<p>It is said that to be a born-again Christian is to be secure in Christ. But do Christians really believe they are secure, and if so, what is the practical meaning of this security? For example, is the new believer merely secure until he commits the first sin? Is his salvation contingent upon the ability to maintain a spotless sin-free record until he dies? Can the believer lose and regain his salvation multiple times over his lifetime and perhaps even multiple times in a single day? As we saw in part I, many Christians teach that salvation can be gained or lost in such a manner. This is particularly true in the Adventist church, where the doctrine of the investigative judgment greatly destabilizes the believer by teaching that nobody knows when their name will come up in the judgment. For some, this “pre-Advent judgment” may occur during their lifetime. Accordingly, the salvation of a professed Christ-follower is contingent upon the timing of this investigative judgment. For example, if the judgment were to occur today, the Christian would be exempted from God’s grace if even one unconfessed sin was found in the heavenly records, all without the Christian’s knowledge. He would be accused, tried, judged and sentenced in absentia, unaware that his eternal fate was already sealed.</p>

<p>In a defining statement on this doctrine, Ellen White wrote, “All sin unrepented of and unconfessed, will remain upon the books of record. It will not be blotted out, it will not go beforehand to Judgment, to be canceled by the atoning blood of Jesus.” (Review and Herald, March 27, 1888) According to this teaching, the blood of Jesus cannot cancel the sins of the Christian unless he specifically brings to memory each sin and confesses it individually. But does the Bible actually teach this? Proponents of the investigative judgment use Hebrews 6:4-6 for biblical support, believing that an “on-again off-again” view of salvation is presented there.</p>

<p>For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV)</p>

<p>In his sermon on this passage, John Piper argues that Hebrews 6:4-6 cannot be used to destabilize or disqualify true Christ-followers and he even sees this text as strengthening the believer’s security. In Piper’s understanding of the text, Christians will continue to persevere as evidence of their security. Many people turn this around to say that as long as Christians persevere, they will remain secure, but in believing this, they place the work of salvation upon their own shoulders.</p>

<p>At this point it is important to make the distinction between true and false converts. Many have used the term “once saved always saved” very loosely, as if making a one-time “decision for Christ” by their own initiative will secure eternal life. But the true convert is born again from above–by God’s initiative and not his own–resurrected to eternal life by God’s saving grace. As evidence of this continuing work, the born-again believer is adopted into God’s family and is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV). The true convert will grow in the finished work of Christ throughout his lifetime, being maintained and sanctified by God’s ongoing work (Hebrews 10:14, Romans 8:26-30). This inward change is manifested in a life where outward works are demonstrated–not as a requirement for salvation, but as its consequence.</p>

<p>In his sermon on Hebrews 5:11-6:12, John Piper explores these profound truths. His observations are well worth reading and an excerpt from his sermon is found below.</p>

<p><strong>The Doctrine of Perseverance: The Future of a Fruitless Field</strong></p>
<p><strong>From a sermon by John Piper on April 24, 1988</strong></p>

<p>“Even though it was 17 years ago this month, I can remember the very class session almost as though it were yesterday. The class was called Unity of the Bible, Dr. Daniel Fuller was the teacher, and for the first time I was confronted with the biblical fact that one of the ways God causes us to persevere in faith and be saved is by warning us that we could make shipwreck of our faith and be lost.</p>

<p>Or to put it another way, I had never been shown from Scripture that God graciously warns us that we could drift away and be lost; and that he does this precisely in order to strengthen our assurance that we will not drift away and be lost. And if you are today like I was then, something inside you may be saying, ‘My assurance and hope are not particularly helped by being told that I might drift away from God and be lost.’</p>

<p><strong>How Our Need for Hope and Strength Is Met</strong></p>

<p>Do you see what is at issue here? We all come to the Bible with needs for hope and encouragement and strength. And the Bible stands ready to meet those needs. But we also come with a set of expectations–sometimes learned from our culture–as to how those needs are to be met. Like patients coming to the doctor with prescriptions already written in their pockets which we expect the doctor to sign for us.</p>

<p>If, then, the Bible takes a radically different approach to meeting our need for hope and encouragement and strength, we have to make a very crucial choice: will we reject the biblical prescription and go to another doctor who will endorse our prescription for hope? Or will we humbly admit that God knows us better than we know ourselves–loves us more than we love ourselves–and look patiently for the wisdom in his prescription and counsel?</p>

