Have you ever asked yourself why you are here? Why were you born? The most obvious reason is your mother and father’s love for each other prompted them to have children. But why is anyone here? Why did God choose to bring us into existence?
Original love.
Agapé love.
Immense godly love that is beyond our comprehension.
Like a married couple eager to share their love and their life together by having children, God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, chose to “procreate” humanity. To share their love and righteousness, to share their DNA with us so we could be a part of them, to be one with them.
They have offered us an eternity to live in their presence in peace and harmony. What an awesome gift to be born into the God family and live forever with them!
But not all who are born since the earth was formed are destined to live with God. He gives us a choice; we have free will to pick from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or the Tree of Life. We can choose to govern ourselves or submit to God’s governance. If we want to live with God, “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53).
We are corruptible because Adam and Eve decided to govern themselves and our human nature—subject to all manner of evil thoughts and actions deserving of death—is set.
We are mortal because God barred the Tree of Life in the garden to prevent us from becoming eternal evil beings.
Yet we are not without hope; God has made a way.
Since evil cannot stand in God’s presence, Christ stands in our place covering us in His righteousness. Because we are in Christ and Christ is in us, God looks upon us and sees Him (Colossians 1:22).
Jesus Christ, the pure and righteous Son of God, took our inability to live without sinning and lived a sinless life as one of us. He took on our deserved punishment as His own and paid the death penalty for us. He chose to sacrifice Himself so we don’t have to die permanently. Why do that? That is the sheer incomprehensible love of God at work. We are loved beyond measure.
Without Christ, there is no hope for any of us. He is our savior, and only He provides us with salvation. Only He can take that which is corrupt and convert it to incorruption.
Salvation is being rescued from the certain death of corruption. Rescued from the smoke-filled burning building, the capsized boat in the middle of a vast and lonely sea, the quicksand trap with nothing to grab onto. Rescued from ourselves.
We are delivered from spiritual ruin, and in exchange, given eternal life. Salvation is taking someone destined for the blackness of nothingness and giving them the bright iridescent gift of joy and peace and love instead. It is what people call being “saved.” Who wouldn’t want that?
When you are saved, you are safe from the wrath of God that will come upon the whole world at Christ’s return.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:15)
This is mind-boggling, wonderful news! We don’t have to die! The terror of God’s wrath is not appointed for us! We are saved!
But herein lies the problem. People convince themselves that because Christ did it all, there’s nothing for them to do.
They believe that because they made a declaration as a child, or prayed the sinner’s prayer (a confession of sin once, asking forgiveness and acknowledging Christ as their savior) or made a similar confession earlier in their lives, that’s all they need to be a saved Christian. They continue with their lives, feeling better about themselves, but don’t live for Christ afterward or follow His teachings.
But when you receive new life, the old life has to go. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). You can’t take it back up again just because you’ve been “saved.” Living your life still tethered to the world perpetuates your corruptible mortality and the death sentence it yields.
Is Belief All You Need?
The act of being saved is not a one-and-done deal, a quick confession, or silent prayer and on you go with your life. Assured salvation takes work. But many will say, “What? I thought faith is all I needed. That we can’t do anything to earn salvation.” And they’d be partially right. “For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
Salvation is a free gift (Romans 5:15). It’s charity and nothing you can do (all your accumulated good deeds) can change that. You can’t pay for it. Ever. There’s not a single thing you could do that would change salvation from being God’s gift to you to something that you could earn or pay for in a million million lifetimes apart from Christ. God says all our righteousness is as filthy rags to Him (Isaiah 64:6). “Our righteousness” is the key phrase here. Our goodness without Christ will never be good enough.
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. (John 6:28–29)
And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)
If belief in Christ is all you need to be saved, and there’s nothing you can do to earn salvation, then why are there warnings for believers in the Bible? Why are we told to hold fast the form of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13), to prove all things and hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21)? Why are we told to put on the full armor of God and to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11)? Why are we told to fight the good fight of faith and to lay hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:11, 19)? Why are we told to earnestly contend for the faith (Jude 1:3)?
If faith is passive and belief that Christ lived, died, and rose again is all you need, then why are we told to take heed, watch, and pray (Mark 13:33), and to labor to enter the rest spoken of in Hebrews 4:10? Why are we told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling in Philippians 2:12? This all sounds like a lot of work to me.
If Christ’s grace and forgiveness covers all sin (and it does, except for calling the Spirit of God evil, Matthew 12:31), then what do we have to worry about? Paul even posited to the Roman church that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20). Grace is awesome; we want more of that, right? Then in chapter 6, he said, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1–2).
