Secure In Your Salvation... What Does That Mean?

I often hear the phrase "once saved always saved" thrown around by Christians and it is the subject of much debate. I also hear the phrases such as eternally secure, justified, assurance of your salvation, and more, talked about as well.

Today I want to spend a few minutes diving into the scriptures and not into myths, opinions, or misinterpretations. I know there are two sides to this topic and I know I fall on one of those sides. Such it is with life. There will always be areas of discussion in our faith that both sides will never agree on. However, I see clear scriptural evidence that supports one side alone.

Is a person secure in their salvation? 

That is the question...

Let's begin with the premise that salvation is the work of God and not of man. For the sake of the length of this post I will not include all the verses that support this premise, but if we can come to terms with this then we are on the same track.

Next, man has the opportunity to respond to salvation. Some believe man is chosen by God and his response is simply an answer to the call, while others believe Jesus died on the cross for all and whomsoever chooses to believe will be saved. Great... let's not get into this debate here either. Let's just agree that Jesus died and to be saved man has a responsibility to respond.

Now a bit more challenging question arises at this point. Who keeps us faithful. What I mean by that is this. Is it a work of the flesh to stay believing or is it a work of the Holy Spirit. I often hear Christians say things like "It is all a work of God." And "God directs my path."  I also know that many believe that to stay saved you must do good works. And there are many who feel like they can just leave their salvation if they want. Walk away from it like the power of the cross meant nothing. (The question I have with that one is why would you if you are a new creation with the heart of Jesus in you... and how many times can you come back and forth? One day I am saved the next day I don't want to be... Kind of a weird one for me to buy into) I digressed... The Bible tells us otherwise. Staying in the faith is a work of God and not of our own doing. 1Sa 2:9; Psa 37:23-24, Psa 37:28, Psa 103:17-18, Psa 125:1-2; Pro 2:8; Isa 54:17; Jer 32:40; Joh 4:14, Joh 5:24, Joh 10:28-30, Joh 17:11-12, Joh 17:15; Rom 8:31-39; Phi 1:6; Jud 1:1, Jud 1:24

1Co 1:30  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, 

and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

Then comes evidence of our salvation. The Bible tells us that if we are saved we are a new creation. The old is passed away and the new is come. (2Cor 5:17) It also says that we are crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. (Gal 2:20) Therefore, if we are saved then we are a new creation with the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts. We live in Him, by Him, with Him, and for Him... We have been bought with a price and our lives are no longer our own. Because of our new birth there should be evidence of this. The Bible makes it clear...

So a person who is is truly saved should show evidence of their salvation through their obedience to Christ. This is the fruit of salvation, not the method. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, show evidence of our faith by the lifestyle we live and the service we do for others. Gal 5:19-25; John 8:31; 2Tim 2:19; Rom 8:13; 1John 1:8-10; Eph 1:4-5; 1Thes 2:12; Col 1:10... and there are so many more. As you can see, a regenerate person who lives by faith shows it by their obedient lifestyle.

Jas 2:14-26 - Faith without works is dead!

Now the struggle I believe most of us deal with... sin! Oh boy, we just had to bring that one up didn't we. How do we deal with a person who says the "sinners prayer" and then goes on living just like they did before? How do we deal with a person who looks like a Christian in every way and then walks away from the fellowship and says they don't believe in God any more? How do we come to terms with people who try to live a godly life and struggle with addiction to drugs or pornography? How about those who loved Jesus, lost a family member to a tragic death, struggled for ten years and then came back to the faith? How do we deal with a friend or family member who accepted Jesus, was baptized, and now lives enmeshed in the world? So many questions... I am certain you have come to terms with or are trying to come to terms with at least one of these questions.

Can I sin so bad, so long, or so often that I 

walk away from my salvation?

Please remember, this post is not to judge whether or not you or anyone in the circumstances above are saved. That is the work of God. It is to show what the Bible says about assurance in your salvation. So let's move forward...

Now some answers...What does the Bible say about assurance?

Let's start with a couple of verses in Hebrews. Heb 6:4-6

Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV  For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  (5)  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,  (6)  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

In these verses it appears that there are some who have been "enlightened," tasted the "heavenly gift," and shared in the Holy Spirit and then fell away. How do we contend with that? Matt 13 is a good example of what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. The person in question hears the message of the Gospel, gets excited about it, samples the power of the Holy Spirit, and then decides that the ways of the world are far more pleasurable than following after Jesus. So the question this passage brings up isn't whether or not the person is saved and walks away from their salvation. It begs to ask, "was this person a new creation?" Where they crucified with Christ? Did this person have fellowship with Jesus and abide in Him? Did they bear fruit or just thistles? Verses 7-8 discusses this:

Hebrews 6:7-8 ESV  For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.  (8)  But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Both the saved and the unsaved drank from the rain but one bore thistles. Not because they were saved and fell away, but because their heart was not fertile soil and they never received the rain.

