Have you ever done anything so awful you wondered if you were still saved? Maybe you know somebody who seems to be drifting farther and farther away from God and you wonder how his salvation can still be intact. Salvation is a beautiful thing, but it becomes a lot less beautiful if you are constantly wondering if you are really saved or not. We want salvation to bring peace not more stress and confusion, which makes this a question worth answering. Can you lose your salvation? I’m not sure if that is really the right question, but let’s start with that and see if we can find the answer we are seeking.
Salvation is a gift offered to us by God through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ. It is a gift we don’t deserve and can never earn, but its offered to us because of God’s eternal love and grace. Once we receive this salvation we are told that God chooses to forget our sin (Isaiah 43:25). In fact, Psalm 103:12 says “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” The Bible tells us that as Christians we are to resist temptation and flee from sin, but what about when we choose to ignore the Holy Spirit and do our own thing and fall into sin. Does that mean that we aren’t saved anymore? Does that mean that we aren’t forgiven?
He doesn’t expect perfection from us; He simply chooses to see perfection. We are always forgiven, always righteous, and always saved.
First, we have to understand that God knows we aren’t perfect and He knows we are sinners living in a broken world. He sends the Holy Spirit to guide us, but He knows that our nature will still lead us astray sometimes. He doesn’t expect perfection from us; He simply chooses to see perfection. Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior his blood covers all of our past, present and future sins. We are always forgiven, always righteous, and always saved. In fact, Jesus even spoke on this exact issue in John, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:28-30). Paul repeats this sentiment in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinved that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Once we are with Jesus, we are secured there forever. Jesus will not allow Satan to take us away from Him. We will stumble; we will fail, but Jesus will always bring us back to Him.
However, this does raise a question about some people who call themselves Christians, but don’t in any way lead a Christian life. Are they saved? Why isn’t God bringing them back? How can God offer them salvation without any obedience on their part? Surely, if they deny Jesus in every action then God would have to take away their salvation, right?
If you are saved then you will always be saved. That’s it. God said it so there really isn’t room for debate.
We have to remember that God is eternal and never changing, which means if He said it once then it is always true. When Jesus said no one will snatch them out of my hand He didn’t qualify it with exceptions. He didn’t say they can’t be snatched out of my hand unless they do this or that. He said it can’t happen because God is too powerful for the enemy. So that will never change. If you are saved then you will always be saved. That’s it. God said it so there really isn’t room for debate. However this is why I say I think the wrong question is being asked, because I think the reason for the confusion is the answer they seek can only be found with a different question.
Salvation is not and has never been about repeating a prayer. It doesn’t matter what you say. What matters is what you really believe.
I think the issue is in many churches and many Christian circles we have cheapened the whole act of receiving Christ to simply reciting a prayer. It has gone from being a personal moment between you and God to a more corporate “repeat after me.” Salvation is not and has never been about repeating a prayer. You can’t just say what your pastor tells you to say and receive salvation. I can say all kinds of things, doesn’t make it true; doesn’t even mean I think it’s true. I can tell you Sammy Sosa was the greatest baseball player of all time or that Sylvester Stallone is the greatest actor in the world, but that doesn’t mean that I think those statements are true (for the record: I don’t think those statements are true, not even close). That is the issue we run into with the reciting of a prayer. It doesn’t matter what you say. What matters is what you really believe. What matters is the condition of your heart. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). You can repeat as many prayers as you want, none of it matters until you actually believe it. God looks at our heart; not just what we say or do. Samuel learned this when He was searching for the person who would succeed Saul as King. He saw David’s oldest brother and how strong and handsome he was and thought he surely would be the next king; “But the Lord said to Samuel, “ Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
You can’t have an encounter with God and continue the life that you were always living. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and suddenly had $10,000,000, would your life be the same as it was yesterday?
We have a tendency to look at “Christians” who aren’t living for God and think they may have lost their salvation. However, the real question to ask is: did they ever receive it in the first place? They may have just recited a prayer and never really had a change in their heart. They just said words they mistakenly thought meant something. If you are truly saved, a change will occur. You can’t have an encounter with God and continue the life that you were always living. It doesn’t work like that. I’m not saying that you will wake up the next day and suddenly know the entire Bible and be leading a congregation by next Sunday, but you will change. It will probably be little by little as God molds you into the person you were always meant to be, but change will most definitely occur. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and suddenly had $10,000,000, would your life be the same as it was yesterday? Would you continue doing the same things: stressing about your bills, living in the same house, eating the same food, working at the same job, driving the same car, wearing the same clothes? I’m betting things would change drastically if you instantaneously had that kind of money. I mean that would be a life changing event, right? Well, receiving Christ in your life can and should change your life even more than $10,000,000. The gifts and blessings He is offering are worth infinitely more than any amount you will ever put in the bank. As you mature in Christ, you will start to find the sin that once thrilled you, holds little to no appeal. You will likely begin to recognize things as sin that you never even considered before. You will have a drive and desire to get into scripture and get closer to God. Day by day, week by week and month by month, you will become less and less like the world and more and more like Christ.
