Ask the Pastor
 
 
 



Salvation

Select one: Once Saved, Always Saved?, General

Salvation » Once Saved, Always Saved?

[ back to top ]

Question:

What does “once saved always saved” mean?

Answered on 04/10/06:

Once saved, always saved. What does that mean? Well, I don’t know what that means. I think to some people that say that, it means that once you’ve been saved you can’t lose your salvation. The Bible doesn’t say “once saved, always saved,” but it tells us that salvation is a gift. And therefore, if it is a gift that God gives, it would have to be a gift that God would have to take back. And what would cause Him to take it back? He saved you when you were a lost sinner. Why would He take away your salvation because you fall or stumble or make a mistake or sin?

He’s not going to take your salvation back. He is a giver and He doesn’t take His gifts back. In fact, the Bible says in Romans 11 that “The gifts of God are without repentance.” They’re irrevocable. God doesn’t take His gifts back. And one of those gifts is salvation. And that Scripture is the proof that He won’t take your salvation away from you, because it is a free gift.

So you’ve got to keep putting your faith in Jesus Christ and keep standing on His Word but it will not keep you saved. The only way to lose your salvation, I guess, would be for you to reject Jesus and say, “I don’t want Him any more, I don’t believe in Jesus any more, I don’t believe He died for my sins and rose from the dead. I don’t even believe in God any more.” If you really felt that way, then I guess you wouldn’t be saved. But I don’t believe you ever really were saved if you could come to that place where you don’t believe Him any more.

Question:

I’ve been exploring ministries that teach “once saved-always saved” is a misconception in the Bible, and I was wondering if Hebrews 6:4-6 backs that up?

Answered on 04/10/06:

Well, first of all, I don’t know that I can concur that it’s a misconception in the Bible that once you’re saved, you’ll always be saved. I think that we can’t save ourselves. Only Jesus can save us. There’s only one way to salvation, and that’s through the blood of Jesus.

The fact is that anybody who wonders, “Am I really saved?” needs to go back to find what the Bible says in 1 John 5:13, where He says, “These things are written to you that you might know that you have eternal life.” So there is a place that God wants every one of us to get to where we know that we have eternal life. You do not have to always be concerned and looking over your shoulder wondering, “Did I sin? Did I commit the unpardonable sin?” The only unpardonable sin is to reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and if you do that, then you can’t be saved, there’s no place for salvation for a person who rejects the only avenue to salvation, which is Jesus Christ and His blood.

Now, the verse you’re bringing up in Hebrews 6, if you study that out, you’ll find that what he’s saying is, there’s no way to renew yourself to repentance simply because you can’t crucify the Lord of glory again. He was crucified once for time. And to sin and then think that you need to be saved again, that is what he’s saying is impossible. It’s impossible for you to need to repent again. It’s impossible to repent again. It’s impossible to renew you to repentance because of the blood of Jesus. Once He comes into your life, and once He rescues you, He absolutely saves you to the uttermost, according to Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 9. And so you have to read Hebrews 6 in the context of the entire book of Hebrews to get the full understanding of what He’s saying there.

Question:

Can you give up your salvation? Can you turn your back on Jesus and lose your salvation?

Answered on 04/10/06:

Do you mean “give it up” or do you mean “lose it?” Let’s first say there is only one way to obtain salvation. Let’s start there. There’s only one way to obtain salvation and that is by putting our faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His death, burial and resurrection. If you confess Jesus Christ as Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

There is no other way to salvation. Being a good person won’t save us. Trying harder won’t save us. Going to a church won’t save us. Even reading our Bible won’t save us. Not that those things aren’t good. We should do all of those things, but none of them can save us from eternal damnation. The only thing that can save us is putting our faith in the blood of Jesus.

Therefore, if it’s possible to lose your salvation or give up your salvation, it would require that you reject faith in Jesus Christ, that you reject His blood, that you reject that He died for your sins and rose from the dead. So you would have to reject those things and, I don’t know whether you personally can or not, but I couldn’t at this point in my life. I could not reject Him. I could not stop believing in Him. It’s too ingrained in me. I’m too convinced. I’m too absolutely sure that Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead and therefore, I couldn’t lose my salvation simply because I would have to stop believing that He truly came to this earth, died for my sins and rose from the dead. If you could stop believing that, then you could lose your salvation.

