Salvation is secure
In our struggle against false beliefs like OSAS and Universalism and I guess I need to add Calvinism. The secure nature of salvation can be inaccurately portrayed and or perceived. The content of the discussions are that there is no “ticket” to Heaven or license to sin and that Christ does not reward evil or that you cannot play the Grace card to play Christ for a fool or that Heaven will not be full of evil people.
This is all true, of Belief, Truths, Facts….these are facts. There are those that say that salvation has nothing to do with YOU and there is nothing YOU can do to be saved….this is false and inaccurate. First off YOU have to choose to accept Christ as your Savior and believe in Him and have faith in Him. Without that salvation does not start. Then you repent and are Baptized and participate in the Bread and Wine ritual. The physical evidence that you are saved is change. YOU are changed. How YOU believe changes, how YOU look at things changes, how YOU conduct your life changes. This is actually what the Bible is talking about when it says repentance. You realize that what you have been doing, how YOU have been conducting your life was wrong. Repentance is not about penance or mourning over your past. It is a realization that YUCK! I was living like that!
Without this repentance, without this change, salvation does not start. If there is no change, there is no salvation. Sometimes people wonder if they are really Saved? Christianity is not a club that you sign up for and go on about your business living as you were. You are changed by salvation, if not salvation did not occur….So ask yourself, were you changed? That will answer your question about being saved.
What is that change? It is different for different people, it can be subtle or it can be drastic. And it all revolves around intent. Your intent to trust Christ and be good and do good for others. Now some people are going to be better at it than others, some are slow learners. But if they have an honest intent and put forth an honest effort, they are all saved the same. Christianity is a journey, a life, and in that journey YOU work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But as a whole, if YOUR intent is honest your salvation is secure.
Christ’s plan for salvation is not about perfection. If we could be perfect Christ would not have had to come and be sacrificed on the cross. God so loved the world….which means God loves us even though we are not perfect. Along the way we are going to fail and we are going to stumble.
We ask forgiveness and learn from our mistakes trying not to repeat the same ones. The most damning of sins are the ones that are lifestyle sins. Sins that are part of your life. Sins that define you like, homosexuality, drunkard, casual sex, etc. The Way, Christ’s way, Salvation, was designed to Save imperfect humans. And as humans we will make mistakes along the way, this is no surprise to Christ, but Christ expects us to learn from our mistakes.
And a Christian should know what constitutes a sin.....if they are not specifically and clearly listed in the Scriptures they are likely not sins….pay no mind to man-made sins….rather be concerned with sins listed in the Scriptures, you do not want to follow a religion that men made up.
And in our journey we will have good times and bad times. Sometimes our faith will be tested…is tested the right word? Sometime it can get so bad that our faith wavers. The lose of a loved one or horrible health or mental problems, pain, that we pray for help with, but get none. Why God? In which case the best advice I can give is to be honest with Christ. But you my not get a good answer in this life. And all this can cause you to do things you would not normally do, even sinful things. Even be mad at God.
The best advice I can give is do the best you can, in the end Christ will know what you went through and how hard you tried. Salvation is secure even in bad times, even when your faith wavers. And the reason I believe this is because Christ did not do all He did and go through all He went through, to find a reason to judge you to Hell.
If you are going through hard times, take a look at how Job reacted to it. Then on the other hand I do not subscribe to the notion that Christ gets any satisfaction from our suffering. Christ went through the passion and His body died on the cross and He resurrected and walked from the tomb. In the end He will resurrect you and all afflictions and sorrows will be gone and eternal happiness will be yours.
God Bless.
The Johnny Appleseed of Truth
In our struggle against false beliefs like OSAS and Universalism and I guess I need to add Calvinism. The secure nature of salvation can be inaccurately portrayed and or perceived. The content of the discussions are that there is no “ticket” to Heaven or license to sin and that Christ does not reward evil or that you cannot play the Grace card to play Christ for a fool or that Heaven will not be full of evil people.
This is all true, of Belief, Truths, Facts….these are facts. There are those that say that salvation has nothing to do with YOU and there is nothing YOU can do to be saved….this is false and inaccurate. First off YOU have to choose to accept Christ as your Savior and believe in Him and have faith in Him. Without that salvation does not start. Then you repent and are Baptized and participate in the Bread and Wine ritual. The physical evidence that you are saved is change. YOU are changed. How YOU believe changes, how YOU look at things changes, how YOU conduct your life changes. This is actually what the Bible is talking about when it says repentance. You realize that what you have been doing, how YOU have been conducting your life was wrong. Repentance is not about penance or mourning over your past. It is a realization that YUCK! I was living like that!
Without this repentance, without this change, salvation does not start. If there is no change, there is no salvation. Sometimes people wonder if they are really Saved? Christianity is not a club that you sign up for and go on about your business living as you were. You are changed by salvation, if not salvation did not occur….So ask yourself, were you changed? That will answer your question about being saved.
What is that change? It is different for different people, it can be subtle or it can be drastic. And it all revolves around intent. Your intent to trust Christ and be good and do good for others. Now some people are going to be better at it than others, some are slow learners. But if they have an honest intent and put forth an honest effort, they are all saved the same. Christianity is a journey, a life, and in that journey YOU work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But as a whole, if YOUR intent is honest your salvation is secure.
Christ’s plan for salvation is not about perfection. If we could be perfect Christ would not have had to come and be sacrificed on the cross. God so loved the world….which means God loves us even though we are not perfect. Along the way we are going to fail and we are going to stumble.
We ask forgiveness and learn from our mistakes trying not to repeat the same ones. The most damning of sins are the ones that are lifestyle sins. Sins that are part of your life. Sins that define you like, homosexuality, drunkard, casual sex, etc. The Way, Christ’s way, Salvation, was designed to Save imperfect humans. And as humans we will make mistakes along the way, this is no surprise to Christ, but Christ expects us to learn from our mistakes.
And a Christian should know what constitutes a sin.....if they are not specifically and clearly listed in the Scriptures they are likely not sins….pay no mind to man-made sins….rather be concerned with sins listed in the Scriptures, you do not want to follow a religion that men made up.
And in our journey we will have good times and bad times. Sometimes our faith will be tested…is tested the right word? Sometime it can get so bad that our faith wavers. The lose of a loved one or horrible health or mental problems, pain, that we pray for help with, but get none. Why God? In which case the best advice I can give is to be honest with Christ. But you my not get a good answer in this life. And all this can cause you to do things you would not normally do, even sinful things. Even be mad at God.
The best advice I can give is do the best you can, in the end Christ will know what you went through and how hard you tried. Salvation is secure even in bad times, even when your faith wavers. And the reason I believe this is because Christ did not do all He did and go through all He went through, to find a reason to judge you to Hell.
If you are going through hard times, take a look at how Job reacted to it. Then on the other hand I do not subscribe to the notion that Christ gets any satisfaction from our suffering. Christ went through the passion and His body died on the cross and He resurrected and walked from the tomb. In the end He will resurrect you and all afflictions and sorrows will be gone and eternal happiness will be yours.
God Bless.
The Johnny Appleseed of Truth
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