“Once for All”

[Netchaplain]

The crux of Hebrews 10:10 is the doctrine of eternal security! Hence there is only one type of salvation—eternal salvation (Heb 5:9). Does it seem sensible to consider the oxymoron of receiving eternal salvation, then loosing it? If it’s something that one can lose, it’s not eternal. Eternal has only one meaning—forever.

Can one even accurately assume that God would be required to remove eternal life from those to whom He gave it? If God gives eternal life it has to be forever, otherwise it would be to consider that God is ‘fickle.’ No, when eternal life is granted, it has to be permanent, or it wasn’t eternal life. Let’s keep it sensible.

All spiritual growth doctrines derive for the doctrine of eternal-security. It’s not as though one can go in and out of Christ, which again, would be fickle. The only answer is that there are those who think they are in Christ but in reality, they aren’t. This is the hypocrisy and apostasy with which so much of Scripture is taken up.

Of course there will be hypocrites and apostates, for the sake of contrasting what is true and what is false. These are exemplary of the classes of people who demonstrate truth or hypocrisy, in order to identify those who genuinely are seeking truth to please God, or those who eventually realize themselves that they are not truly seeking to please God. One thing is for certain, God will not let anyone continue in ignorance of where one stands concerning truth; for their “sin will find them out” (Num 32:23), and they will move on from the charade. Thankfully what one believes concerning the loss of eternal life has no effect upon one’s salvation, but on one’s growth from salvation.
NC

 

[Randy Kluth]

The crux of Hebrews 10:10 is the doctrine of eternal security! Hence there is only one type of salvation—eternal salvation (Heb 5:9). Does it seem sensible to consider the oxymoron of receiving eternal salvation, then loosing it? If it’s something that one can lose, it’s not eternal. Eternal has only one meaning—forever.

I agree. I think the determining factor of whether someone has truly received Eternal Salvation is critical. True faith in Christ is to believe in him to the extent one sees his need for him and responds by receiving him, in place of their life independent of him.

From henceforth, all decisions are routed through his love, even though we maintain a certain liberty to make free choices. Our choices are never outside of God's love, however.

Truly receiving Christ then means putting him on the throne of our heart, instead of just receiving power from him, or knowledge from him, or anything short of his ultimate control over our lives as Lord. The evidence for fully putting him on the throne of our heart is a character change.

Instead of just having the knowledge of love, and instead of just channeling God's power, our character is changed when we fully receive him. We *become* loving, kind, charitable, etc., instead of just acting it out. It is knowledge of good plus becoming good. It is not just doing good acts--it is becoming the children of God--born again by the imperishable word of God.

In my view, it all comes down to this. We were born with a conscience and with the ability to hear God. The Gospel enables us to translate what we know is right into what we must do to receive Christ as Lord.

When we truly receive Christ, we are born again and our character changes. All this shows that we are not only drawn to God, but we *want God* to be in our lives always. And we will get what we want.

Those who are Lost simply are confronted with truth and with God's presence and don't want His control over their lives. They don't want Him. And so they will be separated from His Presence for all eternity for some distance. They will get what they want.

But yes, if we truly love God, we shouldn't worry. But we should try to please the Lord the best we can. We will have to live with our choices for all eternity. Let's put our best effort into it?