HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE ONCE SAVED, ALWAYS SAVED (OSAS) DOCTRINE

There are many godly believers that uphold the Once Saved, Always Saved doctrine, and I honestly used to be one of this controversial doctrine's biggest opponents. But God has since shown me the error of my thinking. Because it's NOT all about us, and what we can do, but about God's Incredible Love, Power and Might, and what He WILL DO for us - despite our inability to stay free from sin!

Nonetheless, there are some problems with the way OSAS is often presented that riles up more legalistic Christians and Messianics, and I want to address these problems here. I think the BIGGEST PROBLEM with OSAS is in the semantics of how Salvation and BELIEF are defined by some. The way Scripture as a whole reveals it, we are saved and sanctified as we grow in our ability to LOVE and follow Yahshua and His Commandments, which means we have to read or hear these commandments in Scripture by studying (For Scripture Proof, See John 15:9-11; 1 John 2:2-4; 1 John 3:21-23; 1 John 5:1-3). We also have to ask Yahshua and His Spirit into our lives and decisions. That is the essence of what believing in Yahshua MEANS. When we fail to do this consistently, we are in DANGER of losing our salvation - if it was ever ours to begin with.

I say this because, once the Holy Spirit is INSIDE your mind, spirit and heart, you will hear the voice of God's Counselor guiding you with actual Scripture quotes and Words of Knowledge or Flashes of Insight, and you will be prompted on what to do or how to act when you ASK the Holy Spirit. If you do not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding you, then you are technically not born again, and may not be saved unless you believe that Yahshua is the Son of God, King of kings, and Savior of all. This is because Scripture says that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is the SEAL of our salvation, so - IF we are born again - we should be hearing from God through the gifts of the Spirit that manifest within us in dreams, visions and/or words of knowledge on a fairly regular basis.

The Apostle Paul referred to being born again as "the circumcision of the heart", since circumcision of the penis was viewed as the seal of those born to serve God and love Him, and to do His Will in this fallen world. This was true for all the husbands, wives and children of Israel born without fornication. (For Scripture Proof, See John 10:7-17; John 10:25-30; John 14:15-18; Romans 2:28-29; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:12-14; 1 John 5:1-3). But when the heart is circumcised, you are in a love relationship with God that is very intimate. As a result, there is excellent communication between your spirit and God's Spirit. This will ensure that your works will be directed by the Holy Spirit, and therefore will be pleasing to God as a sweet savor. For a better understanding of how OSAS is true in the context of a love relationship with Yahshua, read how Yahshua said that those who believe in Him can never be lost in John 10:27-30:

“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. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.” ~ John 10:27-30

This means that it's NOT about how well we can follow Yahshua after we are born again, but about how well God can hold onto us, and God is able to hold onto us no matter what. That's because the Holy Spirit will not let us forget Who we belong to when we are born again!

One final thing I want to point out about the OSAS doctrine is that being saved is not the same thing as being sanctified. If we are saved and born again by our faith in Yahshua's power to save us, but we are not sanctified because we are ignoring the Holy Spirit's promptings, and we don't do very well at keeping God's commandments, we can lose our REWARDS, but not our salvation. People like this are still saved, but as through the fire (See 1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Sadly for them, the Rapture and Millennial Kingdom of Yahshua are rewards given only to sanctified, born again saints. So those who have lost their rewards will NOT take part in the Rapture, but they will likely take part in the Millennial Kingdom after being tried by the fire of the Great Tribulation. Also, those who are saved by Grace through belief in Yahshua during His Millennial rule will be raised to everlasting life and will escape being cast into Hell at the end of the thousand years

Please Study the Scripture references I have given you in this short article, and read all of the Gospel of John and the 3 Epistles of John to get a better understanding of what it means to BELIEVE in Yahshua and to be saved by Him. Links to these Bible Books have been provided in this paragraph in blue. If nothing else, always remember what Yahshua said, keeping in mind that His Commandments, though simplified, are essentially the SAME as Our Heavenly Father's Moral Law in the Old Testament:

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” ~ John 15:9-10 

Also, read the closing Benediction in the Epistle of Jude below for more proof that God can and WILL save us even if we fail, and commit it to memory:

~*~ Jude 1:24-25 ~*~

“Now to Him who is able to keep you 

from stumbling,

And to present you faultless

Before the presence of His glory

with exceeding joy,

25 To God our Savior,

Who alone is wise,

Be glory and majesty,

Dominion and power,

Both now and forever.

Amen!”

Hallelu-Yah for that!

Closing Note: I wrote this article in response to another person's article condemning OSAS. But despite my article, they do not understand the power of God to save us, and she and her followers kept bringing up King Saul - asking me to explain how King Saul could fall away if he was saved. This was my response to their question:

King Saul was not saved by Yahshua's Grace. He was under a different dispensation under the Law, which was essentially the conviction of sin without everlasting forgiveness in Christ. Saul's salvation depended on his strength of will to keep God's commandments and on the daily blood sacrifices of innocent animals in the Temple. But once we are born again and forgiven of all sin, it's God's Will that will prevail over us in His loving care and keep us on the narrow path that leads to everlasting life. That's why a person who is truly born again cannot fall away from the faith. God can hold onto us and keep us saved by the power of His Holy Spirit, no matter how hard life gets for us.

Praise Yahweh Elohim, and His Son Yahshua
and the Holy Spirit for that! 

God's WILL, not ours, will prevail!

