Most people (especially "religious" people) carry a total misconception of what true Christianity is all about.

I hear many say how they came to the Lord when they were younger (usually as teenagers), only to have back-slidden or fallen away until they were older and came back to the Lord (or came back to church) again. Such people believe themselves to be "Saved" and "Born Again" when they were younger, regardless of their " back-slidden condition", even though they freely admit that they were no longer "Living For Him" at the time!

I have no idea how this "myth" started, but it just isn't true, and I will explain why it's not. It must also be noted that No One can "Live For The Lord"! Die For Him, yes (John 15:13-14), but to attempt to live For Him without receiving His Spirit to do just so - NO!

You see WE (in and of ourselves, that is, in and with our 'flesh') cannot LIVE For Him! We cannot PLEASE Him! It is impossible! If we could then there would be no need for the cross, and no need for our Old Man to be crucified with Christ, not if it were fit to please God in any way. The CROSS has effectually put an end to the Old Man (i.e. "I") to those who believe (Galatians 2:20) thus come and receive what He is offering. As far as God is concerned, we are ALL sinners - ALL lost - ALL powerless in and of ourselves to live for God - ALL in need of being regenerated - renewed.

"The Cross" is a place of death - Death to the entire old creation - and to all who come to the cross it is death to all that we are in and of ourselves, our flesh. It is because we believe on Him, that through our believing the Gospel and being put to death with Christ whereby He then comes in The Spirit and Lives For Us, by living Within Us, as we receive Him through a new and spiritual birth!

It then becomes this "NEW CREATION IN CHRIST" (i.e. This "New Man") that MAKES a Christian what he is: A Christian! It is our being placed ~IN~ Christ, born OF Christ, OF God... It is Christ coming to live "HIS LIFE" in us... It is Christ who Changes Us and makes us His Disciples/Followers. The closest explanation we have to try and explain what going from night to day is like, going from the Old to the New is like is seen in a common -- Butterfly

Before he becomes this beautiful newly formed butterfly he was an ugly caterpillar and a pupae. No resemblance whatsoever between the two, just as there is no resemblance in God's eyes between the Old Creation and the New. However, once he is "Born Again" he becomes this NEW Creature. Once he becomes a butterfly (so to speak) then he lives what he is - a butterfly, and dies a butterfly. He does not revert back to being a caterpillar again!!! (He does not revert back to his old ways and truly sinful habits again, prooving that a Godly Change has occured!)

Therefore anyone born IN and OF Christ, OF God like that DOES NOT afterwards return to their old mud hole and wallow in it like the pig does, nor lap up their old vomit all over again like the dog does (i.e. "Return to their old Lifestyle again - return to their old sin habits again"), not once they have found Jesus (2 Peter 2:22; Proverbs 26:11) alone to be The precious Way, The sacred Truth and The everlasting Life there is or ever will be! In fact once He is found and known they will be like those who found the treasure in the field or the perfect pearl, and their joy will not be contained (Matthew 13:44-46).

Once Jesus is truly found and savingly known then IT IS ALL OVER! THE WORLD HAS LOST ITS FLAVOR (i.e. 'sinning ways') for the truly Born Again! Why? Because the Old has passed away and All Things have become New... because Jesus Himself has become New and Alive and they have become NEW CREATIONS in and through Christ! "CHRIST" has come and replaced the Old with the New! He is The New!!! That's what God does (Matthew 13:44-46). HE CHANGES PEOPLE! (Ezekiel 36:25-27) It is imperative that this be completely understood, because "HE" alone is the way in which God pours out His Spirit of Grace.

So... why do any of us bother calling Him "Lord" if we're not going to do what He says??? (Luke 6:46-49) That's no better than what the "Hypocrit" does. IF He is indeed risen from the dead - and IF He is indeed seated at the right hand of God - and IF He is indeed both Lord and Christ then He must be, He will be worshipped and obeyed in Spirit and in Truth as He really is. How is this done? By giving us POWER (i.e. "His Son") to become the sons of God (John 1:12-13). Forgiving us our sins is but the beginning. A New Creation is what He is after! Anything else (including several so-called years of back-sliding) is totally hypocritical!

