If someone is saved by grace through faith in Christ they will be a completely changed person, but not by their own changes by the work of Christ in their lives.
Ephesians 2:10
"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Christ responds to our repentance and desire to be changed by Him by sending His Holy Spirit to live in us.
The Holy Spirit lives in us to change us and grow us. It is a process of spiritual cleansing from the moment of new birth to the end of our earthly lives.
Christ does all the work of making us into a vessel of honor for His glory.
1 Corinthians 3:15-17 "15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames. 16 Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.…"
Romans 8:9
"You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."
God gave us the choice to obey Him in repentance to become born again, after that He does all the work in us. We wanted to be changed by Him and He did it. We no longer think the WAY we thought before because we are now the opposite of what we were.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
"9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
If anyone remains filthy, defending their sin while claiming to be a "Christian", they are lying or deceived.
1 John 3:8-10 "…8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.…"
If a born-again believer sins they hate it, the Holy Spirit torments them with guilt until they confess to become cleansed. The more we confess as sins are exposed by the Holy Spirit the more we grow in holiness. No child of God keeps on sinning without guilt and they never defend their sin.
1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
God disciplines those whom He loves, He does not throw them away, they belong to Him but are trapped in their fleshly body of sin which they have to battle every day.
Hebrews 12:5-7 "…5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"
Those who are born again but do not submit to the Holy Spirit will lose rewards in heaven for their disobedience but will still be saved. This is the reason we are confused at times, so many tares are in the church today and so many believers are disobedient. The tares are those who are pretenders and were never born again. The disobedient believers have trusted in Christ but are lazy in knowing God's Word and therefore are not obedient. They often live with lifelong consequences for their sin because they have trusted Christ for salvation but will not trust Him enough to obey His word.
1 Corinthians 3:14-16 "…14 If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames. 16 Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?…'
The tares who do not trust in Christ will hear these terrible words one day, believing they are saved, getting to the gates of heaven only to be turned away, that is Matthew 7:21-23.
Matthew 7:21-23
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
In these last days, the wheat looks so much like the tares that it is hard to tell who is born again and who is not.
Matthew 13:27-30
So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
The further into the end times we progress the more we see the apostasy of the church, there will be more tares than authentic believers.
I have experienced more chastisement from the tares in the church for standing for Christ's principles in His Word than I have from the world. This is common now, the pressure to be like the world is great within the modern church.
We must resist the pressure, make our friends those who love Christ to the point of willingness to be rejected to obey God. Often we will not be loved among our families and even our "brethren" within the church for our insistence that we obey the Word of God.
We must stop listening to those who place cultural pressure on us to conform to their idea of righteousness and begin obeying what God said in His Word, all of it!!!!