I think the assurance of salvation is a really important question. A lot of people are wondering, “Did I blow it? Did I sin so bad that I can lose my salvation?” And it’s not sinning that is going to cause us to lose our salvation just like it’s not doing right things that are going to earn us our salvation. It’s a free gift from God. Can you reject that gift? Yes, you can reject that gift. But recognize what it is that causes you to miss out on salvation and that’s you rejecting the gift, not making a mistake or falling into sin.

Question:

I have a question on Hebrews 6:4-6 where it says that if you taste God and turn away that you cannot be restored. Could you explain those verses a little more please? And what’s the “subjecting him to public disgrace”? What’s that about?

Answered on 03/21/06:

I know there’s a lot of controversy around that scripture. It’s referring to once somebody has tasted of the Heavenly gift and been a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and they fall away, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance. And what Paul is saying there is it’s impossible for that person to ever need to be saved again.

Have I ever fallen away from the Lord? Yes. Have you ever fallen away from the Lord? Yes. We’ve all fallen away from the Lord at one time or another. To what degree must he be talking about in falling away from the Lord? He doesn’t describe the definition of what “falling away from the Lord” is. I think there have been times where I’ve been away from God in my heart or my heart has grown cold. I think that’s true about every person. I don’t think anybody is ever just always on fire for God. So, if we assume that he’s talking about the typical falling away, the typical blowing it, the typical person who feels like they’re distant from God, which I do believe he’s referring to, then what he’s saying is, it’s impossible to renew them again to repentance, meaning it’s impossible for Jesus to have to come down to this earth again and die on the cross again for our sins. He’s done it once. He will never have to do it again.

He’s died “once for all,” Hebrews chapter 9 talks about. And there’s no more sacrifice that can be made for the person who falls away meaning there’s nothing more Jesus can do for that person. What He’s done is enough. The person whose fallen away can come back to God on the basis of what Jesus already did the first time; he doesn’t need Jesus to do something for him a second time. That’s how I interpret that verse and that’s what it means to me.

Subjecting Jesus to public disgrace meaning to have to put Him to open shame again on the cross. If we fall away, He’s not coming back to the earth to die on the cross again, He’s not going to die for our sins again, He’s not going to be put to open shame or public disgrace again on the cross. He did that once for all and He’s never going to need to do that again. And so, to my brothers and sisters and friends who have fallen away from God, they can come back to God without needing to be saved again. They can come back to God without needing Jesus to die on the cross again for their sins.

Salvation » General

[ back to top ]

Question:

My friend is not a Christian and she posed a couple of questions. She’s wondering where God is when you need Him. And I asked her what she specifically meant by that. She said that her mother died when she was 19 and “If God is love, why would something like that happen when someone like Saddam Hussein may have been killing many people, he still lives.” And what are some areas that you can get to know who God is better?

Answered on 07/19/06:

Those are great questions. To your friend, I extend my compassion and my sympathy to her for the loss of her mother when she was a child. I think every one of us has lost somebody close to us at a critical age in our lives. I was 15 when one of my best friends committed suicide and I didn’t know God or Jesus at the time. And all I knew at the time was, “Wow. He had everything going for him. He had one of the greatest girlfriends in the school. He was a catcher on the baseball team. He was handsome. He was smart. He had all the friends that one could have. And I had none of that. And he killed himself.” And I thought to myself the same thing that your friend is wondering: “Where is God when you need Him? And what is going to keep me from doing the same thing?”

And so, the answer to the question is, God is one prayer away for every one of us. All that we have to do, all your friend has to do is say, “Jesus, if you’re really there, as they say you are, come and rescue me from my depression. Come and rescue me from my confusion. Come and show yourself and reveal yourself.” The Bible says that “if you call upon Him, He will answer,” in Jeremiah 33:3. The Bible says, “All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, delivered, rescued,” Romans 10:12. And you can look throughout the Bible. You know how some people say, “We’re just a phone call away.” Well, God is just one prayer away.

It says in Hebrews chapter 11, “For all who come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Now, He’s not going to reveal Himself to a casual inquirer that doesn’t really have sincerity in their heart and doesn’t really care whether He reveals Himself to them or not. But those who diligently seek Him, Hebrews 11:5,6 says that if you will cry out to Him, if you will call out to Him, if you will seek Him and ask Him to show Himself and reveal Himself to you, He absolutely will. He will; He will; He will.

