HI Guys
I recently received the following question from a lady in Brisbane .......
"What does it mean to be saved? Is it possible for a Christian to lose his/her salvation and if so, can they return to God?"
Here is the gist of my first email back to her. Please give it a good look over and, although I have already sent this (and various subsequent emails), I think a series beginning this way might be a good start for the website..........
You will gets lots of answers to these questions, some quite different to each other. However, all of them will include being saved from the penalty of sin.
We are all sinners, people who have "missed the mark" as far as loving and respecting God is concerned, and living the way he wants us to.
Some people live by rules and strict disciplines and work hard at serving God in order to overcome this and to become acceptable to him. However, how do we ever know we have done enough to win his favour? God, being perfect, would have such high standards and be so hard to please.
Because God loves us so much, as any good Father loves the children he creates, he solved this problem for us. He sent his Son to earth in human form (and was called Jesus) who paid the death penalty for our sin at Calvary just over 2000 years ago.
In this way, we are saved from the consequences of our sin - I am, you are, everyone is (although many churches would not agree with the "everyone", even though it is clearly stated in the Bible). So that is fixed and can't be "lost". It is something God has done and doesn't depend on us or our decisions in any way.
Although the consequences of our sin have been dealt with (and we have been saved from them) we do not have a relationship with God, our heavenly Father, unless we get to know him and begin to live in relationship with him. (It is now possible to live in relationship with a perfect God because our sin no longer stands as a barrier between us.)
As we get to know him and to discover his plans for us and what he has done (through Jesus) to make living in relation with him possible, we also discover the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God who comes to live in us, giving us spiritual life, intimacy with God and the direction and power to live life God's way.
When we invite God to live in us and empower us in this way, is clearly up to us. God will be a "co-tenant with us" in our bodies whenever we decide, and can be kicked out whenever we decide. In this way our relationship with him can be "lost", but also regained. There is a story Jesus tells about a wayward son (recorded in Luke 15) describing a lost then regained relationship between the son and his father, which gives us some insight into this possibility.
So there are two aspects of the question you have asked - being saved from the consequences of our sin and living in relationship with God. Some people use "being saved" to describe the total package, not just the first part as I have above. Needless to say, both parts of the package are needed if we are to fulfil God's purposes for us and for us to live in fellowship with God, both now and in the future.
Obviously I don't know anything about you, or where you are on your spiritual journey. But I do know that your sin has been paid for by Jesus on the cross, and that cannot change. I also know that God loves you and wants you to live in fellowship and harmony with him for the rest of your years on this planet, and beyond. When that relationship begins is up to you.
I have subsequently finished corresponding with this lady and have connected her with a good lady in Brisbane who is going to journey with her.
If we can use the bones of this to start a series on Salvation or some such on my proposed website, that would be good, but I need your fierce feedback to make sure that what I publish is Biblically sound.
Looking forward to reading your comments below.
Barry
to be rewriiten for web site
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ReplyDeleteHI Barry,
ReplyDeleteThis is very topical as I've been thinking about how I recently gave a communion message covering Rom 8:1, and Rom 8:38-39. I was not surprised that some wanted to argue with me as it does lead to the issue of whether we can terminate our own salvation.
Many would agree that no matter what we believe about doctrine, there is usually a way of finding a scripture that we "think" will support our viewpoint. Jn 5:39-40 makes a good point on this - namely that just studying the Bible does not mean we have any clear understanding of what God has done and is doing now. I now see the only answer to this is to pray for personal revelation so that we see scripture in the light He does.
A vital place to start with this is to constantly pray for more revelation from the Lord on his love for me and others. Since I started doing that, I've been blown away be the understanding that I feel He has downloaded to me, and all of it fits perfectly with scripture (in my humble opinion anyway).
The latest revelation I got was last Sunday night, unable to sleep, where I got a great download on the power of God's love.
The Lord reminded me of a time years ago when my daughter was 3, and throwing an incredible screaming fit. My response was to pick her up, and carry her to a more remote corner of the house. I told her that I was not going to let her go until she calmed down. I also told her that I was not going to give up, and that nothing she ever did would stop me loving her.
If there was any question as to who was going to win that "confrontation", the simple and inevitable answer is that she had nowhere to hide and continue with her emotional outburst. I stood my ground until she was spent with her episode, and our relationship was in no way harmed.
It was patently obvious to anyone observing that she had no way of winning, and though I'm in no way the model of a perfect parent, it does in some small way provide an illustration to me of the power of God's love, and that is what the Lord was showing me last Sunday night.
Any Christian who fears that they can somehow chuck a fit and toss in their relationship with God, and hence their salvation, needs the revelation that noone has the staying power or strength to be able to resist the power of God's love. My 3 year old daughter could not with me, so who on earth can rationally think that they somehow can with God?
Can anyone be that deluded to think that their desire for darkness can in any way overwhelm the light of God? Just the tiniest bit of light can be seen in an immense space of darkness. What about the light of God himself? Darkness ultimately has no place.
Paul's statement about "does not nature teach you" perhaps sheds more common sense on the matter. We who are created in God's image, with the express destiny of being in relationship with Him can only wear ourselves out if we try to ultimately exist outside of that, just like my daughter with her screaming fit. The most natural state for her to find equilibrium in was being at peace and love with me, without the screaming.
My summation is that any conscious or unconscious effort we may make to get out of harmony with God will only fail. Any other outcome would be unnatural. He is both the author, and finisher of our faith, after all (Heb 12:2).
To me personnally, I find a logic in this that is quite powerful - I'm convinced.... (Rom 8:38-39).
Cheers, Roger
Thanks mate. Appreciate the personal story supporting the view. Great.
ReplyDeleteI have several other posts almost ready to publish, and have just finished the home page of a website where I will publish the various posts after we have agreed that they are "right" to go. (I will let you know when I launch the website.)
If we continue to communicate through the blog, rather than by email, we will have someone else keeping our conversations orderly and visible.
We just need to make sure we attach our comments to the posts they mainly refer to - a discipline that might be beyond me at times. :-)
Hope you can get a little less busy soon, so we can put a bit of regular time to our study and conversations.
Blessings,
I really appreciate our friendship and your heart. Barry