Do you agree that someone who has been born again has been made alive with Christ? In fact the Bible goes so far to say that when they gave their life to Christ they died and now Christ lives in them. The life they live is no longer their own but Christ living in them! In being united with Christ in his death and resurrection we have become one with Christ. Christ is our life. And now for the big question: once this has happened to a person, how is it possible for it to be reversed? To lose your salvation you would have to spiritually die again. God would have to kick you off the throne where you are seated with Christ, he would have to send you back to the Cross, where you were spiritually included in Christ, and he would have to spiritually kill you and then raise you back into spiritual death. That would have to be the means whereby a person could lose their salvation. But if that were to happen to us, it would also have to happen to Christ since we are united to him and he is our life. For us to spiritually die again Christ would also have to die again. Yet we know this is impossible because Christ has an indestructible life and can never die again. If it can’t happen to Christ then it can’t happen to us. Christ’s life is now the guarantee of our eternal life. This is eternal security.

When I live for God now and serve him and resist sin, it’s not to try and earn, keep or complete my salvation, it’s because I have faith in God, I’m compelled by his love and I have an eternal hope. If I sin now of course I feel bad about it and I apologise to God. But I don’t try to earn my way back into his presence through a faulty belief in a ritual of trying to get rid of my sin to qualify myself for God’s presence. The truth is I can never be separated from his presence, his blood has dealt with all my sins and the Holy Spirit never leaves me. I won’t try and get something I already have which is forgiveness of all my sins, permanent peace with God and open access to Him because of the once for all sacrifice of Jesus. I’m not trying to get back into his presence, I live from his presence and if I fall I fall into his presence. Grace empowers us to live in his presence even if we’ve sinned and from this presence we will increasingly overcome sin. We’re not shut out of the presence of God or cut off from him if we sin because the blood has permanently opened the way. This is the New Covenant. It’s this faith and atmosphere of grace that helps us to live close to God and overcome sin.

However, living with unbelief in the finished work of Christ makes us afraid to come into God’s presence and breeds doubt whether we can actually live close to God, and if he has truly forgiven us or if he is even pleased with us. This unbelief will cause us to not enjoy a close relationship with God and that is a disempowering place for trying to overcome sin.

I believe the Holy Spirit will comfort me if I mess up and sin, but he won’t let me get comfortable in sin. He will lovingly challenge me, especially if I’m being stubborn about a sin. But he is not my prosecuting lawyer, he is my councillor, my helper, my aid – my legal defence. He speaks on my behalf of my innocence and my righteousness because of the blood of Jesus. He testifies to the once for all sacrifice of Christ and my perfect righteous position in Him. I don’t live in guilt, shame, condemnation or fear of punishment. I live in faith, peace, joy and confidence to enjoy God’s presence and live close to him even if I haven’t performed well.

Here’s a sermon I did on what holiness and holy living really is in the New Covenant and will transform your whole perspective on the subject.

Redefining what holiness is

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