With Love From
Your Sister In Yahshua,
Helena Lehman of the
Pillar of Enoch Ministry
at: http://pillar-of-enoch.com

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RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING:

WHAT COMMANDMENTS MUST BELIEVERS
KEEP UNDER THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE?
pillarofenoch.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-commandments-must-believers-keep.html

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS, THE 
DESTROYER OF THE CHURCH!
http://pillarofenoch.blogspot.com/2013/08/spiritual-blindness-destroyer-of-church.html

ABIDING UNDER THE SHADOW
OF GOD'S WINGS OR TALLIT!
http://pillarofenoch.blogspot.com/2017/09/abiding-under-shadow-of-gods-wings-or-tallit.html

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The New Covenant of Liberty and Freedom

By Helena Lehman of the 

Pillar of Enoch Ministry

http://pillar-of-enoch.com

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This is being written to my fellow Messianic Jewish believers in love to show that you are grieving the Ruach Ha Kodesh or Holy Spirit with certain beliefs that go against the clear teaching of Scripture. Grieving the Spirit of God, Who is the Seal of our Salvation in the New Covenant in Yahshua’s Blood, is a serious offense that should NOT be taken lightly:

Ephesians 1:13 - “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise...”

Ephesians 4:3 - “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” 

We all need the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to seal us and to guide us in our spiritual walk with Yahweh God our Father, or we are NOT in the New Covenant of Grace and Jubilee! Being in this Covenant of Grace does not mean we are ignorant of God's Moral law, or that we can ignore His Moral Law, which is the fuel behind the power of God's Spirit in us to guide us into all truth.

But, regardless of what you have been previously taught about a supposed Renewed Covenant, I am proclaiming that YHWH God did NOT say that He would cut a Renewed Covenant through the Prophet Jeremiah (See Jeremiah 31:31-32), but a NEW Covenant with mankind that would NOT be like the one He cut with the Israelites when He led them out of Egypt. This is why the writer of the Book of Hebrews declared:

Hebrews 8:5-7 - “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.”

This is why Yahshua sent the Holy Spirit in Power on Shavuot or Pentecost, the SAME DAY that the Book of the Covenant was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Yahweh orchestrated this to show the New Covenant’s supremacy over the OLD Covenant, and to show that the Israelites and the Mixed Multitudes that were among them were now subject to a NEW set of rules that were NOT like the old ones. To show that this was Yahshua’s intent, He said:

John 14:26 - “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

John 16:7 - “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

Thus, the New Covenant is taught to us by our Helper the Holy Spirit when we are indwelt by Him. The Spirit then guides us into ALL Truth when we listen to the Spirit’s voice in dreams, visions and words of knowledge. In this way, God’s Will is written onto the hearts of all true believers. We do not need to memorize all the Moral Laws of God listed in the Torah Books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, although it is a good idea to be familiar with them. Instead, we should be guided to do what is right by the power of the Holy Spirit in us if we are truly born again. It is the Spirit of God Who readily reveals the deep and cherished things of God to His servants, the born-again saints, and teaches them things that they did NOT know before, as Jeremiah also prophesied:

Jeremiah 33:3 - “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

Of course, this is also meant to be the case when we are reading God’s Word in the Bible. God’s Spirit - Who is also called the Wisdom of God in Proverbs, Chapter 8 - illuminates our hearts to understand the deeper meaning of each passage, showing us the rich beauty of our God’s infinite and all-surpassing wisdom. Without the Spirit of God guiding us, we would not be able to see how all the Old Covenant rituals pointed ahead to the ministry of Yahshua our Messiah, who fulfilled them all for us when He died on the Cross for our sins. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote:

“If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” - Galatians 2:15-21

This is why the Apostle Paul also said:

“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using - according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” - Colossians 2:11-23

Thus, we have Liberty and Freedom from the burden that the Law placed on us. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 - “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

The Apostle Paul also wrote about the Liberty and Freedom that believers have in Yahshua in all of Romans, Chapter 14 and Galatians, Chapter 5. In support of this, Yahshua proclaimed that those who serve and believe in Him are living as if they were caught up in an everlasting Jubilee Year, in which all debts are cancelled and all slaves are freed! Yahshua did so when He said the following, taken from the book of Isaiah the Prophet:

Luke 4:17-19 - “And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

To explore the nature and power of the Liberty and Freedom that we have been given under the New Covenant further, and to see the limits it sets forth on how much moral freedom we have, please read my recent article listed below, which lists the chapters in the Bible containing the moral commandments believers are called to follow, just as Yahshua did. May it guide all who read it into all truth by the power of the Holy Spirit that is found in those who are born again! In Yahshua’s Holy and Powerful Name, Amen!

FOR ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTION:

POEM Blog: WHAT COMMANDMENTS MUST BELIEVERS KEEP UNDER THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE? - Introduction: Though all believers are covered by the gift of God’s Grace or unmerited favor when they sin and seek repentance, and they all have freedom and liberty in Yahshua, who fulfilled the Law for us, there are many statements in the New Testament that indicate that Yahshua expects His followers to keep His Commandments. But defining what these Commandments are can prove to be rather tricky unless we understand the differences between the Mosaic Law and the New Covenant of Grace. Examples of New Covenant admonitions to keep God’s Commandments include the following...

WHAT COMMANDMENTS MUST BELIEVERS

KEEP UNDER THE NEW COVENANT OF GRACE?

http://pillarofenoch.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-commandments-must-believers-keep.html

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