<p>That’s where I was, and that is where some of you are. Eager to attain the spiritual health of assurance and hope, but very skeptical that the prescription of Hebrews 6 is of any help. And my prayer this morning as we look at this text is not only that its meaning will become clear, but also that its precious and gracious usefulness in the fight of faith and in the perseverance of the saints will be felt by all of us.</p>

<p>[...]</p>

<p>I’ve told the story once before of the vulture who spotted the corpse of a fox on a big hunk of ice floating down the river toward Niagara Falls. He flies to the ice, lands, and begins to eat the fox. He watches the falls approaching and hears the warnings of danger, but he tells himself that he has wings and is free and does not need to pay attention to such warnings. He is destined for the sky. At the last minute he finishes his feast and spreads his wings but he can’t fly because his talons have frozen in the ice and he is dragged over the falls to his destruction.</p>

<p>And so it will be with people who have heard the warnings of Scripture to abandon their worldly lusts and pursue holiness, but who say, ‘I have wings, I am a Christian. I can fly anytime I want to.’ The day will come when they may try and will not be able to repent because they are so hardened and addicted to the world they can’t even feel one genuine spiritual affection (Hebrews 12:17).</p>

<p>The third question was, Can this happen to persons who are really born again, justified, adopted into God’s family, sealed by the Holy Spirit?</p>

<p><span style="text-decoration: underline">My answer is NO. It can’t.</span></p>

<p>There are many texts in the New Testament that would demonstrate that this is so–that those who are justified by faith will infallibly be glorified. But let me show you two texts from the book of Hebrews that teach this–once you belong to Christ you always belong to Christ.</p>

<p>We have become [note the tense of the verb!] partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning or our assurance [well-grounded assurance, not false assurance] firm until the end. (Hebrews 3:14 NASB)</p>

<p>Note carefully: it does not say that you will become a partaker of Christ if you persevere. It says you HAVE become a partaker if you persevere. The point is that persevering does not earn your participation in Christ; it <span style="text-decoration: underline">verifies</span> your participation in Christ. Perseverance is not a payment for getting into Christ. It is a proof that you are in Christ.</p>

<p>So the person who drifts along in sin and makes no business in life of holiness does not fall out of Christ. He was never in Christ.</p>

<p>For by a single offering [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified [literally: ‘those who are being sanctified’]. (Hebrews 10:14 NASB)</p>

<p>In other words, when Jesus died, he perfected a group of people forever. He has done this in the past. It does not say that his death will perfect them if they get sanctified. It says that his death HAS PERFECTED those who are being sanctified. It’s done and it is eternal. This is the same kind of thought we saw in Hebrews 3:14. The pursuit of holiness (sanctification) does not earn us this perfection that Jesus secured for us in the past; instead the process of sanctification simply shows that we are among that number who were eternally perfected by the death of Jesus.</p>

<p>So a person who drifts into sin and neglects the pursuit of sanctification and falls away from God is not a person who was once saved by the death of Jesus and then lost that salvation, because Hebrews 10:14 says that salvation is an everlasting accomplishment for a certain group of people. And our assurance of being part of that people is our perseverance in faith and the pursuit of holiness.</p>

<p>So I conclude, if someone drifts away from God and makes shipwreck of faith, they do not lose a salvation that they once had but show by their lack of perseverance that they never truly belonged to Christ, were never born again, justified, adopted, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.”</p>

<p>Source here.</p>

The problem I have with this way of thinking is that it no more makes me secure in my salvation then the IJ does. I have known MANY people who loved God and served Him but have fallen away through discouragement. To say that these people were never saved to begin with means that in our minds there might be different levels of salvation that we think exist and think we may hold but really don’t. My idea of salvation may not really be salvation at all, just a false positive.

What happens then is that Christians who struggle and question their faith will fall into the hopeless thinking that they are not really saved to begin with. As they struggle and desire a new heart but continue to fall into sin, they are then left with the empty feeling that they are not really saved but merely going through the motions. They might just ‘love’ God but are not ‘in love’ with Him enough to be saved.

It seems completely hopeless to think that someone who falls away from the church after 50 years of serving God was never saved to begin with. “What hope is there for me when I fall into sin day after day? What makes my walk with Christ and the feeling that I am serving him any different then that person’s walk 20 or 25 years ago?”

