To summarize the
position that I think best represents the Scriptures: the redeemed of God are
graciously so loved by our Savior that He confronts us with dire and fearsome
warnings that we might be corrected in our waywardness; and that we might be
motivated in our holiness. These dark
threatenings are thereby means of grace in our sanctification. They are directed toward the saved, for they
indeed are the only ones in which He is working “…
both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13, ESV).
Could it be, though, that even men and
women who have believed the Gospel, might reach a point where by they cast it
aside and reject its claims, thus ending up in eternal destruction? There appears to be a people whom Peter writes,
“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them
and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it
would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness
than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
(2 Peter 2:20–21, ESV)
My answer to the question is
"No"! But before I explain I
want to add two caveats: One, that does not mean there are difficult texts to
understand (as 2 Peter 2, suggests); and Two, that does not suggest that even
the elect of God can commit heinous sins and seemingly defect for a
season. What it does mean is that those
who are called of God, born of His Spirit, will not (indeed cannot) ultimately
and finally lose their salvation.
The most common misconception within the
camp of those who would disagree with me has to do with the order and the
nature of the New Birth. This is not an
exhaustive study of regeneration, but the clarity of Scripture is without
debate. Please note:
1. The antecedent
to faith is the New Birth. "Everyone
who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God . . .."[1] The verb γεγέννηται is "has been begotten" in the perfect passive indicative
tense. Anyone presently believing has
been born of God. Likewise we read even
more plainly: “But to all who did receive him, who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will
of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12–13, ESV). [Emphasis mine]. Jesus told Nicodemus that apart from the New
Birth you could not even see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3f).
This means that God has said to the unbeliever, "Let light
shine" (2 Corinthians 4:6) and the eyes of the heart were opened to the
grandeur of the Gospel; and in a moment of time this person became a New
Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
2. The nature of the New Birth contradicts the notion of apostasy. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus He made it
crystal clear that this idea of regeneration was something this Pharisee should
know. In Jeremiah 31:33-34 God promised
a New Covenant with the restored people of God.
In Jeremiah 32 we read this aspect of the New Covenant promise:
“And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give
them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good
and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting
covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the
fear of me in their hearts, that they may not
turn from me.” (Jeremiah 32:38–40, ESV)
[Emphasis mine]
The condition of the new heart given by the Spirit in the New Birth is
one that is inherently inclined to loyalty and faithfulness to God. The fallacy of thinking borders on absurd to
even think that such a heart, born from above, created by the Spirit would
defect from its origin.
So God in his
graciousness grants to His people such dire and terrifying threatenings that
they should be guided by them, heeding them as their new heart is inclined to
do. Rather than threaten eternal loss,
these warnings guarantee eternal security.
The warnings of Scripture to the elect of God assure their safe arrival
home rather than make it ambiguous.
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