MAX ON LIFE

12. I spent several years of my life away from God. I became a Christian as a youngster, but when I was a teenager, I quit going to church and reading my Bible. I stopped praying to God and obeying him. During that time, was I saved?

Really good question. One that has caused many good Bible students to stay up late at night seeking answers. Here are the ideas that make the most sense to me.

Jesus guarantees the protection of his sheep. Not only does he know them by name, but he says, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28). "No one" means no one. God gives those who trust him "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade" (1 Peter 1:4). They are "kept by Jesus" (Jude 1) and "shielded by God's power" (1 Peter 1:5). God is able to "keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 24). If he is able to keep us from falling, wouldn't he? He is "not wishing for any to perish" (2 Peter 3:9).

Salvation is not repeatable. Salvation is not a repeated phenomenon. Scripture contains no example of a person who was saved, then lost, then resaved, then lost again. On-and-off never appears in the Bible.

Family ties sustain us. Once we believe, we are adopted into the family of God. "We are children of God" (Rom 8:16). After being placed in a family, we are always in the family. Communion between parent and child may suffer, but the tie remains. By sinning we may step out of the will of God, but we will never step out of the family of God.

Persistent sin shows lack (not loss) of conversion. John taught that those who withdrew from the community were never saved in the first place. "They went on from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us" (1 John 2:19).

God disciplines disobedient children, but he does not disinherit them (Heb 12:5). The presence of sin does not imply loss of position. Paul claimed to be the chief of sinners: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all" (1 Tim 1:15). He did not say, "I was". Paul still sinned but never doubted his salvation. He taught the difference between "position" and "practice". We can be positionally secure while our practice reflects otherwise. The Corinthian church was positionally a sanctified church, but practically its members appeared like people of the world (1 Cor 3:1).

If works are needed to retain salvation, then salvation is achieved by works. Would God start salvation and turn it over to us to complete it? No. He is the "author and finisher of our faith" (Heb 12:2). To say he is anything else places an unbearable burden on the Christian.

If salvation can be lost through sin, then all are at times lost, because all sin. Salvation, then, becomes a matter of timing. We can only hope God will snatch us into heaven during a saved season. If salvation is forfeitable because of unbelief, aren't we all lost? Who has perfect belief? Worriers don't. The fearful don't. If perfect belief qualifies the saved, who qualifies?

In the end, the great discovery is this: what initially saves you, eternally keeps you. During your years away from God, you lost much: you lost joy, peace and opportunities to glorify God. But you did not lose your place in heaven.

By: Max Lucado