Hi Nancy. The 99 are sheep... They are safe. The one wandered away and was lost. Despite going his own way and abandoning his Shepherd, the Shepherd didn't abandon him, but went searching until he was found. Being found however incorporated repentance from going astray.
Question for you: Do you think that Peter, Barnabas, and the many others that THEY led astray . . . did they need to repent of their sins?
Galatians 2:11-15 NLT - "But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish Christians followed Peter's hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, "Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? 15 "You and I are Jews by birth, not 'sinners' like the Gentiles."
And to make another point out of the above Scripture, did you notice that the "sinners" here, are the Gentiles? Did you note that Paul did not refer to the Jews as "sinners," likely because they are of the Chosen race? Could it be that Jesus is referring to the Gentiles who have yet to repent and Turn from their Sinful Ways?
Semantics. We're dealing with semantics. Here is an example from the Doctrine of Circumcision. The two below passages are completely opposite of each other. Which verse shall we choose to believe is the Truth?
Jeremiah 4:4 KJV - "
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench [it], because of the evil of your doings."
Deuteronomy 30:6 NKJV - "And
the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live."
The above verses, if taken literally, cannot both be True. So . . . as you can see, we have a conundrum not only with Circumcision, but with Luke 15:7. If a person has already been saved, why are they lost? And if they have already been saved, but have merely wandered off, why would they need to repent? Repentance is granted; not something that we keep on exercising over and over again, hence we send Christ to the Cross over and over again. Hebrews makes it clear that if we reject Christ, perhaps to the point of needing to once again repent, it will be impossible.
Hebrews 6:4-6 NKJV - "For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put [Him] to an open shame."
Would anyone else care to comment on the above? Seems like a pretty solid case having just been presented.