You tell your friend that she is loved. God does love her. There is a devil in the world that tries to snuff out our families, our relatives, our loved ones. God is not the taker of life; God is the giver of life. John 10:10 says, “the thief, the devil, comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus has come that we would have life and have it in abundance.” These are some of the things that I would say to her. These are some of the things that I would say to anybody in that situation.

We’ll never know the answer to everything until we get to heaven. But, we can know this, that God is a prayer away. Just the name of Jesus coming off of her lips will draw Him to her. The Bible says in James 4:4, “draw near to Me and I will draw near to you.” The apostle Paul also said in Acts chapter 9, “Who are you Lord?” And the Lord revealed Himself to the Apostle Paul before he was an apostle, before he was a Christian. If she’ll just call out to Him, cry out to Him, He will answer. He is not far. He is one prayer away. God will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you when you call upon Him.

You can’t get to know Him “better” if you don’t even think He’s there. First start by calling out to Him and go to those Scriptures that we just went over and those will cause her to know him better. When you know Jesus, you know God. Read the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. When you read about Jesus Christ, you’re reading about God Himself. When you see Jesus in the Bible, you’re seeing God himself. There are those that are living right now, that they are not born again, that feel like God is nowhere to be found, but if they will call upon Him right now, the Bible says He will answer. The Bible says, “Call out to Him while He is near, cry out to Him while He can be found.” When your heart is moving you, when your heart is stirring you, when you know He’s out there, but you just don’t know what to do, that’s the time to call upon Him.

Maybe you know you need to be saved, you know you need to be a Christian, you know you need to make Jesus your Lord and savior, you know you need to have the assurance of salvation. I want you to pray with me right now. John 3:3 says you must be born again. When you receive Jesus as your Lord and savior, you will be born again. When you believe He died for your sins and rose from the dead and let Him be your Lord, you will be saved and you will be born again. And if you call on Him, He is near right now. Call on Him and He will answer.

Pray this prayer out loud. “Heavenly Father, I invite Jesus Christ into my life as my Lord and savior. I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. I call upon you, Lord, while you may be found. I draw near to you and I thank you that you will draw near to me now through the blood of Jesus. I ask you to be my Lord and my savior in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Now, if you prayed that prayer, I congratulate you. I welcome you into the family of God. Don’t ever wonder if you’re saved now. But call our prayer line so that we can pray with you, so that we can talk some more with you and so we can help you grow in your Christian life. Our prayer line is 847-645-9700. We all need salvation. We’re either going to heaven or hell. With Jesus, we’re going to heaven; without Him, we’re going to hell.

Question:

Can a person be saved, but still live a sinful life? Could someone be saved, but be living with their boyfriend, or making choices that clearly go against God's Word, but they still believe that Jesus died on the cross for them?

Answered on 07/19/06:

Well, instead of asking the question “can someone be saved and still be living with their boyfriend?” The better question is “Can someone be living with their boyfriend and still be saved?” In other words, if you’re living with your boyfriend, can God still save you? And the answer is yes. If you’re living with your boyfriend, you’re not married, can God still save you? The answer is yes. If you’re smoking dope, if you’re selling drugs, can God still save you? That’s the whole point. God saves us from disaster. He saves us from tragedy. He saves us in the midst of sin. The Bible says, While we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. So, the answer to the question is “Yes, of course. He will save you while you’re living with your boyfriend. He can save you while you’re doing drugs. He can save you while you’re cheating or lying or stealing.

But the question needs to go on to say that once you realize that He’s saved you and if once you’ve come to the knowledge of salvation and you still wand to sin and you still desire to do the wrong thing and you still desire to live like the devil and still desire to live the same lifestyle that you’ve lived in the past, then I would question whether you’ve truly received Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. Because the Bible says that once you receive Him, there is a witness inside of you. “To as many as receive Him,” the Bible says, “to them He gave the right, the power to become sons of God.” And to those that receive Him, there is a witness inside every one of us, there is a desire inside of every one of us to serve the Lord once we’re born again, once we’re saved.

