STATE OF GRACE

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1

A. A WIDELY BELIEVED THEORY ABOUT THE STATE OF GRACE
  1. "Once in grace, always in grace":
  2. "Once saved, always saved":
  3. "If you are a child of God, you can never be anything else":
  4. The assumption is that when we accept Christ as our personal Saviour we become fixed, cannot be lost:
    1. This theory claims that once you are a child of God, you will ever be a child of God. You may sin and God may have to punish you for your sin, but that will not change your relationship to God.
    2. Your being a child of God gives you eternal security.
B. THE STATE OF GRACE IN THE LIGHT OF THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE
  1. The state of grace is, like all God's promises, conditional:
    1. It recognizes that we were created free moral agents, persons of a free choice - Rev. 22:17; John 7:17
    2. Our state of grace is dependent upon our attitude toward God, His Word, and our life.
  2. That the state of grace is conditional is clearly taught by our Lord. In John 15:1-11 the Lord lays down four specific conditions to our relationship to himself:
    1. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." - John 15:6
    2. "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" - John 15:5, 6
    3. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love" - verse 10
    4. "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you" - verse 14 It must be noted that the four conditions laid down by the Son of God belong to God's children, and not to the world.
  3. The Lord gives us some added light on the state of grace in Ezek. 18: Time and space will not permit to give a complete analysis of this wonderful chapter. Let us note, briefly, four facts concerning the state of grace, as stated in that chapter:
    1. "The soul that sinneth shall die" - Ezek. 18:4
    2. "But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right . . . he shall surely live, saith the Lord" - Ezek. 18:5-9
    3. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son" verse 20
    4. "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in the sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." Ezek. 18:24
C. A PRAYERFUL STUDY OF THE ABOVE SCRIPTURES SHOWS CONCLUSIVELY
  1. That the theory - "Once in grace, always in grace; once saved, always saved" is wholly untrue:
    1. We are warned against the misuse of grace - 2 Cor. 6:1-3; 2 Pet. 1:10; Matt. 7:21-26; Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-28
    2. The possibility of falling from grace is recognized in the Scriptures - Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-28; 2 Pet. 3:17; 1 Cor. 10:12; Rev. 2:1-6 EXAMPLES -
      1. Many of our Lord's early disciples forsook the Lord, and never returned to Him anymore; they left the state of grace - John 6:60-66
      2. Judas left the state of grace and perished in disgrace - Matt. 27:1-6
  2. Lucifer and his fellow rebels were sons of God before they rebelled against God. They will, in the end, perish in hell fire - Ezek. 28:12-18


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