Never mind a feeling of ‘on and off again’ salvation, what we have here is a destructive pattern of long term self deception. We may think we are saved but whether we stick close to the Lord or not despite discouragement and the desire to sin, will determine whether we were indeed truely saved or not.

Such thinking can cause someone to feel that they have to continue to do good to make themselves feel they are truly saved. One can constantly question their salvation status when they have doubts or feel the pull to walk away from the faith they know. “Why bother? I’m lost anyway.”

Posted anonymously by: dwayne

[quote author="guibox"]The problem I have with this way of thinking is that it no more makes me secure in my salvation then the IJ does. ...(snip)

“Why bother? I’m lost anyway.”

guibox,

So what really is your point? That we can’t trust Jesus when He says “Most assuredly...”? Where, or in whom, have you placed your faith?

There is no security outside of Christ. It’s not about you being worthy. Only He is worthy.

dwayne

My point is that that what we are basically saying is that a person who has fallen away was completely insincere umpteenth years ago when he walked to the altar at the altar call and ‘gave his heart to Jesus’. Despite the tears and feeling of happiness and joy, it was all a meaningless farce that even he himself was not aware of.

It would have to be as he has abandoned that faith that he once held as dear.

So where is the magic formula of ‘being saved’? How many have heard the same sermons, walked to the same altar, shed the same tears lived the transformed life and yet one remains and one falls away?

I am struggling with some sins right now. I am deliberately doing that which I know is wrong and yet continue to do it and justify it. However, I love my Lord and want to desire to do His will.

Is my conversion merely show? How can I know that I am saved if I feel this way and could easily abandon that which I know to be true? Sometimes I just want to give up and live my own life.

By all accounts, the validity of my conversion should be brought to question.

So again I ask, ‘Where is the magic formula’ that we all ‘do right’ to be saved if many who by all accounts are Christians fall away and turn their back on their faith?

[quote author="Guibox"] The problem I have with this way of thinking is that it no more makes me secure in my salvation then the IJ does. I have known MANY people who loved God and served Him but have fallen away through discouragement. To say that these people were never saved to begin with means that in our minds there might be different levels of salvation that we think exist and think we may hold but really don’t. My idea of salvation may not really be salvation at all, just a false positive.

I agree.  If I declare that I am saved today, but next year become agnostic, then (by this logic) that really means that I am in fact not saved today, because I have never been saved regardless of what I previously declared.

So in both cases, what matters is where we end up.

Brothers Glenn and guibox,

You have raised some very important points.  You both know my position well by this stage of the game, but suffice it to say the promises of Scripture are certain and Jesus’ words are sure:

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40 ESV)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” (John 6:47 ESV)

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28 ESV)

Glenn, you said “If I declare that I am saved today, but next year become agnostic, then (by this logic) that really means that I am in fact not saved today, because I have never been saved regardless of what I previously declared.”

Let me gently ask: Is salvation something you declare yourself to have, or is it something God gives to you?  The answer to this question has giant consequences.  If it is up to us to make a declaration of our salvation, you’re right, our declaration will always be suspect.  This is not what Jesus taught, however.  Remember what he said to Nicodemus?  “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8 ESV).

We can never be certain of any “decision” we make to be saved whether it is borne out of intellectual study or an emotional altar call.  It is God who saves.  It is His Spirit who moves like the wind, where He wishes. Instead of focusing on the decision, we should pray to God to reveal Himself to us.  We should pray to God for mercy for the sins we’ve committed against Him and we should admit our shortcomings.  This is not a “magic formula”, it is a biblical command.  What did the apostle Peter tell the crowds on the day of Pentecost?  “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39 ESV) Repent and be baptized, repent and believe–this is the biblical message.

And to guibox, brother, one of the evidences of the Christian life is our struggle with sin.  We’ve mentioned it many times before, but the last half of Romans 7 shows the apostle Paul struggling with his sin.  Remember, this is coming from the pen of a man who was face-to-face with the risen Jesus.  If Paul could struggle with sin after all of that, we certainly can.  And let us not stop reading at Romans 7, but continue to Romans 8.  Let us not forget the same apostle’s quotation of the Psalmist in Romans 4:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

My brothers, these are some of the most powerful words in the Bible.  If God’s gift of salvation and forgiveness of all sin (past, present and future) on account of Christ is not good news, I don’t know what is.