If your desire hasn’t changed since you’ve been saved, then I would question whether you really got saved. Your actions aren’t going to change overnight, but your desires will change right away. You will have a new desire. I remember when I got saved; I didn’t want to sin anymore. I did. I kept sinning. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to be free because I truly realized that Jesus had come into my life and had saved me. So, I think the real issue is only God knows your heart and if you got saved and you’re still living with your boyfriend or you’re still doing something that you know is wrong and there’s no desire inside of you to repent, there’s no desire inside of you to change, there’s no desire inside of you to get help, there’s no desire inside of you to flee from that sin, then we need to really take a look at whether you truly bear the fruit of Christianity, whether you truly have been born again. Because when you’re born again, there’s a new desire. Not that you’ll change overnight, but there’s a new desire to serve God.

Question:

How are we born again? Are we filled with the Holy Spirit when we become born again? If I repeat a prayer after the minister, does that mean that I am born again?

Answered on 07/19/06:

First of all, just repeating a prayer after the minister doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re born again. But if your heart has moved you to repeat that prayer and that Minister has shared the gospel with you and you understood that Jesus is Lord, that He died for your sins and rose from the dead. If you understood that He rose from the dead, that He died for your sins and you receive Him as your Lord, then you are born again that instant. Yes, by praying the prayer with the minister, you can get born again. But again that’s if you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead.

You don’t need to pray with a minister to get born again. God doesn’t require that you pray with anybody to be born again. All that He requires is Romans 10:9, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. That’s what it means to be born again. When you receive Jesus as your Lord and savior, God supernaturally takes the old heart out of you and gives you a brand new heart.

And are you filled with the Holy Spirit when you get born again? Yes, The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you when you are born again. But there’s a difference between when the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of you and you being baptized in the Holy Spirit. That’s a different experience after you get born again. It doesn’t save you, but what saves you is making Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. And for more information on being baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can go to our website at www.changinglives.org or you can call our prayer line at 847-645-9700 and we’ll be happy to talk to you more about being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Question:

The Scripture in Revelation where it says “if you’re lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth,”. What does it mean to spew you out of His mouth and how does that relate to salvation and being saved by grace?

Answered on 04/13/06:

In Revelation chapter 3, Jesus said, “I know your works, I know your deeds. You’re neither hot nor cold. I would that you were hot or cold, but because you’re lukewarm, I will spew you out of My mouth.” That means that you are vomited. You are not digested in the body and you are not an active part of the body of Christ, you are not an effective part of the body of Christ.

It has nothing to do with your salvation. It has to do with the rewards that you’re going to get when you stand before God. We’re going to be rewarded for our deeds. We’re going to be rewarded for how we served the Lord, what we did with His gifts and talents that He gave us, what we did with His Word. We’re going to be rewarded or we’re going to lose our rewards based on what we do with the Word of God. So, that’s what He’s referring to. It’s not our salvation that He’s referring to because our salvation is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, putting our faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.

When He says that He’s going to spew us out of His mouth, that means that He’s not going to take us in to the innermost being, the inner sanctuary, the inner place of His desire in His heart. And we’re going to miss out on God’s purpose for our lives. We’re going to miss out on God’s best for our lives. And I don’t want to miss out.

So, you’ve got to stay on fire for God. You’ve got to keep that fire burning. And when it dies down, you’ve got to go and fan the flame by getting into the Word, by praying, by being accountable to some other believers and by fellowshipping with the Lord and really spending time with Him. That’s what really keeps the fire alive.

Question:

What do you have to do to be saved?

Answered on 04/12/06:

I believe the answer is in Romans 10:9, 10 that says, “If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we shall be saved.” That is Christianity in a nutshell. Jesus as the Lord of our lives, our faith in Him dying for our sins and rising from the dead. And that is what saves a man. Faith in the blood sacrifice and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the only thing that saves a person and all else is unnecessary for salvation.

When Peter was asked in Acts and he said, “repent and be baptized and your sins will be washed away and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That hasn’t ended. By all means, we should repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, we cannot repent until we are saved because repentance doesn’t save a person. Repentance is a response to salvation, not an entryway into salvation. The entryway, the thing that takes us beyond the veil into the presence of God is the blood of Jesus Christ. And if turning from sin, which is what repentance is, would save a man, then people could be saved before Jesus came to the earth.

