Encouraged!

I want to truly thank everyone who contributed to this dicussion on eternal security. It was an excellent growth activity for me, and I hope it was for everyone else who was following along! It is my prayer that this blog will be read for encouragement and challenge in our Christian walk, and that it will not sow discontent or discord among the Body of Christ. I appreciate those of you who's comments focused on reminding us that issues such as these shouldn't be our "main focus". Our main focus should always be on Jesus Christ, His payment of our debt, and living our lives in submission to Him.

I want to begin wrapping up this discussion with a warning to both sides of the issue.
**The responsibility of a proponent of eternal security is to avoid the following pitfall: If a little boy prays to receive Christ in a Good News Club at eight years old, he is permanently grafted into God's family. This sonship is permanent and unalterable no matter what he does from then on. If that little boy grows up to live a life full of drunkenness, drugs, immorality, rape, and murder, he still goes to heaven, for his salvation is not based at all on anything he did or does—but totally on what God did for him on the cross. This is the radical view of unconditional security. When a person is justified it is once for all. All the convert's sins—past, present, and future—are forgiven. So future sin is irrelevant to his salvation—they have all been forgiven in advance 2000 years ago. As far as his salvation goes, sin is irrelevant.

People off this side of the road don't need to worry much about sin in their lives—they can simply rejoice that "there is therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus." Being in Christ is irrevocable insurance—the premiums were all paid in advance by Jesus death.

In its most radical forms, unconditional security proponents will argue that if the Lord returned today there would be thousands of people raptured right out of the arms of prostitutes or gay lovers, for their salvation is not based at all on any behavior, but only on something which happened in the courts of heaven.This radical form of unconditional security follows a path far off the road on the left. But there is a path far off on the other side too.
The danger for the people who believe in conditional security is in their defining of the "conditions". It's possible to steer off the other side of the road, constantly anxious about their own salvation. They disbelieve unconditional security so much that they practice eternal insecurity. They believe "one sin and you're out" of God's family. This sort of insecurity leads to spiritual hypochondria as people constantly check their pulse to see if they're still spiritually alive.

If these eternally insecure people slip into sin, they feel they have to get born again, again . . . and again, and again. One single slip is grounds for expulsion from God's family. Any thought, word, or deed that is disobedient breaks the relationship with God and will damn the individual.

People on this insecurity path are never sure. They are not sure that they are in or out today, so they turn morbidly introspective trying to eliminate any vestige of wrong thoughts, words, or deeds. They reason that if they live a perfect life, totally free from any sin, then they will be saved.

Their mistake is focusing on themselves instead of Jesus, as if all responsibility for staying saved is theirs and God is somehow looking for an opportunity to kick them out of the family. In their preoccupation with human effort they are more humanist than Christian.**I think we can all agree that the Bible teaches Holiness. Regardless of your view, we are to always love God with everything we have in us, and love our neighbor as ourself. Let these truths be our uniting factor.

If anyone has any closing comments or would like to respond to a comment that was posted earlier, feel free to do so here.

**Taken from http://www.crivoice.org/security.html** on 10-13-06**