What is needed is for you to know that what Christianity is all about is in creating A Whole New Person, one made after God's own heart. With this in mind, there is just no way - NO WAY - that those who were saved and born again (this Whole New Person), can again back-slide or fall away over and over only to later on come back again into the fold (supposedly after they got done sowing their wild oats, etc.), is; according to the word of God: "IMPOSSIBLE". Why? Because it is ABSOLUTE PROOF that no Permanent Change has ever taken place! It's the same old fruit as before their so-called "conversion"!

"Sin" has to do with The Law. Anyone who is Alive thus still living and walking according to their own understanding, their own flesh, their own uncrucified human [sinful] nature of what salvation is and what it comprises of, remains under God's curse (because they have not believed!), thus is ever answerable to The Law. Why? Because "THEY" live - because "THEY" are trying to please God - because "THEY" walk after the flesh, instead of "Christ".

According to Paul --
Galatians 2:19-21 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

When Paul became Born Again he had a complete change of mind causing him to serve the law (the word) of God, but not in order to be saved, but because God already saved him. Not only has he been crucified with Christ (thus dead to the judgement of keeping or not keeping the O.T. Law) but is found serving God in the only way we can serve Him, in accordance with the N.T. of faith, and not in the Letter of it, but serving Him in newness of Spirit and in Truth -- and for this we MUST be Born Again!!

For IT IS IMPOSSIBLE for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Hebrews 6:4-6

IF you have really tasted of the heavenly gift and been made a partaker of the Holy Ghost, and have Tasted the good word of God, along with the powers of Christ's future Kingdom, then after all of that, if you should fall away, there is no hope. You cannot be renewed unto repentance anymore. Why? Because the Father will allow no one to put His Son to an open shame and live eternally. You have only TASTED the heavenly gift, but you didn't go after it and soon lost what it was like, you didn't pursue it, you didn't seek to have more of it... the way a pupae enters its cocoon in order to become a butterfly... and that's why you fell away (is what Hebrews 6:4-6 is saying).

HOWEVER -- IF you believed in some Cliche' and thought you could just give your heart to Jesus in some altar call and just walk away, or make a commitment to follow Him in your earlier years (without knowing the cost), but doing it never changed you (obviously) into a born again Christian - A BRAND NEW CREATION IN CHRIST - then chances are that you are not, and have never been.
If anyone who is claiming to be a bonafide born again Christian, then later on (after his conversion) goes back into the world and loves the ways of the world again, then claims to return to continue to follow the Lord later on in life, then they have allowed themselves to be deceived in believing this and are just deceiving themselves as well.

In any case these have hope, especially if they tried to live for Him with all their might and found that they failed miserably. This was all their "flesh's doing" and not the Spirit's. They were taught to THINK that IF they somehow mentally accepted Christ (without bothering to die with Him in order for Him to live through them) then they would be saved! In being brought to the end of themselves they now realize WHY the flesh (the Old Man) needs to be put to death, because in it is no good thing - nothing worthy of God!
Once they come to see and recognize this within themselves, and see Christ without themselves, it is enough to cause them to be crucified with Christ and a New Creation IN Christ to be born.

Another scripture that says EXACTLY what the one in Hebrews says....

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2 Peter 2:20-22

Once again it cannot be made any clearer in writing EXACTLY what being entangled with the world again and being overcome by it means. It would have been better for such people to have never been born rather than to forsake or trade the way of righteousness and victory through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the ways of the world. It can't be done! If it is done then they've cut their own throat and there remains no more hope... otherwise, their earlier "Christianity" was all only a work of the flesh, the world or the devil, because there was no change (i.e. they hadn't been born again) in them that caused them to repent and live (i.e. "Die") for the Lord.

Those who claim to have come to know the Lord early on (only to fall away or back-slide at a later time involving many years), either never escaped the pollution of the world (thus they were NEVER bona-fide Christians in the first place), or they escaped them FOREVER through the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is no middle-of-the-road on this! Either we are Christians who KNOW thus also obey Christ, or we are not!

Now I would hope that everyone would be saved. I have no quarrels with anyone. However, I know that Jesus Christ and His death on a cross is a serious thing, something that the Father treasures above all... one where He gave us His only begotten Son and where all of this concerns our eternal welfare because of His free gift.

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Luke 6:46

It (the New Birth) is all about becoming a New Creature In Christ - - one where Old things have passed away because they have been replaced by the Brand-Spanking New!

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

So... IF Christ is Lord, seek power from on high and obey Him! If He's not, then walk away... but don't play the hypocrit! I assure you that God will not be played for a fool --- My Story

May God bless you in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Biff & Suzanne