Greg

Amen Greg!!

What an excellent statement of the truth of what salvation means.

It comes down to the very meaning of being born again. If we are new creations in Christ, as Paul says in 2 Cor., then since God did the creating, then, if we are truly born of God, and adopted into His family, then He will hold on to us as Jesus promises in John 10:27-30.

The evangelical world is filled with too many counterfeit conversions. If salvation is defined by going forward at a Billy Graham crusade by a person caught up in the emotion of the choir singing “Just as I Am”, and then falls away one year later to atheism, then, it is clear that the Word of God took no root, and that person was never truly saved.

True conversion is a miracle performed by God, and it is performed on His timetable (some people like John the Baptist were saved while in the womb) and some people don’t come to faith until the end of their lives, but it is on God’s timing. It seems quite unlikely that God would make a new creation, with a new heart and will, if it were not for the purpose of that new creation persevering to the end.

Stan

Posted anonymously by: dwayne

guibox,

I hear what you’re saying and I concur with Greg when he says “the promises of Scripture are certain and Jesus’ words are sure”. Grace and faith (ergo salvation) are God’s love gift to us, undeserving as we are.

It is not His will that any one perish but that all should come to repentance. My take on the meaning of the repentance here would be more of a state or process of being repentant rather than just a one time confession of being a lost sinner. IOW God desires our humble acknowledgment that we are forever dependant upon Him for forgiveness, for justification, for sanctification, for life, for eternity. Because He is the Only One who can and certainly does provide these things, we can and should rejoice in the Good News.

We can know that we are saved because Jesus is our salvation. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Our feelings are a poor gauge of truth.

[quote author="Greg"] At this point it is important to make the distinction between true and false converts. Many have used the term “once saved always saved” very loosely, as if making a one-time “decision for Christ” by their own initiative will secure eternal life. But the true convert is born again from above–by God’s initiative and not his own–resurrected to eternal life by God’s saving grace. As evidence of this continuing work, the born-again believer is adopted into God’s family and is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV). The true convert will grow in the finished work of Christ throughout his lifetime, being maintained and sanctified by God’s ongoing work (Hebrews 10:14, Romans 8:26-30). This inward change is manifested in a life where outward works are demonstrated–not as a requirement for salvation, but as its consequence.

I think I agree with this.  But the statement I highlighted in bold above suggests to me that we should be careful about saying we are saved and can never be lost--because it is a work of God and not of our selves. This is particularly the case in light of the following statement:

[quote author="Greg"] This inward change is manifested in a life where outward works are demonstrated–not as a requirement for salvation, but as its consequence.

Who determines, I might even say, Who Judges, whether one’s outward demonstration of an inward change is authentic? Can I judge myself in this way? Can I attest to my own demonstrated, outward works to validate my born again status?

[quote author="Greg"] Let me gently ask: Is salvation something you declare yourself to have, or is it something God gives to you? The answer to this question has giant consequences. If it is up to us to make a declaration of our salvation, you’re right, our declaration will always be suspect. This is not what Jesus taught, however. Remember what he said to Nicodemus? “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8 ESV).

We can never be certain of any “decision” we make to be saved whether it is borne out of intellectual study or an emotional altar call. It is God who saves. It is His Spirit who moves like the wind, where He wishes. Instead of focusing on the decision, we should pray to God to reveal Himself to us. We should pray to God for mercy for the sins we’ve committed against Him and we should admit our shortcomings. This is not a “magic formula”, it is a biblical command.

I think I agree with this, too. I suppose I just understand this as a warning to be more cautious when attempting to apply God’s promises to one’s self, since it isn’t just as simple as reciting a prayer, making a decision, joining a church, etc.  If it is His work, and I agree that it is, I would think we should be pretty careful about asserting that one is saved or eternally secure.  If the outward works are necessary to validate an inner reality, we should be quick to realize that our words, our expressions, our claims, don’t stand on their own. They require some kind of evaluation.  And I believe it is God that is Sovereign in evaluating our claims.

For some reason, I don’t think we’re far apart here. Maybe it’s a little unclear what it means to claim God’s promises.