John tells us in 1John 2:19 that those who depart from the faith were never really one of us. You will hear clever arguments that there is no such teaching in the Bible that states: "If a person walks away from Jesus they were never saved." Well, I beg to differ with those arguments. This verse is very clear that if you depart from the faith you were not one of us. You were never saved to begin with.

1 John 2:19 ESV  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Jesus tells many that claim to be followers of Christ to "Go away, I never knew you." Then He calls them workers of lawlessness. These people appeared to be doing good things for Jesus. They looked like "good Christians" on the outside but their heart was far from Him. Notice one key phrase in Matt 7:23... "I Never Knew You!"

Matthew 7:23 NASB  "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; 

DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

The thing with salvation isn't about us knowing Jesus. Many claim to know Jesus. James tells us in Jas 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. So salvation isn't about us knowing God, it is about Jesus knowing us. And when He knows you, you will never be cast out. You will be secure in knowing that no one can snatch you from your Fathers hand.

So, back to the last question. What about sin? Can we agree that the Apostle Paul was probably one of the most influential writers of the New Testament and that his work in ministry will span from our generation to the next to the next? Is it safe to say that he will more than likely be a partaker of the heavenly gift of salvation? If we can agree to that, then maybe what he wrote in Romans will give us a little light to what the scripture says about sin and our salvation.

Romans 7:18-21 NASB  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.  (19)  For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.  (20)  But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.  (21)  I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

Paul struggled with sin. I struggle with sin. You undoubtedly struggle with sin. It is in our flesh nature to struggle with sin. The problem isn't do we sin. The issue is do we live a lifestyle of unrepentant sin. Does your sin bother you? Are you, as the late John Owen said, "mortifying sin every day?" Are you taking your sin to the cross and asking God to forgive you or are you in denial of your sin and act like it is no big deal.

How we live is testimony to whether or not we are saved. If we deny our sin and claim to be a Christian then we are deceiving ourselves and calling God a liar. 1 john 4:1-10

So to come to a simple answer about security in salvation. Yes, if you are a follower of Christ and love Jesus you can be assured that as you follow Him and persevere in your faith you will be called home to Glory and spend eternity with Him. If you said the "sinners prayer" and live like the rest of the world you might want to check yourself. The Word makes it clear that salvation isn't about finding a get out of hell free card and once you think your saved you are always saved. There must be evidence... fruit and perseverance.

I hope this blog post is helpful. I know that it is quite long but because of the subject matter it is quite difficult to condense to any less than this. I would welcome your comments or discussion. Feel free to comment and i will try to respond as quickly as I can.

Have a blessed day!
Keith

Works vs. Fruit... Fruit Wins!

I have been impacted lately by the verses in Galatians 5. Especially as I look further down into the chapter around Gal 5:16-26. "The deeds of the flesh are evident." When I am in my human nature I am walking in the flesh. The evidence of this is manifested in my works. The outward and inward things that control me. It is something, that if left unchecked, will turn into habits and become natural ways of being.

However, the fruit of the Spirit is altogether different. I don't have to "work" to acquire the fruit Paul is talking about in verse 22. I just need to abide... Jesus tells us in the book of John to abide in Him:

Joh 15:3-4  "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 

When we are in the flesh we are working toward evil but when we are in the Spirit we become bearers of fruit. Spiritual fruit... So fruit bearing is not about works. It is not about doing the right thing for Jesus. It isn't even about being good. It is about abiding in Jesus and allowing His fruit to be produced in your life.

Have you ever gone to an orchard to pick fruit? One thing I have noticed is there is generally more fruit than there are people to pick it. It is all over the tree, dropped on the ground, and fills basket after basket. And so should it be with you and me. I pray that as we abide in Jesus that our fruit will be so abundant that it will overflow to many.

When it comes to the battle of works of the flesh vs. fruit of the Spirit there is one thing to remember... 

fruit wins.

Back At It? Maybe...

After a bit of a gap in posts I have made the commitment to keep at it. I have recently been in a "writing funk." I have been in a period of just reading the Word and listening to God speak many things in my life through it, but haven't had a whole lot to say...

Maybe the next couple of weeks and months I will be inspired to sit down and write a bit more, but until then I will just write as the Spirit leads and if there is no prompting to say much, then I will remain silent.

There has been so much joy in writing this blog over the past several years and I am excited to see where it goes. The desire is there. The ideas are there. I just get tripped up when I sit down to write and feel like I am falling over my words... not sure if that makes sense!

Feel free to browse around and read through some of my older posts.

Blessings,
Keith

Revolution In World Missions

America… the land of the free and the home of the most wealthiest people on the planet. Even amongst the Christian population, there is more wealth here than in the entire under developed countries in the rest of the world combined. What feeds a family of four for one dinner in the typical American household is more food than an impoverished village family sees in more than a week.

