Could it be then that the classic Protestant debates will one day dissolve and fade to black? In an attempt to systematize mankind, allow me to throw my hat into the mire of debates.
In the great debates concerning the nature of humanity, election, and salvation, people are placed into various categorical camps. Unless one goes the direction where in the end all humanity will be restored unto God, man may be broken into two categories, the redeemed and the lost, the saved and the damned, the righteous and the wicked, you get the point.
But within these categories, is it possible for there to be subcategories that may lend to some of the confusion in Christian circles concerning whether a person “can lose their salvation”? Besides the fact that the formation of that question has reified an act, the question can be put more pungently,
Can those who have been regenerated and unified with and in Christ Jesus, being sealed with the Holy Spirit, been justified as they stand in Christ, ultimately not be saved at the day of judgment for having been cut from the Vine for lack of abiding, continuing in faith, or producing no fruit?
What if there are those who have been regenerated who persevere and those who do not? Those who persevere are shown to ultimately be the elect for God preserved them. And at the same time there are those who never were regenerate in the first place, paid for and yet unredeemed, and never intended by God to be redeemed? In addition to these categories, there are those outside of the Church whom are saved by grace according to the purpose of God’s call? The last possibility would certainly fall within the realm of unordinary, as the Westminster Confession would say, nonetheless left as a possibility in the sovereignty and grace of God Almighty.
Such a construct would make sense of Jesus’ words that He will loose none of His sheep, for whom He laid down His life, while those branches of His that do not produce fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire. Likewise, this fits with Paul’s language in Romans 5 about those who have been justified, reconciled, and still not yet saved from the wrath of God with regards to time. And again, making sense of Peter’s language about those who were destine for destruction all the while affirming John’s claim that Jesus is the propitiation, the one who has turned back the wrath of God, for the whole world.
Could it be then that the classic Protestant debates will one day dissolve and fade to black? In light of the above breakdown, we could say that at the same time we are considered righteous in Christ, and this not of ourselves, but by being forensically declared righteous, we stand as such by union with Christ, thus affirming a judicial declaration of God about Christians while not falling into the error of reifying righteousness and so having to beam it / impute it into a cosmic bank account. And so Rome, Luther, and Westminster get placed in their historical context and the debate arises out of the mired disputes.
In addition, these affirmations above claim that God is sovereign and has chosen before time individuals who are ultimately His, and who will share the fullness of joy in His presence eternally, recognizing that man must be born again not by human will but by God. At the same time, there are those who have been sanctified and have shared in the power of the age to come, by having been brought to life and filled by the Holy Spirit, given the gift of faith, have spurn that gift, thrown it out, quenched the Spirit’s power and have a form of godliness that never produced fruit, stumbled so far as to have fallen from grace, as they were destined to do. The T.U.L.I.P. still stands while the reprobate and apostate falls.
