R
Ralph-
Guest
That's why works are required to be saved when Jesus comes back. Only born again people have works of faith. And which is why the people in 1 Corinthians 3, and the sexually immoral man in 1 Corinthians 5 do not show us that you do not have to have works to be saved when Jesus comes back as has been argued here (but then denied being argued).
If you have no works of obedience when Jesus comes back you are not born again. You will not be saved. The works less person in 1 Corinthians 3 is not the morally deficient, disobedient man who is still saved despite his disobedience. He is the believer who has no successful works of ministerial service to be rewarded in the life to come. And the fornicator in 1 Corinthians 5 is not saved despite his moral disobedience and all that's going to happen is he dies and Jesus whisks him off to paradise. No, he must first die to the flesh and stop living in moral failure so that he can be saved when Jesus comes back.
You said it yourself. If you are not an overcomer then you are not born again. Whether you lost your salvation or never had it to begin with is irrelevant. Because either way if you do not have works when Jesus comes back you will be rejected as an unbeliever.
Once saved always saved is a distraction to this important truth. You don't have to know the answer to whether once saved always saved is true or not. All you need to know is saved people must have works to go along with their faith and will be saved when Jesus comes back. If they don't then they show themselves to be unsaved not born again people at the resurrection. People who don't have works when Jesus comes back will not be saved. They are not born again.
Unbelievers do not have works of obedience. They can't let go of something they are not even producing to begin with. What unbelievers need to let go of is the vain attempt to produce works in the hope they'll be justified by those works.
So this is not about discarding works for the sake of works for fear they are you trying to earn your own salvation as is being pushed in this thread. This is about discarding the hope that your vain attempt at being righteous is enough to earn you salvation. See the difference? This distorted talk about not working has to stop. This isn't about not working and only having faith, and if the works magically come along all by themselves for the ride that's just a bonus. This is about purposely being obedient to the impulse of the Spirit within in works of righteousness, not suppressing Him, because you have faith in Christ.
But, most importantly, in light of what we actually see in the church today, fake believers should let go of the multitude of their works of service in the church. They think their Bible studies, confident boasts of God's grace, witnessing, church programs, church attendance and involvement, their deacon ministries, etc. are the works that they think make it okay to be morally deficient and disobedient and unchanged that way. This is by far the real problem in the church today. Not people living moral lives thinking that earns them salvation. The problem is people in the church thinking their works of service make it okay that they are disobedient, lawless, immoral people. This is by far the real problem that is not being addressed among believers.
Let's be careful here. The Corinthians really did believe. Paul is pointing out that even if their faith is sincere it is vain if the resurrection they genuinely believe in did not really happen. The vain belief he is addressing is a faith that is sincere yet believes something that is not true. Vain belief in this case is not fake belief. It is belief in something that is fake. You strike me as being a smart, reasonable person. I'm confident you can see this.
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