"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." -Romans 10:9 (NIV)
Today I'm going to begin a discussion on the always popular question: "Can you lose your salvation?" In other words, once a person is saved, are they always saved? Let's lay some groundwork...
First of all, we know God's Word to be the one and only true and living Word, which according to Hebrews 4:12, is "living and active" and it "penetrates", "judges", and "divides". If we are truly living as Christ-followers, than there is no other substitute. God's Word is final- period. This is not said to scare or intimidate any of you, in fact, we should rejoice that our guidebook for life is so clearly laid out for us! The problem isn't Scripture, no, it's us. We tend to want to bend, break, and water down the Bible- when in fact we should be studying, meditating, and OBEYING it daily. We know that God sent Jesus to die for us so that we could have eternal life (John 3:16), but the next verse (v 17) states, "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." (NASB) With that being said, let's explore our conversation.
For those of you who don't understand what being "saved" really means, let me give you the short, short version. When Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden, sin entered into the world and cursed all of humanity. We were forever separated from God and His perfect plan for us. Through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for us, He restored that eternal covenant between God and man- thus bringing His original plan back into being. (See Romans 5:11 & 19) Our flesh is naturally sinful, and nothing less than pure holiness will enter into God's presence in Heaven. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, His blood washes us clean spiritually, and erases our sinful being. Do we still fall? Absolutely, every day. But the important thing to remember is not how "good" we can be- but the fact that we recognize that the blood spilled at Calvary covers all of humanity completely, if we just accept this free gift. I use these words "free gift" because that is exactly what it is: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." -Eph 2:8 (NASB) For today, I would like you to go back to the basics. If you have given your life to the Lord already, think back to that day and rekindle the fire that was lit in your heart. Are you "working out your salvation" as Paul describes in Phil 2:12? Or, are you coasting day by day, not really doing much for the Kingdom? For those of you who have not made the decision to accept Jesus as your Savior, I pray that you really begin to examine your heart and ask yourself what you're holding on to. Salvation was designed for everyone, and there is NO sin that it does not cover (excluding Mark ch 3- which we will discuss soon). If you don't believe me, have you read my testimony yet? I was one of the worst- yet God did a 180 on my life and here I am today, bringing others to Jesus.
Pray. Read the Gospels and the rest of God's Word. Open your heart and let it penetrate you- not for painful purposes, but for an eternal cleansing that nothing on this earth can match. When you do, His promises will begin to manifest themselves in your life and you can begin (or continue) a new life in Christ!
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