And when it comes to the knowledge of Jesus and the Gospel, we are filled to the brim. We have access to Jesus 24/7 via the internet, podcasts, church services, and Christian radio… But is it making a difference?

I am currently reading the book “Revolution In World Missions” written by K.P. Yohannan. Today I want to share just a snippet from this amazing perspective of world evangelism from a man who understands poverty and the transforming power of the Gospel.

He writes,

If the affluence of America impressed me, the affluence of
Christians impressed me even more. The United States has
about 5,000 Christian book and gift stores, carrying varieties
of products beyond my ability to imagine—and many secular
stores also carry religious books. All this while 4,845 of the
world’s 6,912 languages are still without a single portion of the
Bible published in their own language! In his book My Billion
Bible Dream, Rochunga Pudaite says, “Eighty-five percent of all
Bibles printed today are in English for the nine percent of the
world who read English. Eighty percent of the world’s people
have never owned a Bible while Americans have an average of
four in every household.”

Besides books, 8,000 Christian magazines and newspapers
flourish. More than 1,600 Christian radio stations broadcast
the Gospel full-time,5 while many countries don’t even have
their first Christian radio station. A tiny 0.1 percent of all
Christian radio and television programming is directed toward
the unevangelized world.

The saddest observation I can make about most of the religious
communication activity of the Western world is this: Little,
if any, of this media is designed to reach unbelievers. Almost all
is entertainment for the saints.
The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups,
is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one
full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation.

What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more
than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The
unreached or “hidden peoples” have only one missionary working
for every 78,000 people, and there are still 1,240 distinct
cultural groups in the world without a single church among
them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom
Christ wept and died.

I encourage you read this book. Audio (MP3) and print (pdf) versions of this book are available for free @ http://www.gfa.org/resource/books/revolution/

I believe that when we come to the realization that our wealth in the western world could and should be used for proclaiming the Gospel message to the world, then and only then will we experience true and lasting change. Not only in our own lives but in the lives of every person that walks this planet.

May you be blessed today as you proclaim His name.
Keith

Village2Village Project - Sam and Ester

Back just a couple short years ago I shared a story of three young children in a post on my personal photo blog. It was the story of a young girl caring for her two starving siblings in Uganda. The compassion little Jane had towards her brother and sister was beyond anything I have ever seen from such a young person.

Recently their story has been on my mind and I decided to follow up and see how little Sam and Esther were doing. Before I discuss the most recent update, I would like to share the two videos that touched not only my life, but the tens of thousands around the globe who have been able to experience such a thing due to the advances in technology.

For those of you who missed the original video that I first encountered 2 1/2 years ago, I would encourage you to watch it.

And the follow up video a year later is quite encouraging as well.




So now the update:
Here is a quote from the Village2Village Project website:

Sam and Esther continue to be well cared for and receive physical therapy twice a week and a specialized diet. Recently, Sam was thrilled to try standing! They remain very weak, though, and require tender care in the House of Love in Kampala where they live with two loving staff, their sister Jane and two other children.

Children like Sam, Esther, and Jane are just a small glimpse into the lives of millions of children and adults around the globe who go every day without clean water and adequate food supplies. I know that the problem seems insurmountable at times, but there is always hope when you put your faith in the Creator of the universe.

What can you do to help today? Is God calling you to sell all you have and give to the poor? Is he calling you to give up a cup of Starbucks each day and send a little bit of money each month to help someone who can't even get a cup of clean water? Or maybe he is calling you to mentor a child in your own community or walk through your neighborhood and tell about the transforming power of Jesus. Maybe he is even calling you to leave the comforts of the States and travel half way around the world and serve... Only you know what He is calling you to do.

Whatever it is, are you willing to trust and obey? Give whatever it takes to follow Him?

I pray today that the story of Sam and Esther penetrate your soul so deeply it moves you to action. I pray that you, me, and the million of Americans who have so much can begin to sell all that we own and be willing vessels to help those who need not only their physical needs cared for such as food, medical care, and water, but to show them their need to know Jesus as well.

Blessings,
Keith

Verse Of The Day...

Have you checked out our Verse Of The Day yet?

You can have each day's Bible verse, daily thought, and prayer sent right to your email...

http://www.dailyinchrist.net/dailybible/

Come on by and check it out!

Blessings,
Keith

WWJD...

WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?

If you have been a Christian for awhile you will instantly know what this acronym stands for. These four words became such a part of the Christian culture that I believe they have almost lost their punch. But as simple as this question is, it packs a plethora of truth.

1Cor 11:1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

What would Jesus do? Do you still ask yourself that question every moment of every day? If we are called to imitate Jesus then we surely must know what He would do in any given situation shouldn't we?

Thankfully we were given a helper to guide us. Jesus left us the Holy Spirit to tickle our minds in situations where it is imperative to know how to respond like the Savior. Now listening to Him is another story altogether.

So today I ask... WWJD?

I hope you will ask the same...

Blessings,
Keith