believer, then you are not believing as a new covenant believer. You are believing as one who is under the old covenant. And may still be dead in sins and trespasses.
Because Paul says plainly in Rom.6:14 that for sin not to have dominion over you is to not be under law, but under grace. This means that if you believe you must keep the law then you are not under grace. And therefore have not yet come to a saving faith in Jesus.
But, you don’t have to stay there. Jesus made the way both for the Jew and for the rest of the nations(gentiles) to come to Him by faith for deliverance from death and sin.
Deliverance from death by His conquering it through the resurrection. And deliverance from sin by believing in Him and His resurrection. For when you have believed in Him you are no longer in unbelief. And not being in unbelief you are no longer a sinner or in sin.
I encourage you to confess Jesus now and be delivered from the only sin that can keep you from knowing God. The sin of unbelief. Believe in your heart that He has raised from the dead and you will have eternal life by the spirit God creates in you. A spirit that makes you His child and heir to His kingdom.
Do this and you will have eternal security. You will be God’s child that can never be taken from His hands. Because then it will not be just a change of mind that has revealed salvation to you. It will be a new spirit that makes you His child who is able to for the first time worship God in spirit and in truth.
And as His child you will forever be His child. The spirit He creates in you is that seal of the Holy Spirit.
The seal that seals you unto the day of redemption. Do this… and I will see you there or ion the air!
