Why I am convinced that an authentic born again believer does not lose their changed into a new creation status, just as a butterfly cannot turn back into a worm after emerging into an entirely different creature.
When Christ changes someone into a new creature, the old is gone and the new is forever. It can never go back to the old again. We no longer think the WAY we used to think, in fact, the WAY we think is the way God thinks, except imperfectly because we are trapped in this sinful body that we have to battle with every day. Those who are in christ do the battle, in prayer seeking Christ in us and in the reading of His Word in which Christ instructs us.
Matthew 7:21-23 "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.’"
Not everyone who says they are a "Christian" are necessarily born again. God says in the Word that "I NEVER knew you" to those who claimed to be of Him but had never placed their trust in Christ. In our day I am convinced that more people are pretenders than are authentic born again believers.
Luke 18:8 " Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” The remnant church is growing smaller and smaller every day.
In the matter of those who walk away from Christ, they can either be a pretender or they can be a disobedient born again believer who will at some point return to obedience. We cannot always know which is which.
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 everyone He receives as a son.” 7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…"
If God disciplines those who belong to Him, then we can conclude that believers do sin, sometimes in big ways but if they confess to be cleansed they will be forgiven and go on to grow in holiness.
1 John 1:9 "9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
These words were written to born again believers who sin. We are to repent, change our mind to follow Christ in salvation, but as born again believers we confess our sin to be cleansed and grow in holiness.
Those who become angry and defend their sin cannot be born again because their heart still defends and walks in darkness. Those who are born again are ashamed of their sin and confess to be cleansed. I am convinced this is how we can tell, perhaps with other evidence that someone might not be born again. The world is not ashamed of their sin but the born again believer is ashamed and at some point will break under the weight of the conviction of the Holy Spirit until they confess to be cleansed.
God tells us not to pull up the tares in the church because we might be pulling up wheat, this is how much they will appear to be the same. This is also why God tells us not to judge another man's salvation. We can judge their acts as good or bad and we can discipline disobedience but we cannot always know for sure who is saved and who is not. We can know to some degree by their fruit, that is whether or not they walk in "love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness and self control as seen in Galatians, but not perfectly. Also often our Spirit in us bears witness to the Spirit in them if they are born again believers. We can also be warned that someone is dangerous or wicked without knowing anything about them when the Holy Spirit warns us.
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. 10 By 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."
All the warnings in the Bible I am convinced are to cause people to check with God to see if they are in fact born again. Because so many "say" they are "Christians" but have no evidence of fruit or a lifestyle of holiness, we might need to warn them they might not be saved.
(Heb. 3:12-14) “Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;...”
The proof that we belong to God is that we do endure to the end.
John 19:28-30 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. 30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
If there was anything we could do to secure our salvation it would have to be a perfect Lamb that shed His blood, we cannot shed our own blood to save ourselves or keep ourselves, only the Perfect Lamb of God could do this amazing act. Since we are not perfect then there is no act that would measure up to being equivalent to the shed blood of Christ. Since we could not even shed our own blood to save ourselves then no amount of fleshly acts could save us or keep us. Being good will not save us. Lots of fleshly unsaved people can look good and do good but that does not save them.
Galatians 2:16-17 "16 know that a man is not justified by works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law, because by works of the Law no one will be justified. 17 But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, does that make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not!…"
The last thought is that we are Christ's workmanship from beginning to end. We are saved by faith in Him, cleansed by faith in Him and continue through faith in Him.
Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, (not our own workmanship)which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." He works in us, He prepared ahead of time our calling which we are to walk.
Christ saves us through faith, we then become His workmanship, after He saves us He works in us to walk out our calling.
When we are trusting in Christ we do not walk around all day worried did we do the right thing, did we do enough, did we obey enough? When we are walking in the Spirit He speaks to us when we have gone the wrong way. He tells us which way to go and what to do. If we ignore Him He sends chastisements to redirect His children but He never throws them away. And, we have not one case in the Word of God in which a born again believer had the Holy Spirit leave them.
Ananias and Saphira were killed by God for lying to the Holy Spirit, this means they had the Holy Spirit, they didn't lose their salvation, but they were disciplined by God as an example to the rest of the church how serious obedience is to God.
Ephesians 1:12-14 "…12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory. 13And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth— the gospel of your salvation— you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.…"
We can grieve the Holy Spirit Who lives within us but we cannot drive Him out.
Ephesians 4:30 "30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice.…
And, lastly we are seated in the heavenlies right now as born again believers. If we could lose our salvation we would have to fall right out of heaven.
Ephesians 2:5-7 "…5 made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.…"
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