[quote author="glennspring"]
I suppose I just understand this as a warning to be more cautious when attempting to apply God’s promises to one’s self, since it isn’t just as simple as reciting a prayer, making a decision, joining a church, etc. If it is His work, and I agree that it is, I would think we should be pretty careful about asserting that one is saved or eternally secure.

I agree with you–we should be careful about saying we are saved, because it is easy to get caught on an emotional “high” or in an intellectual “decision”.  If our salvation is ultimately dependent upon our ability to reason or to experience an intellectual high, we have taken the burden of salvation back on ourselves.  If we believe that our decision saves us, then God has been written out of the process and He stands on the sidelines waiting for us to convince ourselves that we should be saved by Him.  This is not the “wind that blows where it wishes” (John 3), but a wind that is constrained by our emotion and intellect.  By accepting this method of salvation, we’ve unwittingly joined all of the man-centered religions of this world that depend on man’s ability to reach up to God, rather than trusting in the God who reaches down to us.

[quote author="glennspring"]
Who determines, I might even say, Who Judges, whether one’s outward demonstration of an inward change is authentic? Can I judge myself in this way? Can I attest to my own demonstrated, outward works to validate my born again status?

Our works are not the litmus test of our salvation, but they do attest to our salvation.  The Reformers said that we are justified by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.  Our works do not justify us, but they bear witness to the work of God’s justification of us.  Similarly, we should not speak of our works as “proving” that we are righteous.  Only God is righteous and it is only by the imputed righteousness of Christ that we may be saved.

[quote author="glennspring"]
If the outward works are necessary to validate an inner reality, we should be quick to realize that our words, our expressions, our claims, don’t stand on their own. They require some kind of evaluation. And I believe it is God that is Sovereign in evaluating our claims.

We need to be careful here.  If God gives the gift of salvation to sinners who have no good works to recommend themselves to Him (Romans 5:6-11), He does not need to “evaluate” their claims.  We have no claim but our faith in Christ, which He gave to us.  If He freely gives our salvation as an unmerited gift, He does not need to come back later to reassure Himself that He was right in giving it.  More likely, we need to examine ourselves to see if we have received the gift and are professing true faith in Jesus. Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?–unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 3:5 ESV)

But God doesn’t leave us questioning endlessly.  At the new birth, He gives us spiritual life, resurrecting us to eternal life in Him, seating us in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2) and giving us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV).

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:15-17 ESV)

We may question our experience and struggle with sin, but if we have been born again, we will know it has happened because the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, testifying to God’s regenerating work.  This is the “peace that passes understanding” and it is the reason so many Christian martyrs have praised God in the midst of horrendous trials.

Charles Spurgeon explains this with great eloquence in his sermon The Question of Questions.  The entire sermon is worth (re-)reading, but the following passage speaks directly to the questions raised on this thread.

[quote author="C.H. Spurgeon"]
Suppose we were condemned to live in a state of perpetual doubt as to our being believers in the Lord Jesus. This would involve an awakened man in a condition of constant anxiety. If I am not sure whether I am in the favor of God or not, I am in a condition of decided sorrow. I remember hearing a Christian minister say one day in company, that no man could be sure that he was saved. Thou I wondered what he had to preach that was worth preaching; for, if we cannot know that we are saved, then we cannot be sure that we are at peace with God; and this is to be in jeopardy every hour.  There can be no peace to the mind of the awakened man if he does not know that he is saved. It is like one at sea who is half afraid that his ship is out of the track, and may soon strike upon rock or quicksand, but is not quite sure whether it is so or not. The captain should take no rest till he has taken his bearings, and found out his position in reference to the dangers of the sea, and the hope of reaching the desired haven. To leave his position a moot point, would be to continue in fear, and to court danger. To leave your faith in question is to imperil a vital point. He must be sadly scared in conscience who can leave this hinge of the soul’s condition unexamined.

