Yes, I've been saying for years that salvation is conditional: on condition that we repent of sin.
And this is a direct refutation of what Paul says in Romans 9:16-18 -- "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy... He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills."
The spiritual adolescents among us wrongly interpret that as "works based salvation" because they don't understand the meaning of words.
I'm not sure I would call them "spiritual adolescents"... Yes, in some cases, what you say is true. But we should all be careful of this. Notice again Romans 9:16-18, quoted above. Paul speaks specifically about both the will and
"Repentance" is a cognitive exercise - a choice we make to surrender our will to God's will, and choice is not works, it's thought. Works are simply the evidence of the choice we've made, according to 1 John 2:3-4 KJV.
Again, Romans 9:16-18 is relevant here. Paul talks of human will (which includes our thoughts and our choices -- intangible things we do) and exertion (outward actions and deeds -- tangible things we do). Tangible or intangible, they are all works of man. As for John in 1 John 2:3-4, he is affirming that our obedience, and even our desire to obey, is a direct and inevitable
result of God's having saved us, and that if there is no obedience, then that is outward evidence of our having fooled ourselves into believing that we are saved.
Saying this to the OSAS, License to Sin, hyper-grace crowd is like pouring cold water on a sleeping man, and both react in the same manner for the same reason: they are furious at such a shocking revelation, and find their place of warmth and comfort is now anything but.
Well, these things are surely a great comfort (or should be, anyway) to all of us who are in Christ:
* "God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ~ by grace we have been saved ~ and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace we have been saved through faith." (Ephesians 2)
* "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus... For those whom He foreknew [fore-loved] He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8)
* "According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for (us), who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:3-5)
* "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11:29)
"OSAS," properly understood, is an
irrefutable truth of God, a
promise of God, and all God's promises have their
'yes' and
'amen' in Christ Jesus. But it is
most assuredly not a license to sin by any stretch of the imagination. Paul himself heads off this very misunderstanding (that being saved is somehow a "license to sin," or that we should sin all the more) throughout Romans 6 (emphasis added):
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What Paul says here is crystal clear.
Grace and peace to all.