Paul likely brought this up because the “don’t worry about sinning” idea was already circulating among the believers. They were taking the admonition to “believe on” Christ from Acts 16 too carelessly. Just saying “I believe” doesn’t change the heart. Believing on Christ is not mere lip service, an external appearance of devotion, but a one-eighty turnaround of our thoughts, attitudes, and actions; it’s a conscious effort to emulate our Savior. In Luke 6:46, Christ said this to the errant people: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
And that’s where we find ourselves today in many Christian churches. Lax churches talking “Jesus,” but not doing the things He said. They seem to have forgotten: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Instead, they are friends with the world, embracing the LGBTQ and feminist ideologies, and allowing female preachers and gay clergy to stand in defiance of the Bible’s teachings. They tout a prosperity gospel over the true one of partaking in Christ’s suffering (1 Peter 4:13). Because they avoid teaching all parts of the Bible for fear of offending, church is merely a self-help seminar with members going home feeling good about themselves yet living their lives unchanged.
For them the word Christian is a button on a lapel they affix on Sunday mornings, a fish-shaped bumper sticker on their cars’ back windows. It’s a members-only card tucked in their wallets to whip out if they’re ever asked.
Many who’ve dipped their toes in the Christian waters but haven’t made a public confession yet, see the death-bed conversion as their ticket. They don’t have to make a self-sacrificing choice now, but can live how they want with the mindset that they’ll have time to convert later.
Yet all these kinds of thinking are an affront to Christ and His sacrifice. He said in Matthew 16:24 that “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” He also said, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Matthew 16:25–26).
Denying yourself takes work. Losing your life for His sake hurts, but if you “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1), you will gain true life.
While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. (Hebrews 3:15)
God says today is the day, not tomorrow. His call is precious. He wants you with Him and asks you to give Him your heart, mind, and body in exchange for eternal life. Why would anyone hold up a finger and say, Just a minute, God, I’m busy right now. Can I get a rain check? There are no rain checks. It’s first-come, first-served. Or in this case, God comes to offer you salvation and you either take Him up on it with a whole-hearted thank you or with a no thanks, I’m good.
Some people hear God’s voice, the nudging to come His way, but are afraid to commit and delay their baptism because they think they need to be perfect first, or at least better than they are right now. Whether they realize it or not, this thinking is a form of pride, like they could actually bring something to the salvation table. They fail to see that becoming Christ-like as a life-long process, only possible with the Spirit of God dwelling in them first. God’s not waiting for a perfect heart, merely a contrite one (Psalm 51:17).
On the other extreme, some Christians live in a fearful state of doubting they are truly saved. They are afraid their salvation is not secure, that Christ hasn’t covered them. They doubt God’s forgiveness when they repent. It’s as if they feel they need to be perfect before they can be loved and forgiven—none of which is true. For the first group, yes, come as you are, don’t wait. You have the rest of your life to grow in Christ. For the second group, because you aren’t staying as you are, you are precious to God. You have nothing to fear. You are saved.
Exposing the Once-saved, Always-Saved Myth
Paul warned the newly grafted Gentiles not to be “highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee” (Romans 11:20–21). He made it clear they were saved, “If thou continue in [God’s] goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:22). The natural branches (the Jews) were broken off the chosen olive tree (Israel) not only because of their noncommittal, lackluster worship of God or outright unbelief, but because they were convinced of their own goodness and believed their right standing in the eyes of God was firm. Beliefs similar to today’s lukewarm Christians who take forgiveness for granted, pray only when they’re in trouble, and keep God small and controllable in their pockets. They don’t think their salvation could ever be in jeopardy. But the Bible says otherwise.
For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:26–29)
To sin willfully is to know better, to know what you are doing is wrong and sin anyway because, in your delusion, you believe Christ will wipe it clean, so why worry? But it’s impossible to be a believer in Christ and to live your own way. The two are incompatible. Paul reminded the church in Colossae, “If you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above . . . not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1–2).
What does living in the grace of God mean to you? How do we reconcile sin with grace? Nobody is above temptation. We should never put ourselves in temptation’s way and think we can handle it because we live in the grace of God. God’s grace covers our mistakes, not our blatant sinning excused by our faulty version of grace. I sin that grace may abound? God forbid!
Many will succumb to what 2 Thessalonians 2:3 calls falling away, meaning a defection from the truth. (See also Matthew 24:10–13; Hebrews 6:4–6). You can’t fall from a position you were never at. These are Christians. They may have started out faithful, but they end up living no differently than the rest of the world and simply view Christ as a soul mop.
With their half-hearted sorrys “they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Peter warns that if after the believer escapes the pollution of the world “they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20). Tragically, they let others convince them they are fine the way they are and the world is not the filth that it is, so they sit back down in it.
