At the opposite end of the belief system from the last delusion of being saved by works, lies the subtly insidious but comfortable delusion that once you receive Jesus as your Savior, you are forever saved, free to do as you wish. Satan has used this approach very successfully to ensnare many Christians. The phrase "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:3), has been taken to mean that belief is all a person must have. Once a person is baptized, so the line of reason goes, they will be saved, irrespective of whether they continue to sin or not. No change is necessary in their lifestyle. They believe in Jesus and are saved, period; end of discussion.
 
Salvation Is Conditional:

        The person fails to recognize that being saved is conditional on following the Lord's commandments and having His Holy Spirit dwelling within. Baptism is just the first step in this process of being saved. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). It is necessary to have faith and trust in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection, in order to be saved; but according to the Bible that is not the end of our responsibility.  Many have been told that we are going to Heaven just the way we are, and Jesus will change us at His return. That is not true! The truth is that Satan and his angels were cast out of Heaven because God cannot be in the presence of sin.  He is no more tolerant of sin in man than He is of sin in angels. Sin must be removed from us while we are developing our characters on earth NOW, not miraculously on the way to Heaven without time for character change.
 
MAN'S POWERS PERVERTED:

        Man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind. But through disobedience, his powers were perverted, and selfishness replaced love. Adam's character at the moment of his first sin instantly became controlled by the Spirit of Evil. From that point on it was impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil. Made captive to Satan, he would have remained so if God had not had a plan, even before the world was created.
 
HOLY SPIRIT EMPOWERS US:

        That plan is to give us the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to pass every test, to turn away from every temptation, victorious in Jesus.  Jesus' blood is absolutely necessary to wash away past sins, and His Holy Spirit is equally necessary for us to STOP SINNING and develop minds, hearts, and characters that can be taken to Heaven.

        The only sins that are forgiven are those we unwittingly commit. Cherished sins, those which we willfully commit in a spirit of rebellion against God, cannot be forgiven. Unless we repent and turn from them, we are in danger of grieving away the Holy Spirit, which is the unpardonable sin.
 
IMPOSSIBLE TO ESCAPE FROM SIN:

        It is impossible for us, in our present state, to escape from sin. Our hearts are evil continually. We cannot change by our own effort. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" No one! "The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Job 14:4; Rom. 8:7). Our efforts can produce an outward appearance of correct behavior, but they cannot change the heart.  There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before sinful men can be changed to holy men.  This POWER is Christ's Holy Spirit abiding in the heart.

Must Be Born Again:

        The Savior said,  "Except a  man be born again,"  unless he shall receive a new heart, new desires,  purposes,  and motives,  leading to a totally new life, "he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The idea that it is necessary only to develop the good that exists in man by nature is a fatal deception, for man is anything but good. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.  They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.  The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.  They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Ps. 14:1-3). "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags... and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa. 64:6). "The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).  Only through Christ can our sins be forgiven. Only through the Holy Spirit controlling us can we become like Christ.
 
MISTAKES WILL BE MADE:

        This does not mean that once we have given our heart to Jesus that we will never make mistakes or sin again, because it takes time for us to grow and become like Christ. We put away one sin, and God shows us another we need to work on.  But our choice is always toward God, and eventually we reach the place where God can trust us not to sin.  This process (called sanctification or to sanctify) will happen very quickly at the end of time by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are still free moral beings, able to chose what we will do.  We can repent, reform, be forgiven, chose not to do that sin again, and rely on the constant presence of the Holy Spirit to keep us from falling (if we maintain the relationship). We can live victoriously. To distort the wondrous gift of Jesus to include eternal salvation even though we willfully go on sinning is a terrible thing, for it is in effect crucifying our Lord again and again, making of none effect His incomprehensible gift.
 
MUST DIE TO SELF:

        There is a dying to self (selfishness) and sin that is absolutely necessary, without which we can never be saved.  But we cannot arrange the death of the carnal, fleshly, worldly man which we inherited from Adam. Only the Holy Spirit can do this for us.  We must offer ourselves daily, hourly, minute by minute unto the Lord, a willing sacrifice on the altar. This is not a once for all time act, but a continual offering of ourselves, asking and seeking for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within our heart.  To be saved we must seek the Lord with ALL our hearts, continually. The goal is perfection.
 
BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT

        What does it mean to be perfect?  How is it attained?  Jesus said: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt.5:48).  Becoming perfect is to become like the Father, one with Him in spirit and truth as Jesus was.  "My Father and I are one." Marvin Moore in his book, The Seven Trumpets of Revelation points out that attaining perfection, or becoming like Christ, involves three steps - CONVICTION, CONVERSION, and RESISTANCE. GOD HAS A PART IN EACH OF THESE, AND SO DO WE.
 
