I am born again, and may God bless your faith, but my response is due to an honest desire to reconcile the Scriptures, which your response does not attempt.
Thank God for the promise of Philippians 1:6, and those like it, but just as numerous are those which warn that by not cooperating with God then the opposite will be the reality.
(Gal 4:9-11) “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? {10} Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. {11} I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
(Gal 5:1-2) “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. {2} Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”
(1 Th 3:5) “For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.”
(Heb 10:26-27) “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, {27} But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”
Your rendering of 1Jn. 5:18 is not what the text says, but that “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”
The believer is kept by the power of God thru faith, but it is man’s choice to yield to God by believing, which itself is by God’s grace, then is necessary.
And if by invoking 1 John 3:9 you exclude all Christians who sin then i dare say no one can have peace, while if you hold that it refers to not engaging in willful practice of sin then it concurs with my position that a faith that rests on the Lord Jesus for salvation will be manifested by characteristic righteousness, and repentance when convicted of not doing so.
(1 John 1:8) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
There is a big difference in breaking fellowship with God and losing one’s salvation.
There is a big difference in breaking fellowship with God and losing one’s salvation. It’s the old man (carnal) nature that sins, not the new man created in righteousness and holiness that commits sin. The old man is dead, crucified with Christ. He just hasn’t accepted his death yet.