But what saves a man is him putting his faith in the blood of Jesus Christ which empowers a man or a woman to truly be able to repent. The gift of repentance comes when we put our faith in the blood of Jesus Christ and that’s when we’re able to turn from our sin. We can’t turn from sin that we’re not washed from first. We have to be cleansed from it and the power of it broken through faith in the blood of Jesus and then we can turn from that sin.

When you read in Acts 2:38 about “Be baptized…” The word is for the “remission” of your sins, not for the cleansing of your sins. And the word “remission” is actually the word “to divorce” or “to separate.” Like when cancer is remitted from a person’s body that means it’s leaving their body. So baptism is where the remission of sins takes place or the divorce from your sinful past is removed from you. That sinful nature or that sinful body is circumcised according to Colossians 2:12. Acts 2:38 is absolutely essential in the Christian life for the life that we’re going to live on this earth. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to be baptized, we need to repent. But repentance and baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit are all gifts that are given after you put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. It could be immediately after; it could be a month after.

I know that when I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and as my savior in 1981 at the Bible study that I went to, based on receiving Him as my savior and believing that He had forgiven me of my sins that day, that day I didn’t turn from all my sins, but I was still saved because I had received Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior according to John 3:16, according to Romans 10:9, 10. Now having received Him as my Lord and savior, He, living inside of me, gave me the power to turn from my sin and gave me a distaste for my sin after I had received His love and received His forgiveness. So, please understand that repentance is essential, but it is a fruit of being saved, not the root to being saved.

Question:

After listening to some visiting missionaries over the weekend, they had shared that they’re in a country where many thousands, 22,000 a day will perish, and many of them have never heard the Word, the gospel. Do you believe that people that have never heard the gospel, never heard the name Jesus will actually go to hell and perish? Do you have any Scriptures that would back that up or the contrary of that, if there is some grace for that?

Answered on 04/11/06:

I empathize with you in your compassion for these people. What we do know for sure is that because we have all sinned, there is only one way to get to heaven and that’s to have that sin cleansed and to have that sin washed away. And we can’t wash it away with our good works. We can’t wash it away by trying better. It gets washed away by us putting our faith in the blood of Jesus.

There are countless Scriptures to that effect. Hebrews chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. John chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 10. We could go on and on. All the Scriptures point to that the only way to be saved from hell and damnation is by receiving the free gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

In the case of people who have never heard the gospel, that’s why we do what we do. That’s why it’s so urgent that you and I and every Christian out in the world, that we put our money in the gospel, that we put our time into the gospel, that we put our prayers into praying for people that are lost, that we send missionaries.

Jesus said, “Pray. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few,” in Matthew chapter 9. He said, “Pray that God would send laborers into the harvest field, into the mission field.” So our job is to pray, our job is to preach, our job is to give and if we’ll do that, then we’ll win those people to the Lord. There’s nothing in the Bible that says they can be saved without Jesus. It absolutely says they cannot be without Jesus Christ. I appreciate your question and I understand how hard that is to hear and how hard that is to accept, but it’s the truth. And the truth will make us free. And that’s why we need to be motivated to give.

Question:

Relative to our Christian works on earth, when we meet God on the day of judgment, will all Christians spend eternity in heaven? Some Christians just are thinking that, “Well I’m going to heaven so that’s all I have to do now that I’ve been saved.”

Answered on 04/11/06:

I think we have to go back to “what does it take to get to heaven?” The Bible says in John 3:16, “God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” So the only way to get to heaven is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that He died for our sins and rose from the dead. So faith in Christ, and faith alone in Christ is what saves us. Faith in His death, burial and resurrection. That is the only thing that gets us to heaven. Therefore, that’s the only thing that makes you a Christian is when you receive Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and savior. So, yes, that’s all it takes to get to heaven.

But having said that, once we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, once we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, then we now put ourselves in a position where we should act like Jesus would act, where we should live like Jesus lived, where we actually follow Him. A lot of Christians don’t do that and they will lose their rewards in heaven because they’re not serving God here on this earth. Based on our works here in this earth, there is a reward in heaven for us. But heaven itself is a gift. Once we get there, some of us will receive rewards and some of us will not receive rewards. I want to live a life that will be worthy of receiving a reward from God when I stand before Him. And I’m sure that you do as well. But our works won’t save us. Our works won’t get us to heaven. Only our faith in Jesus Christ will get us there.