CONVICTION:

        "Conviction" means to have a very strong feeling or impression about something.  A conviction is a strongly held belief. Christians use the word conviction to express the idea of God trying to get us to do or believe a particular thing.  Jesus said that 'when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment' (John 16:8). God's problem is persuading us humans that we are wrong when we are so sure that we're all right [That's God part].  Then what's our part in this matter of conviction?

        The best Bible passage I've found on that is Psalm 139:23,24: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me to the way everlasting." We too can ask God to show us whatever we need to know in order to be perfect, and He will do it. That's what Paul told the Philippians believers: "One thing I do, Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13,14).  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Some people worry that they might not think of all the sins they need to confess and overcome before the close of probation. That is a useless worry. If you and I need to know about it, God will reveal it to us and bring it to our minds. Anything God doesn't bring to our minds we don't need to know.
 
CONVERSION:

        When God made Adam and Eve they were perfect.  The Bible says,  "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Gen. 1:3).  Adam and Eve were morally and spiritually perfect because the Holy Spirit dwelt in their hearts.  God told Adam and Eve that the day they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree they would die (see Gen. 2:17).  Many people have wondered why Adam and Eve did not die when they ate of the fruit, failing to realize that they did die that day - not physically, but spiritually. They lost the Holy Spirit's power in their lives that made them holy.

        Ellen White describes what happened in her book Steps to Christ:  "Through disobedience, his powers were perverted,  and selfishness took the place of love. His nature became so weakened through transgression that it was impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil." Nothing is more clear from Scripture than that it is utterly impossible for sinful human beings to change their own sinful natures. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots?"  Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil"(Jer. 13:23). "In my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:23,24).

        The following statement by Ellen White is particularly helpful in understanding this problem: "It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken.  Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them.... Education, culture, and the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life." What are the "springs" of our lives?

        I believe they are the deepest motives of our hearts, our most basic priorities. Jesus had in mind the springs of life when He said: 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.... The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone born of the Spirit' (John 3:5,8)."  Please notice that this new birth is the work of the Holy Spirit on the human heart.

        The same spiritual life that Adam and Eve lost when they sinned - the same Spirit that departed their hearts when they ate the fruit - we regain when we are spiritually reborn. Our problem is that we try to fight sin the wrong way.  WE TRY TO STOP THE WRONG BEHAVIOR.  We try to stop saying bad words when we ought to deal with our anger.  We try to stop looking at pornographic magazines when we ought to deal with our lust.

        The next time Satan comes to you with your most difficult temptation, instead of saying, "Lord help me to stop DOING such and such," say,  "Lord, please take away my DESIRE for such and such."  I find that when I pray that prayer,  I nearly always gain the victory, and when I don't, I don't.

        In conversion, God's part is to CHANGE OUR DESIRES.  Our part is to ASK FOR IT.  When we pray this way, God will do His part and change the desire.  This may not come instantly, and that is where the last part of RESISTANCE enters the picture.

RESISTANCE:

        I must warn you,...while the explanation I just gave may sound simple,  it can actually be extremely difficult. The difficulty is illustrated by an experience I had with a friend I'll call Charlie. Charlie said to me one day, "Pastor, I have a problem. I like coffee. I have to have a cup of coffee every morning before I go to work. I love that early morning cup of coffee. I've tried to quit, but I can't.  Can you help me?"  I explained to Charlie that he was trying to stop drinking coffee while hanging onto his love for coffee.  I said, "Tomorrow, instead of asking God to help you not to drink coffee, try saying, 'Please take away my DESIRE for coffee.'" Charlie thought a moment, and then he said, "But if I did that I wouldn't get my cup of coffee!" That's your problem and mine.

        We enjoy our sins, and we don't want God taking away that pleasure. A cherished sin is one we're willing to ask God to help us with when we're in church;  it's one we're willing to pray about during our morning and evening devotions, but we are not willing to pray about it at the moment of temptation, because we like it, and if God took away the desire for it we wouldn't get to enjoy it.

        The only way I've found to overcome a cherished sin is to resist it.  Some people don't like the idea that Christians ought to resist sin [especially those who believe in once saved, always saved].  They think resistance smacks too much of righteousness by works, and besides, it's too hard.  It's much easier to just maintain the relationship and let sin disappear from our lives automatically.... I want to affirm, first of all, that there is a lot of truth to that statement.

        When we maintain our relationship with Jesus, a lot of sin does disappear "automatically." I have experienced this in my own life.  I have noticed that when I maintain a consistent devotional life, some sins do disappear from my life almost without my even realizing it.  However, I have also noticed that some sins don't go away that easily.  I have to pay specific attention to my most cherished sins, or they will never go away.  I have found two ways to resist sin that work for me, and these two ways illustrate two camps in this matter of overcoming sin.  One camp emphasizes victory over sin through maintaining a relationship with Jesus; the other emphasizes victory through stern battles with self, aided by the power of Jesus.
 