“They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:19)
I have read a couple articles that say while we can’t be taken from Christ that we can choose to walk away and therefore by our own decision leave our salvation behind. I have read the verses that they give and I understand what they are saying. In fact, some of them form very convincing arguments, which caused me to seek advice and really look into why I believe what I believe. However, I have a couple issues with this belief. One if we are adopted as God’s children then I find it hard to believe that God would just let His children walk away from their inheritance. I can’t imagine a scenario where my kids could walk away from me and I would just decide to completely cut them off. I would continue to love them, continue to care about them and of course continue to reach out to them. My other issue is how can someone truly have an encounter with God, truly come to know who He is and how He loves and forgives us and still choose to walk away? I don’t understand how anyone who truly knows Christ, could make the decision to walk away from Him, without some sort of demonic influence, and that would take us back to, John 10:28-30, where God says nobody can snatch us from His hand. John may very well give us an answer to this question as well. If we look at 1 John 2:19 it says, “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.” At this point, John is actually warning of the coming antichrist and antichrists whom had already appeared. The fact they had once been with them would show that they were once part of the church and either claimed or were assumed to be true believers, but something changed and they left the church and started denying Jesus was the son of God. Note that John doesn’t say they lost their salvation or that they are no longer one of us. He states very plainly that this is proof they were never one of us to begin with. No matter if they claimed it or we assumed it; the truth is obvious now.
If you are hoping that God’s forgiveness means you can do whatever you want whenever you want without the worry of consequences, you simply haven’t been transformed. You are still in need of salvation.
I don’t think I should have to say this, but understand this everlasting salvation is not a free pass to sin. God has forgiven your sin past, present and future but, as I said before, a person who accepts Christ has to be a person transformed by Christ. You can’t have one without the other. If you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit resides in you, then your life will be changed. Your desires will change. You won’t want to live the sinful life you lived before. James 2:17 says, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” It is absolutely impossible to serve Christ, follow Christ and listen to the Holy Spirit and not be living a life for Christ. We are called to resist sin. We are told and reminded we are not of this world. We are told that our heart should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. If you sin you don’t have to worry if you are forgiven, you are. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). You can be assured and confident in your salvation. However, if you are hoping that God’s forgiveness means you can do whatever you want whenever you want without the worry of consequences, you simply haven’t been transformed. You are still in need of salvation.
If you see somebody that seems to have walked away from his faith…Love him, encourage him and try to be a Godly influence in his life.
I recognize even true believers may go through dark times where they don’t live for Christ. They may drift away for a time, but I don’t believe a person who has truly had a life changing experience for Christ can walk away and stay away. I have had dark periods. I have had bad days, months and years. In fact, my entire teen years were a very dark period for me in which I didn’t live for Christ at all, but God was always calling me back and the Holy Spirit was constantly convicting me of what I was doing and where I needed to be. Eventually, I answered God’s call and came back to know Christ more than I ever had before and that relationship is still growing today. If you see somebody that seems to have walked away from his faith don’t jump to conclusions that he was never really saved in the first place. Instead try to walk beside him and gently guide him to Christ. Love him, encourage him and try to be a Godly influence in his life. However, be aware that if he isn’t accepting of Godly counsel, refuses to get into scripture and is completely content in his life of sin, it may be time to change tactics. He may not need to be reminded of what Jesus Christ did for him, instead he may need to be shown who Jesus is and given a chance to finally meet Him.
What matters is that you truly believe Jesus is Lord and you accept Him as your Lord and Savior. It does matters that you confess it with your mouth, but the format doesn’t matter at all.
We can’t lose our salvation. I don’t see any real merit to the idea that we can walk away from it either, since I can’t imagine a scenario where you would want to walk away from perfect, unconditional love. However, we do have the ability to believe we have received salvation when we really haven’t. We do run the risk of leading people to believe that all you have to do is “repeat after me.” The pastor’s prayer is not the “saving prayer.” It isn’t the perfect prayer, the only prayer or even the prayer template. It is just a prayer. The prayer is not what matters. What matters is that you truly believe Jesus is Lord and you accept Him as your Lord and Savior. It does matters that you confess it with your mouth, but the format doesn’t matter at all. Did you just say a prayer or did you really encounter God? Did you repeat what you were told or did you really believe what you were saying? Is your life just like it has always been or has your life been transformed? Is the Bible just a book collecting dust or do you desire to read and learn more? Maybe these are questions you need to ask yourself. Maybe you know some people who just said some words and are now left wondering why they don’t feel any different. Wondering why “the prayer” didn’t work for them; why they weren’t transformed. They haven’t changed because their heart never changed. Please don’t just lead them in another prayer. Lead them to Christ. Introduce them to their Lord and Savior. Let them meet each other and then step aside and let God do the rest.
