Sunday, August 24, 2008

Trust Him to keep you

Back in the day (really not too very long ago) I was involved in a lot of "Can a Christian lose their salvation?" discussions. The number of Christians who fear, at least a little (and sometimes a lot), about whether or not they'll remain "saved" is probably more than you can imagine.

While I haven't participated heavily in discussions like that in quite a while, and while it would take too long to share all of what was discussed in those discussions, I'll highlight one of the main questions I used to ask people who worried or feared about the "loss" of salvation: "What exactly is it that saves a person in the first place?"

Paul put it quite simply:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph 2:8-9)

How much of that is your work? How much of it is "of yourselves?" None of it! It's "the gift of God, not by works..."

So then, once we're saved, does it suddenly become "of ourselves" to keep ourselves saved? For the many people who are so worried about Christians losing their salvation, it would seem that there's more than just an ounce of that type of thinking going around in their heads.

To lead up to where I'm going with this, let me relate that type of thinking to receiving some sort of gift that doesn't come with the batteries. Sure, the gift is free, but it's up to you to continuously provide the batteries to make sure the gift remains in working order.

But that's not the type of gift God has given us! God has not simply given us the gift of salvation, and then left us alone to try to maintain it our own. He has included Himself - His very Life - in the package!

It was His life that saved us, and it's His life that keeps us!

Unfortunately a very deficient "gospel" has been spread, and keeps on being spread, in which grace and salvation are depicted merely as a matter of our sins being forgiven. It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that? What's missing from the gospel message that's commonly taught is the issue of LIFE! We've not only been forgiven of all sin, but our sin has been taken away and we died to our old life in Adam, and we were raised up and made alive together with Christ Himself! Not only have we been forgiven, but our condition has changed! In Adam we were dead to God, but in Christ we are now fully alive to God.

Paul's words that follow the words quoted above say that we are God's workmanship. It's all of Him. Getting saved is of Him and not of us. Remaining saved is also of Him and not of us. If you couldn't get yourself saved, what can you do to keep yourself saved??? Trust Him to keep you.

"God... even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5). If He made you alive even when you were dead in your trespasses, do you think for a moment that He's going to not keep you alive when you sin now? While you can do nothing to keep yourself, He can and does continuously supply you with His very life, because as a branch is continuously sustained, not in and of itself but by the life of the vine, you are also continuously sustained by the very life of the One who calls Himself the Vine, Jesus.

9 comments:

  1. Excellent Joel, excellent....i was an elder in a local church for 6 years, for almost that long i believed that a person could lose their salvation...thinking back, i cant believe how i had missed Gods grace, not that i have kissed my brains goodbuy now, no sir, on the contrary..i see the truth now...Thank you Jesus for opening my eye's...the veil is taken away, no longer looking to the law to save...no longer mixing old with new...oh more new wine, more grace....MORE OF YOU JESUS!!!!

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  2. It boils down to this question..
    "Why do people want to make it difficult to get saved?"

    Shalom,
    http://cyberanger.blogspot.com

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  3. John 3:16-17 is the solid truth.

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  4. This is a great word, Joel. Thanks for the encouragement.

    It really does boil down to how you look at salvation. If we really are new creations in Christ then it sounds kinda crazy to think that we can be uncreated.

    If me staying saved was a matter of my effort, I would be in deep trouble...

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  5. I was going to write my comments in the same line as Richard said:

    If we really are new creations in Christ then it sounds kinda crazy to think that we can be uncreated.

    I usually ask people, if salvation is being born into God's family, can we be 'unborn' again?

    I think it all come down to the basic question, what exactly is salvation?

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  6. Excellent comments, all.

    Before coming to understand grace more, I used to say "I don't know if a Christian can lose their salvation, but if they can, it's only because they stopped having faith.

    But now that I'm looking at all of this from a New Creation point of view, and all that has happened because of grace (we've died to Adam and are alive to God in Christ), and I've continuously been encouraged in the truth that all of it is of God, and not of myself, my perspective has completely changed. As Craig said, the veil has been removed and I'm no longer looking at a mixture of the old and the new, but rather a brand new life, completely new, in which we've been joined together with God in an inseparable union, and it's His Life that keeps me, not my own efforts at having enough faith to "stay" saved.

    Indeed, people tend to make it much more difficult than it is, especially by adding all kinds of conditions and additions to the solid truth.

    Regarding what Richard and Bino said about being 'uncreated' and 'unborn"... those are excellent points! I pointed out the same thing in response to a question on my Growing in Grace blog. Although I said I haven't had a "can a Christian lose their salvation" conversation recently, it's true that someone asked a good question about it, in the midst of a variety of other thoughts. My reply included these words: "While the Bible talks about an experience of being 'born again,' I don't see it talking about a "die again" experience."

    If interested, the post and the comments are here.

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  7. Joel,
    Well articulated. Couldn't agree more.

    I love what you said here:

    "But that's not the type of gift God has given us! God has not simply given us the gift of salvation, and then left us alone to try to maintain it our own. He has included Himself - His very Life - in the package!"

    "It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that?"

    "If He made you alive even when you were dead in your trespasses, do you think for a moment that He's going to not keep you alive when you sin now?"

    " While you can do nothing to keep yourself, He can and does continuously supply you with His very life, because as a branch is continuously sustained, not in and of itself but by the life of the vine, you are also continuously sustained by the very life of the One who calls Himself the Vine, Jesus."

    P.S. Have you visited my Blogpage lately? I haven't seen many comments from you.

    Blessings,
    ~Amy :)
    http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com

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  8. Joel,
    Great thoughts for my Monday. Thanks.
    I've been mulling over the wedding at Cana. Jesus didn't just have water put in the jars, but He transformed the water to wine. We aren't just washed, but recreated, get it? He really did save the best for last; the sacrifice of His life (best sacrifice) exchanged for our life (last life we'll ever need).
    You think He was celebrating another wedding on that third day in Cana? :)
    You'll see this again on my blog, I'm sure. Still mulling...

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  9. Hi Amy,

    Yep, I've got your blog in my feedreader, but unfortunately I haven't had time to do much commenting on other people's blogs, nearly as much as I'd like to. I tried to play 'catch up' yesterday, and a little bit this morning, but didn't get too far. My own blogging has decreased tremendously as well. So please don't take it personally. :) Sometimes it even takes a day or two to respond to comments on my own blog, when I used to try to respond right away. Life's changes. :)

    RJW,

    Great thoughts. Yep, recreated, not just washed. I remember a time in the past when I had at least understood some of the concepts of the "exchanged life," but yet wasn't fully getting it. Then one day I was looking at those exact words, "exchanged life," and it suddenly became so very clear to me.

    My old pastor from a decade ago often said something that has always stuck with me. "The gospel isn't a gospel of change; it's a gospel of exchange."

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