And you bring up a good point. Here’s what my response to people who think that all they have to do is to get saved: if you really believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead, it will change how you act. Now, truly believing is the only way to be saved. But if you truly believe in something, it will change you. It’ll change the way you think and it will change the way you act.

It’s kind of like the woman that was caught in adultery and Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you. Go your way and sin no more.” And the Bible says she came back to him and she poured the most precious ointment that she had over His head and over His feet. Wiped His feet with her tears and her hair and all of that. What was it that caused her to change? She was struck in her heart by the love of God, struck in her heart by the goodness of God, struck in her heart by how merciful God could be to her and how loving God could be to her and how much God valued her and how much God loved her and how much God forgave her. It caused her to change. It caused her to turn her life around. So, if somebody truly receives Jesus and realizes what He has done for them, how could it not change them?

I question those who claim that they are saved but they really have no desire to serve or please God. I wonder whether they really believe that He died for their sins. I wonder whether they really realize how sinful they really were before Jesus intervened and interrupted their life and saved them. I wonder if they truly value what Jesus did for them. You know, when you don’t value what somebody does for you, it won’t make a difference to you. But when you value what somebody does for you, it will cause your attitude to change towards them and towards life in general. It says in Romans 2:4, “The lovingkindness of God leads us to repentance.” It causes us to change. Once we have recognized the love that God has towards us, it should cause us to change. And if it doesn’t, then I wonder if we really recognize His love.

Question:

If I accepted Jesus into my heart as a little boy but have not lived my life for Christ am I still going to heaven?

Answered on 04/11/06:

Well, do you believe? It’s not did you accept Him as a little boy and are you living holy today? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord, that He has risen from the dead and that His blood has cleansed you from all your sin—do you believe that today?

If you believe that today, it matters not what you believed when you were a little boy. It matters what you believe about that today. And if you believe that today, then you are saved. And if you’re really saved, you’re going to begin to live right as you feed yourself the Word of God, get plugged into a healthy church that can help you grow, help you get your mind renewed, and help you to make the godly decisions that are necessary to live a victorious Christian life.

Question:

How can I be sure that I’m going to go to heaven? Because I struggle; I don’t read my Bible faithfully like I’m supposed to; something always gets in the way. I go to church, but I have problems struggling to get into my Word. I pay my tithes.

Answered on 04/10/06:

What a great heart you have. Let me help you with your thinking. The Bible says that it’s in our thinking that Satan defeats us. It’s in our thinking that we yield to the Holy Spirit or we yield to our flesh and yield to the lies of the devil.

Where you need to get your thinking helped and instructed is this: the Bible says in 1 John 5:13, “These things are written so that we might know that we have eternal life.” Number one, we can absolutely be sure of our salvation and we can absolutely be sure that we’re going to heaven based on the things that are written in the Bible. What is written? It says in John 3:16, “God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Romans 10:9-10 tells us, “If we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved.” So you have 1 John 5:13, John 3:16 and Romans 10:9-10 to help you. The Bible says that you’re forgiven according to Ephesians 1:6, 7, 8, so you can be sure that you’re saved based on the fact that you believe in Jesus Christ, that He died for your sins and He rose from the dead and that He’s the Lord of your life.

If you believe in Jesus in the way that I’ve just described, then you are going to heaven – in spite of the fact that you haven’t been reading your Bible, in spite of the fact that you haven’t prayed enough, in spite of the fact that you’ve fallen and stumbled and made mistakes. God doesn’t save us because of what we do; He saves us because of what He’s done for us. It’s a free gift from God. Romans 6:23, “Salvation is a free gift. The free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.”

Be encouraged. Read your Bible, but no more reading it in order to stay saved; now you’re going to read it to be encouraged and to build up your life in your relationship with God because the Bible says when you study your Bible, you study to show yourself approved. I encourage you to study to find in the Scripture that God has already approved of you through the blood of Jesus.

Question:

What does it mean to be in a relationship with God and if you don’t have a relationship, how do you start one with Him?

