Once saved, always saved?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So this IS A HOTTTTTTTTTT TOPIC, so please don’t get offended or start beefing man. It’s what I believe in and to be honest, my yé is different to your yé so… yeah.

I don’t want you to trust me, just love me innit. Go trust God. 

I also don’t shaku on the beat as well because my dancing skills are still pending.

So picture this. I’m at an evening church service and you already know what time it is. Altar Calls. So as I’ve been doing probably since I was born, I bowed my head to “pray”.

…but what I often do (and often deny) is put myself in the shoes of someone else and try to understand how they tied their laces.

So I look at certain man and gal walk up towards the altar call and my de-ja vu spidey senses start tingling, I’m feeling en-woked.

En-woked?! You’re dun out here bro.

As I’m sitting there pretending to pray, I wonder and look up. Why the flying monkeys are they up there again? Is it because they weren’t serious the first time?

“You don’t know where you’re going if you die tomorrow… PLEASE ALL EYES CLOSED.”

That’s usually when my heart drops. I try to recall every possible sin I’ve done in the last week, even the meat I took from the pot.

Are they scared that hell is coming for them because they bashed the night before? Are they ashamed of the sins they’ve done? 🤔

Now, this is one scenario, but ultimately I was too busy looking at others when my own relationship, was in question.

So I’m googling the ten commandments out of this, and I discover the first time salvation is mentioned is in the story of Moses. How God used him to lead the people out of Egypt. A lot of scholars actually link that to the story of Jesus Christ.

📝 that because of them turning away from God, many did not reach the promise land.

Going to reference 1 John 4, which I have gone into more detail about on my last blog.

It’s important to not make ‘losing our salvation’ and ‘God removing our salvation’ synonymous with each other.

Because that throws in the word earn. The wrong idea that we “earned” our salvation and then God removing his place for us is because we messed up. That was, is and is to come NEVER going to be the case.❗

Salvation is for everyone regardless, not just because I’m on a ‘I do my job’ mood. 

When God sent his only begotten son to die on the cross to save us, he was not playing about. It was for real. It was deep, it is deep. ❗

And there’s so much power in that we have to be careful not to undermine it. Because without it, we’d be screwed y’all. Straight up.

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Saved ≠ Safe

Often the notion is that being saved through Christ Jesus automatically means we are safe. They’re two different words. To be SAVED is to be removed from dangers. To be SAFE, is to be free from ALL dangers. You can be saved from sin, but not necessarily safe from hell.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.

If you didn’t sing that quote ^ while reading it you’re missing out on the unique sauce that is African praise. On a Sunday morning.

Fam, the word righteous confuses me still. 

For those who are bemused by what it is to be righteous (righteousness) – Romans 3:22 may be able to assist you.

If we STAY in the Lord’s presence – we will be safe. Facts. Touch not my anointed and do my Prophet..

But we gotta not want to leave his presence, if we leave his tower, we leave the safe zone. Fortnite reference intended.

My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. – John Ten Twenty-Nine.

I want to soak in as much of the word as possible in order to understand this question. I watched a video that defended this phrase, using this verse. So I decided to look up the whole chapter to understand it more, which led me to verse twenty-seven:

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Cool, no one is able to take us away from God, no weapon formed against me shall prosper (Isa 54:17), take not my anointed (Psa 105:15) and that.

But you see goats 🐐 yeah, they’re stubborn and walk off the path. Now you can argue against this and say if they were goats in the first place, they were never truly saved. And that’s correct. But that still doesn’t mean sheep always follow. They stray off too.

Then you can hit back again by using the parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15) spoken by Jesus himself. The shepherd found the lost sheep, picked it up and brought it back with the rest of his group. God is ALWAYS trying pursue us. Whether we like it or not.

So although the sheep was lost, it didn’t miss out. Which led me to this verse:

I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. – Luke Fifteen Seven.

This is referring to people who have already been saved. But there’s a call on them to repent again so they can truly be part of God’s kingdom. What makes this chapter so much more interesting is that three parables are told, and all of them have one thing in common. A sinner who repents. Let’s take the story of the prodigal son. (Luke 15:

He made the conscious (selfish) decision to leave his father’s presence and live his own life. Wasting what God promised him. And that’s what we do, we decide we don’t want to be where God is, we want what the world is offering us.

We leave our safe place. Jump out of our father’s hand. Ride off with God’s grace thinking it’s our own.

But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. – Thirty-One

This is where Grace abounds, he walked away from his seat but when he chose to come back, he was given his seat back. Despite his brother and even himself expecting much less. We are saved by his grace and infinite mercy.

Salvation is not based on what we do or can do for God, but what God has done for us.

But once we are saved, what can we then do for God? God will forgive us of our guilt, but what can we do about our habits? Those habits that cause us to sin again?

You know our works don't get us into heaven right?

Defo. The bible says in Matthew 7:23 that many will come in his name, doing miracles and works but God will still look at them and say I do not know you.

The prodigal son never earned his heritage, and neither did his brother despite being a hard-worker.

I can do good things, I can create a powerful ministry. Get you to share my blog. But without that strong connection to God it’s worth nothing, without receiving Jesus as your own personal Lord and saviour – it’s worth nothing.

We are not working for our salvation, we are working out our salvation. – BBP

The environment I have to aspire to be in with God is not a constant state of doubt as to whether I make it to heaven.

When we work for something, a job, a WCW, a client, we do it because there is no guarantee that we will get our desired compensation. I don’t work = I don’t get paid.

But when we’re working out our salvation we’re doing the steps in order to secure what God has already given us when we became saved. To remain in his tower and be safe.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them – Ephesians Tree-Ten.

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If you’ve managed to reach the end of this blog, you may be wondering if I have an answer to guarantee your salvation?

Nope. It’s not only a process but it’s a relationship. A personal relationship that you have with God. 👫

Jesus left us the Holy Spirit until God’s work on earth is done. And through salvation he reminds us when we are going wrong, and how we can prevent sin. Providing we allow the holy spirit to be with us.

It will start off with you learning to do what pleases him, then it will come naturally. Because you already know what the handshake is when you link up with your friend, how much more with God?

And when I do get to that point, then I won’t need to worry about my salvation because I’ll be well into the process of dining with God.