There are things in Scripture that are clearly, irrefutably presented as impossibilities. One of the pitfalls we must avoid is embracing a theology which makes possible what the Bible presents as impossible!
An example of this “making the impossible possible” occurs in the realm of salvation and is prevalent among evangelicals today. Due to our emphasis on the new birth, conversion, and evangelism, the full, robust, biblical view of salvation has been distorted. Salvation has come to be, in our minds, a one-moment-in-time decision, backed immediately by a doctrine of eternal security, which may or may not include a noticeable difference in life. In other words, you can have a new birth without having a new life!
This is a dangerous, misleading distortion of biblical, saving faith, and actually is a scriptural impossibility! The Bible presents salvation as an eternally, ongoing process, not a one-time commitment but rather a lifetime renewal! Biblically, salvation involves regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. If one of those are missing, you are left with something other than the Bible’s depiction of salvation. Sanctification is the new you that results from a new heart! Scripturally speaking, if there is no “new you,” then there has been no “new heart!” But don’t take my word for it . . .
3:3 - And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. 3:6 - No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. 3:9-10 - No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God . . . whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God.
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