There is a possibility of knowing to a certainty that you believe on the Son of God. Did I say there is a possibility of it? Thousands have attained to this certainty. You can know that you believe on the Son of God as surely as you know that there is a Queen of England, or as surely as you know that you yourself exist; and this without falling into fanaticism or presumption. Many among us are so habituated to faith in the Lord Jesus, that we could no more question the existence of faith in our own hearts, than we could dispute the fact that our hearts beat. Such assured persons shirk no examination: for them, the more examination the better, for their hope has firm and deep foundations. They can give a reason for the hope that is in them. As sure as mathematical certainty is the confidence of the believer in the Lord Jesus; for we know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed to him. There are believers in our Lord Jesus who have gone on for the space of thirty years without a doubt of their faith in him, because that faith has been in daily, happy exercise upon him. You can answer the question, “Dost thou believe?” because you are at this moment believing; distinctly and intensely believing. Those who abide in the light of God’s countenance, and feel the Holy Spirit within them, bearing witness with their spirits, are in no doubt as to their possession of faith.  If we feel a burning love to God, a growing hatred of sin, a struggle against the evil which is in the world, and somewhat of the likeness to Christ, we may safely infer that these fruits of faith come from the root of faith. By the work of the Holy Ghost upon life and heart we know and are sure that we have believed in Jesus as the Son of God. I hope I speak to many this morning who are enjoying assurance, and know that they have passed from death unto life.

[...]

If there is any question about whether you have been a believer or not for the last twenty years, do not fight that question out; but begin at once to believe, the Lord helping you. Turn your eye to the cross, and trust yourself wholly with Christ from this good hour, and then you will believe, and the act will shine out its own proof. Say from your heart–

“Just as I am–without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bid’st me come to thee–
O Lamb of God, I come!”

Thus coming, you will know that you have come, and by continuing to come you will grow assured that you have come. Let not the past be the main enquiry, but settle the immediate present. May the Holy Ghost cause the sacred fire to burn, and then you will feel the flame before long. To say, “I do now believe on the Son of God,” is the best way of answering the question about your condition.

If you want further help to solve the question, there are marks and evidences of true faith by which you can readily test yourself. Do you inquire, “Do I believe on the Son of God?” then answer this: Is Christ precious to you? For unto you who believe he is precious. If you love and prize him as the most precious thing in earth or heaven, you could not have this appreciation of him if you were not a believer. Tell me again, have you undergone the change called the new birth? Have you passed through a process which could be described as being brought out of darkness into marvelous light? If so, your new birth is a sure evidence of faith, for these things go together: while faith is a proof of regeneration, regeneration is also a proof that you have faith in the Son of God.

Again, are you obedient to Christ? For faith works by love, and purifies the soul. Is it so with you? Has sin become bitter? Do you loathe it? Has holiness become sweet? Do you follow after it? I do not ask whether you are perfect, but is the whole current of your soul towards being perfect? Can you say that if you could live entirely without sin it would be the greatest delight you could have? That absolute perfection would be heaven to you? Ah! then it shows which way your mind goes; it shows that there is a change of nature, for no unrenewed heart pines after perfect holiness. Your heart is bonding towards Christ’s perfect rule and sovereignty, and I am sure that you have believed that he is the Son of God. You are resting upon him with a true and living faith, if you take up his cross heartily and follow him. Again, do you love God? Do you love his people? “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” Do you love his Word? Do you delight in his worship? Do you bow in patience before his rod, so that you take up the bitter cup and say, “Thy will be done?” These things prove that you have faith in Jesus. Look well to them.

Source here.

To ask the question another way: does the act of confession and repentence of sin, for sins committed after the new birth experience, have any forensic value? 

[quote author="glennspring"]To ask the question another way: does the act of confession and repentence of sin, for sins committed after the new birth experience, have any forensic value?

When Christ completed the atonement on the cross for our sins, our redemption was accomplished.

But, all who are truly regenerated and transformed by His grace, still have a sinful nature. God calls us to purity and holiness, and obedience. God’s nature is one of infinite Holiness.

Christ still lives to ever make intercession for the redeemed. The purpose of confessing our sins as in 1 John 1:9, is to maintain our fellowship with God. When regenerate people live in a backslidden state, they lose their joy and assurance of salvation. We must confess our sins to maintain that joyous fellowship with God, and to be more effective in serving Him.

Notice when David sinned so grievously with Bathsheba committing adultery and murder, and read his prayer of confession in Psalm 51:

7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
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Notice where verse 12 says to restore to me the JOY of your salvation. David’s salvation was never lost by his sin, but his joy was gone. If David had prayed to restore him to salvation, then, the yo-yo theory of on again and off again salvation would have merit.

Salvation is all of grace. However, there is human responsibility to work towards our sanctification. There is still a judgment for rewards for the Christian. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

Stan