Are you saved?

The short answer is that you need saving from sin. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This verse establishes that we have all sinned. That includes me. That includes you. The best way I can describe sin is disobedience to God. And even if you are unaware of your sin, you are still guilty of it. For example, if you are speeding in a area but you didn’t see the speed limit sign, are you still guilty? Yes. Ignorance does not equal innocence. The same applies to sin. For example, if you have lied before, cheated, gossiped, had sexual desires for someone who is not your spouse, etc. then you have sinned. I am not saying this to condemn you, I am simply trying to show you that you need saving from sin. Also, there is a punishment that awaits sinners which is ultimately Hell and spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. Even though Hell was never created for men, but was created for the devil and his angels; mankind has been marked by sin, and without salvation, mankind will suffer the same punishment. Let me give you some background information though.

The Bible says that in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1). It goes on to say that God went on to make mankind, male and female. When talking about making mankind, the Word of God says that we were created in his image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). The expectation was that every male and female would be able to reflect God and carry God. This was going to happen through a relationship. God created man to be in a relationship with him, but the first two humans named Adam and Eve sinned by outright disobeying God (Genesis 3:6). God gave them a commandment, then they were deceived by the devil which caused them to disobey God which was the first sin. God was and still is a holy God, and sin is ultimately the opposite of holiness. And one of the results of sin is a divide between God and man. 

This one sin affected the entire human race and it still affects us today. Why is this? This is because sin has a nature that is passed down from generation to generation. Why? Adam sinned and we are all offspring of Adam, therefore, we enter this earth with a mark of sin and that nature is passed down to us. So naturally, there is a divide between God and man due to the sins of Adam. We all sinned which means that we have been responsible for putting a barrier between us and God. God created us to be in a relationship with him, so there is a dilemma because how can God be in a relationship with mankind if there is a barrier? The answer is Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Something I want you to understand is that God the Father was not unaware that man would fall into sin so he made plans to restore us back to himself. And that plan is Jesus. God the Father had a plan and contrary to what you may have heard, it wasn’t as simple as snapping his fingers and forgetting about it because that would make him unjust. God the Father operates as a judge so he can’t be unjust. Therefore, someone had to pay the price. Someone without sin, someone without spot or blemish, someone who was worthy. And I’m here to tell you that Jesus has come, and he is that someone. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The sin of one man was passed down to us, therefore, the righteousness of one man can be passed down. We have the ability today to be restored to our heavenly Father because of the sacrifice that Jesus made. Every sin that you ever committed has been paid for, no matter how harsh. And your heavenly Father awaits you with open arms. All you must do is receive. Receive the gift of salvation. This gift isn’t something you can earn, or work for, it is a completely free gift. All you must do is receive.

I said above that Jesus came and died for all of our sins. That includes me, that includes you, that includes everyone on earth. The Bible says in John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life". So you want to know how to be saved? Believing in Jesus Christ is the answer. When I think of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, it brings me to tears. I want you to consider this scripture in the Bible that speaks about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Isaiah 54:5-6 - “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” That scripture depicts the price that Jesus paid for us. He hung on a cross for me and you. He had nails go through his hands and feet for me and you. He was whipped continually and bled continually for me and you. It makes me emotional because I’m so thankful that he saved me. I’m so thankful that someone who never even sinned, paid for my sins. I know I don’t deserve it but God loved me to the point that while I was still a sinner, he died for me.

 The Bible says in Romans 10:9 - If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It is that simple. It is a free gift, all you must do is receive it. But there is a caveat. Becoming a Christian is not a get-out-of-hell-free card. When you make him Lord of your life, you are essentially saying “You have supreme authority over my life which means, I will obey. I will follow your lead. I will live for you. This is why repentance is a critical element of salvation. Repentance is not just saying sorry. Repentance means to turn away. Therefore, when you are saved, you must repent of your sins; meaning, you must turn away from them. Jesus said if anyone wants to follow after me, he must deny himself and carry his own cross (Luke 9:23). This means that we must be ready to die to ourselves. Let me explain it this way: Christ died for us, now we must die for him. I’m not necessarily talking about dying physically, I’m talking about dying to ourselves; our lifestyles, the way we walk, the way we talk, and the way we live. We must be ready to die to those things. We must be ready to die to sin. Jesus died for our sins, and he died to set us free from sin. The death of Jesus gives us access to grace so that we will be able to live a life like Jesus. I have heard many people teach grace as an excuse to sin. But grace is the power to overcome it. For example, imagine a person struggling with lust begins to pray for grace; that person is not asking God to overlook their sin. That person is asking God for power to overcome it so that sin will not hold them down anymore.

We need grace to live this Christian life. If you try to live the Christian life on your own, you will fail because there is a sinful nature attached to mankind. Therefore, the Christian life is only possible by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.  When you accept him as Lord and Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit. And as you walk with him (The Holy Spirit), you will begin to bear fruit like Jesus. By fruit, I am referring to the fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5. ‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭- “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

I want you to know that being saved by Jesus is a decision that you have to consider deeply because it requires you to die to yourself. It requires you to leave your old life behind to be in full pursuit of him. You must be ready to give up anything contrary to him. But I don’t want you to think that you have to do this all by yourself, it happens through the Holy Spirit but you have to surrender yourself. The Holy Spirit will lead you, guide you, and empower you to live a holy life.

