There are those who believe salvation can be lost or forfeited. Many believe they chose Christ, and because of that they received the gift of faith.
God Says: I chose you.
Man says: No. I chose you. It wouldn’t be fair or just unless this was so God.
God says: Those who believe, believe according to My will and good pleasure.
Man says: I believe because you looked down the corridors of time, saw that I would choose you, then based your election off of my will not yours. I’m in control God. Not you.
God says: There is no savior besides me
Man says: There are multiple ways to be saved from my cooperation, intercession of saints, and it’s even possible for those who don’t know you to be saved by their own merits and good works.
Salvation by cooperation:
God says:
John 5:24 24 “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.
Man says:
No God. I believe you only mean I have everlasting life as long as I keep believing, keep your commands, pray to saints for intercession, & do good works otherwise I will come into judgment and pass back over to death.
My obedience determines my salvation not you.
God says:
Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being [d]sanctified.
Man says:
No God. It’s not one offering and you have not perfected forever all of those who are being sanctified. I can be justified for a little while but then I can choose to unbelieve, lose my salvation, and go to hell for all eternity. In hell I can say: “No. He hasn’t perfected everyone He was sanctifying”
Man says:
No God. It’s your one sacrifice being offered up over and over again at holy mass and I have the power to walk out of that church, commit a mortal sin, and then fall away to eternal damnation or go to purgatory so I can then atone for the remaining sins.
Man says:
No God. It’s your one sacrifice along with mine, Mary’s, the saints being combined with yours that might perfect those who are being sanctified. But there’s no guarantee, it’s all based on my performance, the saints, and my cooperation.
God says:
John 6:47 47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes [j]in Me has everlasting life
Man says:
No God. He who believes might have everlasting life. It’s up to me to choose to believe, and up to me to choose whether or not to continue to believe.
God says:
John 6:54 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day
Man says:
No God. Whoever believes can have eternal life for a little while and you might raise them up on the last day depending on their free will to continue to believe.
God says:
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Man says:
No God, it is based on my free will choice that the Spirit then gives me life.
God says:
John 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
Man Says:
No God. I can hear your voice and you can know me for a little while. I can then perish over and over and over again throughout my life, I can die in mortal sin and you will not give me eternal life. I can snatch myself out of your hand by my sin, or free will choice to unbelieve.
Gods Word says:
Eph 1:4-6 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He [a]made us accepted in the Beloved
Man Says:
No God. You chose us in you before the foundation of the world according to my free will choice.
Gods Word Says:
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who[a] do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit
Man Says:
No God. There is condemnation for those who choose to fall away or unbelieve.
Gods Word Says:
Romans 8:28-30 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Man Says:
No God. I simply must add to this that you foreknew me because of your foreknowledge that I would say yes to you and then did all these things based on, and centered around, my all powerful and mighty free will to choose.
Gods Word Says:
Romans 9:11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls.
Man Says:
No God. Despite you pointing out your election is based on me not even being born or done anything to merit your election, I just simply must add this is based on my free will choice to say yes to you. It just has to be this God. I can’t tell people that you didn’t elect some because that would be unjust. That would make people mad at me!
I Sought God Out
God says:
John 1:2 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the [e]right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Man says:
No God. It is the will of man, by my free will, I chose to seek, accept and believe in you.
God Says:
Romans 3:10-12 10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
Man Says:
No God. Every person has the ability to seek after you, we haven’t all turned aside, there are some of us who do good.
God says:
John 6:65 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
Man says:
No God. Everyone has the ability to come to you on their own free will.
I Chose God
God Says:
John 6
70 Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”
Man says: No God. I chose you.
God Says:
Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Man Says:
No God.
God Says:
Isaiah 43:11-13 I even I, am the Lord,
And besides Me there is no savior.
12
I have declared and saved,
I have proclaimed,
And there was no foreign god among you;
Therefore you are My witnesses,”
Says the Lord, “that I am God.
13
Indeed before the day was, I am He;
And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I work, and who will reverse it?”
Summary:
No one, not even you can reverse Gods will and deliver yourself out of His mighty hand.