Answered on 04/10/06:

Let me start with the verse in John 17:3 that says, “This is eternal life, that they would know you, Father.” Jesus said that eternal life is to know God; to know Him, to have fellowship with Him.

You’re asking the most important question that can be asked. So I would say that John 17:3 is a great place to start. And then I would say let’s go back to the beginning of Genesis and find out what kind of relationship God had with Adam and Eve before Adam and Eve sinned. And that’s where we get our basis for what kind of relationship and how we should have a relationship with God. First of all, our relationship with Him comes through Jesus Christ. I assume that you believe in Jesus, that you believe He died for your sins and rose from the dead. That’s where your relationship starts and then, it continues by you reading the Bible, not as a book of rules, but as a book of love-letters from God to you. That’s how you’ve got to look at the Bible. You’ve got to see that it is God’s handwriting, God’s love-letter to me. And you start reading the Bible as a book that is directly written from God to you. You put your name in there. You see that God is talking to you, that God is referring to you that God is in love with you.

That’s really where most people miss it in their pursuit of a relationship with God. They’re trying to find out the rules. What are the rules? What am I supposed to do? Can I drink? Can I smoke? Can I do this? Can I do that? Can I watch this on TV? Can I watch that in movies? Can I talk to this person? Should I not talk to that person? Those kinds of rules are just external Christianity.

That’s not what God intended Christianity to be. He intended it to be an intimate fellowship with you. Think about what you would like in a best friend. You would like somebody you could talk to at any time. You’d like somebody that you could share your innermost secrets with; your innermost feelings, your weaknesses and your strengths. You’d like to be able to talk to somebody when you share your heart with them. You’d like to be in a relationship with somebody that loved the things that you love.

Well, that’s a relationship with God. That’s what it means to be in a relationship with God. Also, you’d like to be in a relationship with somebody who you could always trust and depend on that when they said something; they were going to do it. That’s how you can have a relationship with God. You can trust Him. You can depend on Him. You can talk to Him about anything. He’s never going to judge you. He’s never going to get mad or angry at you. Start with that Bible. I want you to start with the book of John, read through the New Testament and see it as a book of love-letters from God to you.

Question:

I keep hearing people state that we are saved by faith alone. So what place does baptism have in our salvation?

Answered on 04/10/06:

We are saved by faith and by grace. In Ephesians 2:8–9 it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Now, the works that the Bible talks about in James 2 is different than the works that Paul talks about in Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 2, faith is us believing and trusting with all our heart that God provided a substitute for our sins – that’s Jesus Christ. James 2 says that Abraham was not saved by his faith alone, but by his works also. We need to understand the works that Abraham offered up were not the good works of trying to help the poor and trying to reach out to hurting people – those works cannot save us because our good works cannot outweigh our sin. The only thing that outweighs our sin is the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that Abraham proved that he believed God by offering up Isaac as a sacrifice in Genesis 22. That was what James was talking about the works of Abraham’s faith. It was Abraham believing so much that he was willing to offer up Isaac.

The question that you have to ask yourself regarding salvation is this: Do you believe in the blood of Jesus enough to lay down what you’ve put your trust in? That’s what Abraham did. That is the key to the works that James was talking about, but Ephesians 2:8 is the Scripture that says that you are saved by faith. Now, regarding baptism . . . Mark 16:16 says, “Those who believe and are baptized shall be saved.” But then notice what he says: “Those who do not believe shall be condemned.” He doesn’t say those who do not believe and who are not baptized shall be condemned; he says those who do not believe will be condemned.

The key to baptism is understanding that the grace of God through the blood of Jesus saves us from sin, but baptism washes us from the filth of this earth. That is why God commanded us to be baptized. It’s an external symbol of an internal commitment. “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved” – not just saved from sin, but saved from this perverse generation.

Question:

I fell away from my church several years ago. And I was reading the Bible and in the New Testament, there’s a Scripture that says that if you fall away, it is impossible to be brought back to repentance. I want to go back to the church and I was wondering if that was possible.

Answered on 04/07/06:

The scripture that you are referring to is in Hebrews chapter 6. It is talking about those who fall away and He actually says, “It is impossible to renew them again to repentance because Jesus Christ himself cannot be crucified again.” And what I believe He’s saying there is it’s impossible to get saved again. It’s impossible for God to forgive you of your sins again when He’s already died on the cross and forgiven you. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was once and for all. And Hebrews chapter 9 says, “He died, once and for all, for all men and never to die again.”