Here's a quick recap on how to be saved:

Declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead

Repent of your sins

This is an interesting question and it has been an ongoing topic in the Body of Christ for some time. And my short answer is yes. Salvation can be forfeited. And I will use scripture to back it up. Many people teach a concept called “Once saved, always saved.” Salvation is a one-time event but it is also a process. Paul even says in Philippians 2:12 to let each man work out his own salvation. I don’t believe that there is a scripture that agrees with the concept of once saved, always saved. Therefore, that is not a biblical truth. I believe salvation can definitely be lost and I will back it up using scripture as we go through this question.

If you have heard me speak before, you have probably heard me say that salvation is not a “get out of hell free card.” But that is how many people view it. That is not what salvation is completely about, it's about living for God not just trying to escape Hell. I believe a key reason for this thinking is how many ministers have presented the topic of salvation. Salvation has become so Heaven-focused, it has become so much about where you are going when you die. I've heard a lot of ministers pose a question like "If you died today, are you sure you would go to Heaven?" I am actually not against the question because that is a simple way to gauge where a person is in their walk with God but on the contrary, salvation is not just about going to Heaven when you die. Salvation is about bringing Heaven into the earth. Bringing Heaven into the earth happens through your sacrifice and your relationship with God on Earth. The purpose of the death of Jesus was not just so you can escape Hell, it was to bring you into a relationship with the Father and to empower you to bring the Kingdom of God into the earth. Therefore, when we make Heaven our only goal, we miss out on the relationship with the Father and the opportunity of forwarding the kingdom of God here on earth.

Let’s get back on track. We're talking about whether or not salvation can be lost. I believe salvation is essentially forfeited when an individual is unwilling to surrender to God to be changed. I believe it is something that we give up opposed to something that the Lord takes away. Let me explain further. When we are saved, we become God’s children. Therefore, we should begin to look like him. We should begin to reflect him. Salvation is the start of the journey of each believer becoming more like Christ. Therefore, salvation is essentially forfeited when a person is unwilling to go on that journey. Something that makes me laugh now is how I used to think as a teenager when it came to Christianity. I grew up in church, my parents were pastors/ministers of the Gospel. And at a young age, I got saved and I thought that was it. And because of my thinking, I was unwilling to commit to the journey. I was unwilling to commit to the idea of denying myself daily. So I fell into sins like pre-marital sex, pornography, lying, etc. and I chose to do that all the time. And what I would do was sin every day but then at the end of the day, I would pray the same prayer and say "Lord, I repent of all my sins. And all the wrong that I've done." Then I would repeat the same sins daily, obviously, I refused to turn away from my sins. Clearly, that is not how salvation works. Salvation should take you from darkness and deliver you into the light. 

1 John 1:5-6 says "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth." What this means is that if we have fellowship with darkness, we have no fellowship with God. I believe this is where we reach the point where salvation is essentially forfeited. I want to make myself clear, I know that we all mess up from time to time. I am by no means claiming perfection. I am not saying that if we commit one sin, we lose our salvation. I am saying that we begin to forfeit our salvation when we become numb to our sin because sin begins to establish a nature in us. When sin begins to establish a nature in you after you know right from wrong, you are moving towards iniquity. What is iniquity? Iniquity is essentially when a person sets up a parallel government against God in order to govern themselves. For example, imagine a person reading the Bible begins to recognize that the Bible is against adultery, fornication, lying, etc. But then they determine in their mind, "I'm going to do it anyways. I don't care what the Bible says." That person has now bridged into iniquity. I believe that is the point where people forfeit their salvation; when they willingly sin continuously with no regard for how God views it, salvation is gone. I say this because Jesus should be our Lord which refers to him being supreme in authority, therefore, if he is not in authority over your life then you are not saved. Upon salvation, we are supposed to become a new creation. Therefore, that new nature should show. The most simple way that I can put this is that the Christian journey is a commitment to death, death to self. Death to your old nature. A sign that you are saved is that you are committed to burying the old man, the old you. You are committed to becoming more like Christ. Those who do not have salvation commit to keeping their sinful nature alive. They commit to things that are contrary to Christ, and they feel no draw to repentance while doing it.

To close out this article, I want to reference a few more scriptures to establish my point. In Romans 6, Paul speaks about the concept of the old man vs the new man. I will paraphrase this, but I encourage you to read Romans chapter 6 on your own. Paul poses a question, how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? And he goes on to say that believers should no longer be slaves to sin. And one of my favorite parts is later in the Chapter, he says that you are slaves to who you obey. Allow me to break this down a little more. The word "slaves" is not the same as the slavery that African Americans endured hundreds of years ago, it is talking about who you serve. It is talking about who you have made Lord. And as I said before, Lord means supreme in authority and that is the office/position that Jesus should hold in the life of the believer. If he is truly the Lord of our lives, we should obey. And the last thing that I will say is that Jesus is our savior. That is a reality, not just a nice title. Therefore, if you are reading this and you are struggling with overcoming sin, God has the power to help you. He can do more than you can ask or think. All you must do is ask. I have asked him myself to help me when I struggled with so many sins, and he was and still is faithful to deliver you to the other side.