God does His part, but we also have our part and need to be willing.
Yes, our sanctification progresses more easily if we are cooperating with God.
What He works into us, we are to work out, taking this more Godly character into practice in our lives.
The bible says that if we sow to the flesh we will reap destruction.
Is this the passage you have in mind?
Galatians 6:7-8 KJV
7) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8) For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Consider that this means in this life, that what we sow to our flesh continues to corrupt our flesh, and what we sow to the spirit becomes everlasting life in our earthly life now. Do you know what I'm trying to say?
I don't believe that part means that we are gaining eternal life because of the things we do. I see it more in line with this part:
Galatians 2:15-18 KJV
15) We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16) Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17) But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18) For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Paul is clear this is not about our justification, which is in Jesus alone, but rather that if we sin it's not because of Jesus Christ, it's because we did that to ourselves. We sowed to our flesh, and of our flesh we reaped corruption, which in this context means a more fleshy bent towards sin.
This doesn't mean we cannot overcome these or any sins as we walk in the Spirit. We can overcome by trusting Jesus to deliver us. But the more we've corrupted our flesh (science is even learning how to describe the ways this can happen) the greater our struggle may be.
Even so, with God, all things are possible.
People aren't always repentant no matter what the Lord does, that is just a sad fact.
We don't know other's hearts. We don't know what the Lord has planned, and that's fact. Hebrews states plainly that the Lord chastens His children, and that His chastening works. Maybe you've seen people in the middle of their process, maybe the people you've seen were not true regenerate Christians, I have no idea. But I know what the Bible says, again, plainly.
There are so many scriptures .......seared conscience,
1 Timothy 4:1-3 KJV
1) Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2) Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3) Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
hardened heart, deception and deceitfulness of sin, etc. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour....we could go on and on, there are so many scriptures written for our warning.
As always I start with the passages which make crystal clear statements regarding our life in Christ. Many passages are written in ways that address the different soils of Jesus' parable, and these warnings are so you will "examine yourself to see if you be in the faith".
There is much written about the kind of people who will not inherit the kingdom, and yet these very passages do not make statements that the regenerate return to flesh, or things of this nature. You've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to Jesus' kingdom, and never does Scripture speak of returning you to the kingdom of darkness.
You've passed from death to life, and never does Scripture speak of returning you to death. What it does say, in many places, in many ways, that if you are alive in Him now, you will remain, to be revealed with Him then. If you are a citizen of heaven now, you will be transformed to be like Him then. I could go on and on with passages like these.
None of these clear, direct statements are overturned by other passages, and all the more so when said passages do not make direct clear statements of a salvation lost, of a reversal of regeneration.
And Scripture likewise tells us over and over, and in various ways, that there are those who think they are saved and are not. These are warned, these have no status as sons, these are they who leave, having no root in themself. These are they who have a happy experience, but when the rubber meets the road, they aren't willing, because they don't actually have new life.
The Lord will sometimes even stop striving and give a person over to their sin....longsuffering has a limit. I have even had Him tell me to stop praying for someone, on one or two occasions.
My Bible tells me that "God is love", and that "love suffers long", and that God pities His worshipers, remembering we are made of dust. It tells me oh so much about how He will
never stop working with me, will
never forsake me, will
never leave me, and I believe Him.
Are you telling me that God will cause His child to become unborn again, resurrecting the flesh, and killing the spirit?
Are you saying that the child of God, deep in a crisis of faith and sin, despairing of any hope for recovery, lost in their wilderness, that God will strip them of His Spirit, cast them away from His love, abandoning them to their flesh?
I don't believe that for a moment!
Romans 1:24 KJV
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
This part above was not written concerning God's children. This is God's wrath against those who refuse Him. It's similar to this part:
2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 KJV
11) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12) That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Again, written concerning those who refused God, these in particular refused to receive the love for the truth. They preferred lies, so God gives them a lie. These are not His children, they are the perishing ones. Those who remain in death.
A child of God who is failing in their struggle against sin is in a time of greatest need, will their Heavenly Father, having promised - promised - to never leave them, never forsake them, will He leave them, forsaking them to die in that struggle?
Won't our God save us when we need Him most?
Much love!
