Once Was Saved? by Steve Keeler
Hebrews 6:4-6
"For in the case of those who have once been
enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and
have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have
tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age
to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to
renew them again to repentance, since they again
crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to
open shame."
Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking
off from the Detroit airport. One hundred fifty-five
people were killed. One survived: a 4-year-old named
Cecelia. She survived because, as the plane was
falling, her mother unbuckled her own seat belt, got
down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped
her arms around her. Nothing could separate that child
from her mothers love not this tragedy, not the fall or
the flames that followed, not height nor depth, not life
nor death."
This is the kind of love our heavenly Father has for us.
We are secure in the fact that He will do whatever is
necessary to keep us near His heart. He will wrap
himself around us and never let go. We are safe in him.
I have known many people who did not feel this way
about God. They were constantly afraid they were
going to accidently slip away from God and no longer
be a Christian. They act as though they could, as they
put it, "lose their salvation" at any moment.
They question whether or not they are still "saved." It's
almost as if they thought they could tick God off without
realizing it. One wrong move and He would disown
them.
They saw God as unpredictable, ill-tempered and
angry. He was looking for all the things that were
wrong with them instead of the things that were right in
them.
These folks don't understand grace. Somehow they
had never read the scripture that says in 2 Peter 3:9;
"The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some
count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing
for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."
If you ever feel as though God has given up on you,
you need to understand a couple of things.
First: You cannot "lose" your salvation. You don't wake
up one morning and realize God is gone.
There are some people that act as though God's love
is uncertain and undependable. One day He finds you
acceptable, and the next day He is leaving you without
a thought.
You cannot "lose" your salvation like you can lose your
key to the house. One minute it's in your hand and the
next you cannot find it to save your life. You don't
misplace your keys on purpose, keys just have a way
of disappearing. They grow legs and go someplace
where you cannot find them.
Your relationship with God isn't like that. You cannot
accidently misplace it. It isn't going to grow legs and
walk away from you. If you do something wrong, God is
not going to throw you away.
In the Old Testament like the New we find a God of
infinite patience and love. In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord
passed before Moses saying, "The Lord, the Lord God,
compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps
lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin."
God is not against us, He is for us. True, He doesn't let
sin go unpunished, but His real interest is in forgiving
our sin.
His arms are continually stretched out toward us,
inviting us to come to him. Even when we rebel and
begin to move away from him, He pursues us.
Jesus said that God is like the shepherd who loses a
sheep and leaves the rest of the flock to find the one
who is lost. It is much harder to get away from God
than you imagine.
Listen to the Psalmist who said in my favorite, Psalms
139:7-10 "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where
can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven,
You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You
are there. If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there
Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay
hold of me."
The Psalmist knew that God is always seeking our
companionship, always with us, always longing for us.
His love is always pursuing us, even when we are
running from Him. It is our nature to run from God; it is
God's nature to pursue us wherever we go.
Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39; "For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
created thing, will be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Second: It's true, you can't lose your salvation, but you
can reject it. God has given each of us free will and
God will never take it away.
God always loves us, no matter what, and He wants to
see all of us saved. But there may come a time when
we are no longer willing to be saved. God loves us
forever, but we may reach the point where we no
longer love Him. I'm not sure how that happens.
Truthfully, it mystifies me.
Many people would say that if this happens the person
never really was saved in the first place. The renewing
and regenerating power of the Holy Spirit never really
entered their lives.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this. But as
impossible as it may be to understand how someone
who has really experienced the love of God could
possibly turn away from Him it does happen and it's
scriptural.
For certain, when this happens, it is not something that
happens accidentally. It is a conscious, willful,
deliberate act of the mind and heart.
We need to understand that if we can't reject our
salvation then we don't really have free will. It means
that God is going to save us whether we want Him to or
not.
Listen to what our scripture says about people who
have fallen away.
They have been "enlightened." That is, they have had
their hearts and minds exposed to the truth of God and
excepted it as truth and they had the power of eternal
life working in them.
They have "tasted the gift and shared in the Holy
Spirit." What else can this mean except they have
experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit in their
lives and received the gift of the forgiveness of God?
But they fell away. How could this happen? One thing
is for sure, it did not happen against their will, but in
accordance with their will. It was something they threw
away.
They experienced the realities of the Christian life, and
after experiencing those things, they then chose not to
stay in the will of God any longer and just walk away
from Him.
They didn't "fall away" like someone accidently fell off a
cliff or something. They walked away intentionally.
Perhaps something disappointed them or maybe they
were mad at God or the church or maybe another
Christian.
Whatever the reason, they purposely neglected their
spiritual life to the point where they became
overpowered by the sin in their lives and ended up
back in spiritual bondage.
But the problem is us not God. No matter how far from
Him they run, God is still able to forgive and heal them
if they are willing.
Unfortunately, they have turned off their consciences
long enough that they no longer feel guilt. They can no
longer feel sorry for their sin. These people can no
longer hear God's voice. Their eyes became blind to
His goodness and mercy. Their hearts have become
hardened to the His endless love.
The Bible says in Hebrews 10:26-28; "For if we go on
sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the
truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a
terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire
which will consume the adversaries."
Let me be very clear, I'm not saying that Christians
don't stumble into sin and sometimes serious sin, I'm
saying if turn from that sin, God is always willing to
forgive. It's when we continue to willfully live this sin
that we, by our will, forfeit our salvation.
The warning of Scripture is that if we continue in this
way, knowing that what we are doing is wrong, the day
may come when we are no longer able to respond to
God. Our minds can no longer appreciate truth. Jesus
said that our eyes may no longer be able to see and
our ears may no longer hear.
The final point is this: We must persevere, we must
abide in the vine.
The key here is that you must take responsibility for
your spiritual life. Some people feel God should do it all
and they shouldn't have to do anything. Others feel that
they were saved once and that is all there is to it. But
God wants you to not only be born again, He wants
you to grow in Him.
If you have a child or grandchild that after being born
never seemed to grow, you would be concerned about
them right? We should be just as concerned about our
spiritual growth in this world.
We need to grow up and do what is necessary to
mature in our faith. Christ Followers shouldn't miss
church or an opportunity to be in the presence of God.
This is how we grow spiritually.
People often say "Why don't I feel closer to God". It's
because you have done nothing to get closer to God.
You need to spend time with His word and in His
presence with other Christ Followers to grow.
You must be intentional about your relationship with
God and your walk of faith. In Hebrews 5:13-14, Paul
felt the people had put so little effort into their faith, that
he wrote; "everyone who partakes only of milk is not
accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an
infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of
practice have their senses trained to discern good and
evil."
I save letters and cards my wife has written to me over
the years and every now and then I'll take and read
these love letters sometimes and it reminds me of how
much I'm loved by Marilyn.
That's what God's word is for us all, it's a love letter. As
we are exposed to it, we hear His voice and imagine
we see His face. Love swells in our hearts as we long
for the day when we will walk and talk with Him.
Fear not! His love for you is unending. He is with you
always and He will never leave you nor forsake you.