So, the point is, He’s never going to come and die on the cross again for your sins. That’s why it’s impossible for you to ever repent again, or for you to ever need to repent again. When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you’re saved. Now, you’ve fallen away. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 24 that if a righteous man falls, he is to get up. If he falls seven times, he is to get up.

So, if you’ve fallen away, if you’ve backslidden, you can get up. The book of Jeremiah says, “I will heal the backslider of heart.” How contradictory it would be for God in the Old Testament, without the blood of Jesus, to say that he would heal the backslider and then in the New Testament, with the blood of Jesus, for Him to say that you can’t recover if you’ve backslidden. He’s not saying that in the New Testament. But people have misinterpreted that verse in the New Testament. It’s impossible for you to need Jesus to come to the cross and die again. That’s what’s impossible. He’s not going to do it. He did it once for you. He doesn’t have to do it again. It’s enough. Go back to Him. Go running back into His arms. He will receive you. He will welcome you and He will in no way cast you out.

It’s not the church that I’m talking to you about. It’s the Lord Jesus Himself that takes you back now. Whether the church you went to responds properly or not, God will never leave you and He will never forsake you. Come back to Him. Come back to Him now. Don’t wait another minute. Don’t wait to go to church. Yes, I want you to go back to church and all of that where you’re going to be fed the Word of God and where you’re going to grow. But go back to God now. He’s waiting for you. He’s never left you. He’s waiting for you right now. He’s got His arms open wide and He’s saying, “I’m here. I’ve never left you and I’m not mad at you. Come back to me.” You’re back. Welcome home. Don’t worry about what people are going to think about you or if you’re doing enough. Just know that you’re in the arms of your Father now. You’re in the arms of your Heavenly Father and He will never let you go.

A lot of people think that the Scripture says if you come to the Lord, and then you backslide, He won’t take you back. But think about the logic of that. When you came to the Lord the first time, you were a child of the devil, a sinner, set on the course of hell for sure; you were wicked, you were evil, you were away from God and your soul was dark and your soul was empty. And Jesus, in His grace and in His love, came into your life when you were an enemy of God.

How is it, that if you were that bad, and you came to the Lord and He received you and He came into your life when you were a wicked sinner, then you get saved and you start to follow Jesus and you backslide and you make some mistakes in your life and then somehow you think, “Well, He would never take me back.” But He took you the first time when you were way worse. Why would He not take you back a second time after you’re already His child? Now you’re His child. Why would He turn His child away? He didn’t turn you away when you were a child of the devil. He didn’t turn you away when you were a wicked sinner. Why would He turn you away now? Well, the good news is, He won’t. John 6:44 tells us that anybody that comes to Him, He will in no way cast you out. He will in no way turn you away.

Question:

I recommitted myself to the Lord two years ago. I attend church now and read my Bible, but every day, some doubt comes into my mind. I get one question answered and another comes up. Are these constant doubts affecting my salvation?

Answered on 03/16/06:

Doubt is not healthy. It’s wrong, it’s bad; it prevents a lot of great things from happening in your life. So you need drive doubt out with faith. Here are two Scriptures that you need to build your life upon. One of them is Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.” You cannot get answers from people to build up your faith; you have to get answers from God’s Word. The other Scripture that I want to give you is 1 John 5:13: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

So, God gave us these things in the Bible so that we would know that we have eternal life. Look up those Scriptures and all the others concerning salvation in your Bible and feed on them, meditate on them. They will give you the assurance of salvation because you have to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. You are not saved by going to church. You are not saved by reading the Bible. You are not saved by praying. You are not saved by being a good person. You are not saved by giving money in an offering. What saves you is you putting your faith in the blood of Jesus and only the blood of Jesus.

The devil is the author of doubt. He wants you to doubt, to be double-minded, because James 1 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” And a double-minded person cannot receive from God. But you are not alone; we all have had doubts. Just make up your mind that the Bible, the Word of God, is God’s inspired Scripture; there is no doubting it.

.: Links of Interest :.
 
 
 
 
 
Privacy Policy | Refund Policy
Copyright © 2007 Gregory Dickow Ministries. All Rights Reserved.