MAINTAINING THE RELATIONSHIP

        I do not know of any spiritual battle that is more difficult than asking God to change my desire for a particular sin when I want nothing more right than to do it. However, I have found that if I ask God to remove the wrong desire, and keep asking Him, eventually I come to the place that I no longer want that sin. God and I have cooperated on many temptations, and each time He and I work on it this way, we gain the victory. That's right, WE gain the victory. He and I together. I could never do it alone. The key to victory is to involve Him in the process AT THE MOMENT OF STRONGEST TEMPTATION.  And to do that we must pray, "Lord, please remove the DESIRE for this sin."  NOT "HELP ME TO STOP DOING THIS SIN," BUT "HELP ME TO STOP WANTING THIS SIN."

        That's a tough prayer to say when you want nothing more than to do it "just this once." It's so easy to think, "One more time won't hurt that much.  I'll quit next time."  And one more time probably won't matter that much. What's the difference between one cigarette more or less in a smoker's life? Not much. But that misses the point.  There is no such thing as victory over smoking "next time."  The smoker who's always waiting till "next time" to quit never will. Eventually, there has to come a time when he says, "I'm quitting NOW," and refuses to smoke the one he wants so badly right now. It's that way with all sin.  At the moment when temptation is the strongest, I have a choice to make. That choice is over whether to "do it," to be sure, but it's also a choice about relationship. At my moment of strongest temptation, my relationship with Jesus is in serious jeopardy.  If I keep making the wrong choice time after time, eventually that relationship will deteriorate to nothing. But, won't God forgive? Isn't that what the cross was all about? Yes, God is always willing to forgive us when we sin. But to use forgiveness as an excuse to go on sinning is presumption. God only forgives people who repent.

        If you desperately want to quit but yielded in a moment of weakness, then certainly forgiveness is yours for the asking. But if you continually use forgiveness as an excuse to enjoy your favorite sin, you have not repented of.  THE  CHOICE YOU  HAVE  TO MAKE  WHEN  TEMPTATION  COMES  ON STRONG IS  NOT  ONLY WHETHER TO DO IT,  BUT WHETHER TO WANT IT.... You begin the battle with sin by dealing with the DESIRE--THE "WANT IT" part.  You need a change of heart on that point, on that temptation.  Until you experience that change, victory will be impossible.

        At the moment of strongest temptation, your choice is whether to ask for the relationship right then so you can experience the change. If you keep postponing the choice to ask God to change you because you enjoy the sin too much.  You jeopardize your relationship with Jesus.
I have found that when I make that choice--when, painful though it may be, I ask God to take away the desire for that sin--then victory comes.  And usually, when I don't make that choice and say that prayer, I experience defeat.... VICTORY OVER  SIN  COMES  THROUGH  MAINTAINING  A RELATIONSHIP  WITH JESUS....  THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS VICTORY WITHOUT IT,  because only through that relationship can we experience the change of heart that makes victory possible. STERN BATTLES WITH SELF. What about stern battles with self?  What about the power of God to quit? That too is a genuine part of resistance.

        I would like to begin this part of our discussion by stating a principle:  GOD CHANGES  THE HEART;  WE CHANGE  THE  BEHAVIOR.  We cannot change our hearts, and while God is powerful enough to change our behavior, He refuses to do so out of respect for our free will.
Marvin finished his comments by pointing out that in RESISTANCE,  God's part is to GIVE US THE POWER, and our part is to ASK FOR IT, THEN SAY NO (to desire, temptation and sin)!  When this is done THE BEHAVIOR WILL CHANGE as God works in our lives.

        The book concludes by telling the reader that Abraham got to the promised land by putting one foot ahead of the other, yet not knowing where he was going.  "When he did his part, then God did His. You put one foot ahead of the other by asking God for strength to change your behavior and telling yourself No! That's your part. Once you do your part, then getting you to that great unknown called perfection becomes God's responsibility. You don't have to worry about whether you're good enough. That's His problem.

        "Ask for the Holy Spirit in ways you just learned, and you will discover significant, often rapid character development in your life. Begin taking those steps. I guarantee you, God won't close probation until you're ready." (The Seven Trumpets of Revelation, 1990, Marvin Moore,  pp. 100-109, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Boise, Idaho.)

        God's plan for perfecting the saints unmasks the enemy-inspired delusion of "once saved, always saved" for what it is - a lethal trap to deceive people into thinking there is no need to overcome sin, for Jesus did everything for us at the cross. Those who live this delusion will never be overcomers, never will they have their characters perfected by the Holy Spirit, or be ready when Jesus returns in the clouds of glory. They will be found wanting because they will have ignored the call of God's Holy Spirit to be made perfect. This satanic delusion will spell the eternal death of millions.