Kenneth Pelletier, in your April 10th post, you claim that I said the girl in Kelly's scenario was saved.  I never said that, nor would I ever assume the ability to judge someone else's heart and their relationship to God.  The point that I was making was that, once a person is saved, they are securely saved from that point on.  If the girl in Kelly's story was ever saved, then she will always be saved.  I agree, her behavior demonstrates the behavior of the unsaved, but I can't know for sure if she is truly saved or not.  Nor can you or anyone else.

One thing we must realize is that God has His own ways of dealing with those who belong to Him.  If the girl in Kelly's story is indeed saved, then who are we to determine how much God is going to let her get away with?  Who are we to determine how God plans to deal with this girl?  Sin is sin, period.  If I steal a candy bar, I am sinning......and if I murder 20 people, I am sinning.  Its not the particular unrighteous acts that we do that make us sinners, its the fact that the flesh we live in is corrupt and cursed. 

As Christians, we all sin.  But because we are Christians, does that mean that our sin less evil than an unsaved person's sin?  No!  Further, as Christians, I may steal a candy bar, lie to my wife, hate the guy who just pulled out in front of me, and look twice at a girl in a bikini.....all in one day, while all you may have done wrong that day was run over a squirrel on purpose.  Does that make you less of a sinner than me?  No!  And the next day you may do 5 wrong things and me only one!  Regardless of how many wrong things you and I do in one day or in our entire life as Christians, we are no less sinners than the girl in Kelly's story. Even if she is not saved, her sin is no worse than ours.  The only difference between the saved and unsaved person's sin is that the saved person's sin is forgiven!!  None of us are not perfect the moment we are saved.  And some of us are able to overcome the desires of the flesh more than others.  Before we were born, God forknew everything about us....including every wrong thing we would do as Christians while still in our corrupt bodies.  So in light of this, did He not offer salvation to those He knew would have bad behavior after becoming Christians?  Of course not!!  Moreover, since He offered us salvation even after knowing that we would continue to sin after becoming saved, do you truly think that He would allow us to sin out way out of salvation?  Why save us in the first place if He knew that sin would be powerful enough to cause Him to cancel our salvation?  And at which specific sinful act does He decide that we have sinned enough and are no longer worthy of being saved?  You get my point?  Another question is.....If a Christian can lose their salvation, can they ever be re-saved?  Yes?  Ok then, how many times can this happen?  Is there a limit to how many times God allows us to become saved then unsaved then saved then unsaved?  And if we can't ever be re-saved, then losing our salvation is a sin that Christ's blood does not cover. 

There is only one sin that sends us to Hell, and that is rejection of God's salvation.  All other sins are forgivable.  And what person in their right mind would decide to accept Christ as their Saviour because they believed and wanted Him to forgive and save them....and then one day decide that they didn't want to be forgiven and saved anymore??  That's absurd!!  No one would voluntarily decide that they didn't want their sins to be forgiven anymore and they no longer wanted to be saved.  And if that's the case, then if we can lose our salvation, its God that takes it away from us.  And that is equally as absurd!!  As stated earlier, why would He, having foreknew everything before we were born, bother saving us if He knew He was going to eventually cancel our salvation?  Everything God does is perfect and done right the first time....including saving us from the wages of our sin.  If He ever had to cancel our salvation, then that means our salvation wasn't perfect.  And if our salvation is not perfect, then neither was Christ's sacrifice. 

So the facts are:  God cannot cancel our salvation because His salvation of us is perfect.  And we would never want to give up His forgiveness and salvation.  Therefore, salvation cannot be lost!!

The answer to Kelly's question is......its not a question of how sinful we are that determines if we are saved or can remain saved.  Its a matter of if we believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior, then our sins are forgiven and we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and bound for Heaven!!  In the meantime, we sin, but do not want to and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us not to.  On the other hand, if we WANT to sin and the Holy Spirit is doing nothing to help us not to, THEN WE ARE NOT SAVED AND NEVER WERE!!    But remember, only God knows who is truly saved and who is not.  And some of us are weaker than others.  We may do wrong things as Christians, but its because of our weakness in submitting our will to His will.  Its not because we want to sin, knowing and caring that sin is wrong.  The unsaved may know that sin is wrong, but they don't care.  They don't want to give up their sin.  The true Christian does. 

 

Are you a Christian who believes the security of your salvation is based on how frightened you are of your sinful nature, and that sin is more powerful than God's promises?  Or are you a Christian whose burden was lifted at Calvary, and who trusts in God to keep His promise to cleanse us and give us eternal life?