The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum II Peter 3:14

I think the Apostle Paul sums it up nicely where he wrote:

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 (ASV) "But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire."

A person's ultimate salvation is not at issue, but rather the rewards received are. This does NOT have to do with eternal security. Those who live presumptuously and think that they may sin that grace may abound are in all likelihood without Christ to begin with. One is either justified before God by grace through faith in the Lord Christ, or one is guilty before God and will be condemned according to their evil works. James is the one who stresses this aspect,

James 1:21-27; 2:24, 26 (ASV) "Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But he that looketh into the perfect law, the [law] of liberty, and [so] continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing. If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep oneself unspotted from the world. . . . Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. . . . For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

In His grace,