Jude warned the believers about those sitting in their congregations who “defile the flesh, despise dominion, and . . . speak evil of those things which they know not” (Jude 1:8, 10).
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. (Jude 1:12–13)
Toleration of sinful living taints the church and influences others within it to compromise the truth of Christ. Paul also warned the believers in Acts 20:30–31 that men and women from within their own congregation would attempt to draw them away from the truth (and that’s why he warned them night and day). It happened at the beginning of Christianity and it will continue to happen until the end.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. (1 Timothy 4:1)
First Timothy chapter 4 says some shall depart from the faith. That means they were believers in Christ at one time. But I can hear some say, “These people were never truly saved.” Maybe, but consider Christ’s warning about the branches that were attached to Him being taken away because they no longer relied on Him, no longer bore Him fruit. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruits, he taketh away” (John 15:2). In me. This tells us they were in Christ at one time. They were saved Christians. And that is why there are warnings in the Bible. Without steadfast intention, without the work of bearing fruit, you can fall.
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. (2 Peter 3:17)
God warns us because He loves us
Christ’s own words of love warn us to “take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34). Paul’s love of the brethren showed in his warning numerous times throughout the Bible and specifically twice in Colossians:
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossian 2:8)
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. (Colossians 2:18)
We can be fooled not only by the sinfulness of the world as Colossians 2:8 attests, but also by the errancy of religion that elevates customs above Christ, that contradicts or supersedes His teachings. “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).
Christ, the Almighty, warns us all to let “no man take your crown” (Revelation 3:11). He said it because it’s possible! And that man is us. We can draw back (Hebrews 10:38), turn away (Hebrews 12:25), be hearers of the Word and not doers (James 1:23). Paul knew this and told Timothy to “take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (1 Timothy 4:16). Take heed unto thyself is being aware of our own sinful tendencies and applying ourselves to the work of Christ-like selflessness. We do this by continuing in and paying attention to God’s Word.
We are the heirs of salvation. God’s Word and the Word will save us if we “give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1–2). We will slip up in our faith walk, that is normal. Nobody is perfect, and God is not expecting us to do everything perfectly. That is why Christ died in our place. But to let slip is a conscious choice. This is where we need to be careful.
Salvation is secure, if . . .
Christ explained in Matthew 5:13 that we are the salt of the earth. If salt loses its savor “it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” He is letting us know our saltiness, our useful goodness, could become bland, and we’d be no good to ourselves, our families, and those in our communities if we lose what makes us special—Him.
The Bible is peppered with admonitions that our election, our calling, our salvation in Christ is sure if
- If so be the Spirit of God dwells in you (Romans 8:9, 13)
- If so be that we suffer with [Christ] (Romans 8:17)
- If you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart. (Romans 10:9)
- If you keep in memory what I preached to you. (1 Corinthians 15:2), and if that which you heard remains in you. (1 John 2:24)
- If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard. (Colossians 1:23)
- If ye stand fast in the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 3:8)
- If we suffer with him, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. (2 Timothy 2:11–12)
- If ye will hear his voice [and] harden not your hearts. (Hebrews 3:7–8)
- If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end (Hebrews 3:6), and hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. (Hebrews 10:23)
- If we walk in the light, as he is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
- If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Faith without works is dead
Our faith in Christ is not inert. It’s not something put in a display case to gaze at now and then. It’s something we grasp, mold, massage, knead, stretch, push and pull to align with the righteousness of Christ. James demonstrated that faith without works is dead (James 2:20), and he was right. If we aren’t loving others, we aren’t showing them who God is, then our faith is encased behind glass and useless.
Faith alone does not save us. Rejecting the world, trusting in God, and sorrowing to repentance does. Repentance is a complete reversal of our selfish decisions. Our old ways of thinking and behaving should produce godly sorrow that “worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of” (2 Corinthians 7:10). We have an joyful eternity to look forward to if we . . .
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. (Revelation 3:3)
We are Christ’s and nothing and no one can take us out of His hands—except ourselves. But each day, as we say no to self and yes to God, we are bathed in God’s grace and forgiveness. Our joyful future with God is secure if we continue to stand strong in Christ and never get complacent.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)
Falling is possible. But you can have great confidence in your salvation if “you add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Peter 1:5–7).
Too many people take being saved for granted and never do the work needed to grow that Peter described. But this is the key: “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure,” he said, “for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” (The inverse of this being that if you don’t do this, you could.) So, do what needs to be done, dear Christian—add to your faith and be diligent—“For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10–11).
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)
Abiding in the Vine,
~ Gleniece
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