A friend of mine posted a video of a preacher going on and on about his incorrect theology of the atonement and eternal security. He tagged just me when he posted the video. Here is what I responded:

Have you read 1 John? In it he says, “I have written these things to you who believe so that you may know you have eternal life.” What “things” did he write? He wrote, “If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.” He wrote, “If you say you know God, but do not keep his commandments, you are a liar and the truth is not in you.” He even wrote about assurance. He said that if you want to assure your heart before God, then love in deed and truth, not just in words.

At the heart of the problem is his question, “Is there a sin Jesus did not pay for?” Jesus did not pay for sin. He paid for you and me. He ransomed us from sin, and therefore WE are bought with a price and must therefore purify ourselves in body and soul.

This guy’s whole argument crashes on 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21, and Ephesians 5:3-7. All of them say there are sins that will keep us out of the kingdom of God. One of them says Paul warned about this repeatedly, and the other two tell us not to be deceived that there are sins that will keep us out of the kingdom, yet here is a man deceiving us about that very subject.

People claim that they have the righteousness of Christ rather than their own righteousness. The apostle John seems to agree with this, but he tells us not to be deceived about the fact that the only people who have the righteousness of Christ are those who are living righteously (1 Jn. 3:7).

I could go on about this for 30,000 words and 50 or 100 Scriptures, but that’s not what Facebook is for. You cannot only look at the verses you like. What was Paul’s response to his own teaching? Paul’s response was to discipline his body and bring it under subjection so that he would not be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Paul’s response was to press forward, forgetting everything that was behind, so that he could attain to the resurrection because he had not yet attained (Php. 3:8-15).

Peter told us to live in fear because our Father is the God who will one day judge impartially (1 Pet. 1:17). Our assurance is that if we cling to Christ and do his will, we will bear fruit because he died to make us doers of good works (Rom. 14:9; Eph. 2:8-10; 2 Cor. 5:15; Tit. 2:11-15).

Let’s be like Paul and confidently affirm that God’s people must be careful to do good works (Tit. 3:8), not like this guy who is telling us our works don’t matter.

There was one more verse I was going to include in my Facebook response, but I included so many that I forgot it. It could not be more pertinent:

Be diligent to make your calling and election sure because if you DO THESE THINGS [described in vv. 5-7], you will never stumble, for IN THIS WAY an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11)