216 – What’s the deal with Salvation – can I lose it?
In order to understand what the word “salvation” means, as it relates to your relationship with God, it is important to understand what the opposite means. From my early childhood until I trusted God, I thought freedom was the ability to choose to do “anything I want”; but is that really freedom? The problem is, in “doing anything I wanted”, I leant toward being selfish, selfishness is usually not loving, selfishness is usually sin. There’s nothing wrong with me being concerned about my welfare in a healthy way, that is not selfishness, but a life that is characterized by habitual selfishness, even subtly, is one that becomes a “slave to sin”. Even though I might think I am minding my own business, and think I am pursuing life liberty and happiness, if I am selfish, I am a slave, and things are going to end badly.
You were made for more than this!
So what if a good and wealthy man will come into this world, and for any slave who is willing, He offers to buy their freedom from selfishness. He pays a price that the slave cannot possibly pay to buy his or her own freedom, and in doing so, He becomes the slave’s lawful owner. The difference in this case is, where a slave in the real world does not have a choice in who might purchase him or her, the slave in this world can veto the sale.
This perfect slave master then loves his slaves so much that He adopts them as his own children, just as If you or I were to legally adopt a child, His adopted child will have all the rights and privileges of biological children. He cares deeply for them, meets all their needs, does not have the capacity to treat them badly, and He only has the ability to treat them with love, mercy, patience, and when necessary loving correction or justice. In other words, He is not prone to unreasonable outbursts of wrath. This good master/adoptive Father is God…
If you can wrap your head around the concept of being a slave-come-child to a loving God, then you should consider His character. If He cannot lie, if He cannot change His mind, and if He cannot do evil, then when He buys us you can rest assured, He is never going to let you go. This purchase as analogous to our salvation.
In order to determine if we can lose our salvation, and if we trust God, then we should simply listen to Him to see what He says about the possibility of losing the eternal life He gave to us when we were born-again. In doing so, we will realize that even if we wanted to give up our salvation, we cannot. As purchased slaves/children who no longer own our own lives, only our owner/Father can give us up. But, He states clearly and repetitively that he will never forsake us and will never let us go.
The following are a few examples of the promises of permanent security. For a deeper explanation visit this website:
“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all [else]; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One”
John 10:28-30 AMP
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
“who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
1 Peter 1:5
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
This is long but beautiful, please read it:
“What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “ For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:31-39
Satan and his cohorts will often accuse us of our sin, he is called “the accuser of the brethren”. Here are some tips on dealing with his accusations, and turning his fiery arrows int refining fire:
218 – What’s the deal with Satan accusing and reminding me how bad I’ve been?