Originally posted by lighthouse
You're never going to get it, are you? Humans are humans, but Christ is God. Think about it.
This is true. But love is love. Relationships are relationships. Communication is communication. Intellect is intellect. Emotions are emotions. Choices are choices.
God is transcendent, but He is also immanent.
The triune God loves, communicates, fellowships.
Man does the same.
God and man also love, fellowship, communicate.
There may be differences in perfections and degrees, but we are in the moral, spiritual, and personal image of God. We are not like Him in His unique, uncreated, infinite aspects. We are like Him in other ways.
The principles of relationship between God and man are not totally dissimilar to human relationships.
Ephesians compares our relationship with Christ to the human relationship of marriage. There is some similarity.
God is expressed as a perfect heavenly Father. Christ is our elder brother, friend, and God. We can relate to God because He is not totally unlike us (we are in His image!). We are not God.
So, what is your point? Christ is God, but we can have a relationship with Christ. What is the essence of relationship? Our relationship with Christ is different than our human relationships, but this does not mean you can support a preconceived theology on this basis alone. There are also similarities or we have nonsense and abstraction.
What do the verses say? Believers are secure in Christ. The question really is can a believer become an unbeliever. If not, why not? If an unbeliever can become a believer through repentant faith and response to God, why can't a believer become an unbeliever through willful defiance against great light and love? Thousands of people find themselves in this boat and Scripture seems to warn against that very possibility.
Those who continue in the faith (not a work) and overcome in the end through Christ's power, will be saved. Those who return to the dog's vomit and mud will be under their previous circumstance.
In Christ= secure.
Outside of Christ= lost.
Once in Christ, but now renouncing Him to their death bed= lost.