Good morning everyone, MB here once again.

Today, I’m realizing something after grappling with a thought for just about six months.

There is a school of thought that says once someone is saved by Jesus Christ, they will always be saved no matter what they do.

For a while, I thought this was complete and utter falsehood.

However, I’m starting to see that it’s not falsehood, but instead misunderstanding.

Once you are saved, salvation cannot be taken from you. However, you can walk out of it with your own legs.

This is what I’ve learned and this is what I’ll try to explain in today’s post.

The way I have been shown by God to think about this issue is as follows:

Salvation is like a life raft and sin is the bottomless and endless sea that it floats on top of.

From birth, we are treading just enough to keep our heads above the endless waves.

We get tired from doing all of this treading, and that is when our spiritual will weakens and we fall prey to temptation and sin.

To have our heads sink beneath the dark abyss of sin is disastrous, because it leads to death eternal.

Those of us who give our life to Christ, those of us who truly become saved, we are given a life raft to float above the waves of sin.

We are saved from the tempest of temptation.

We are safe, we are free.

This can never be TAKEN from us, but we can freely ABANDON it.

Every time we choose to sin, we are choosing to step off of our salvation, the life raft, and jump back into the endless and violent sea of sin. We are voluntarily choosing to put ourselves at risk of drowning once again.

God has chosen to give us all chances, not just one but multiple to be able to get back on the raft of salvation and back into his loving arms that keep us safe.

Many people are aware of this concept, it’s called Grace and mercy.

However, what many people will not say is that you have a finite amount of chances.

The only one who knows how many chances you have left is God himself because only he knows when you will pass from this world and into eternity by physical death, thereby ending your stream of chances.

This leads many people who profess to be Christians to still live earthly sinful lives, chasing after the things of this world that are temporary and only lead to death and permanent separation from God.

Each and every time we commit a sin, our gracious and merciful, loving, God gives us a chance to repent.

But remember, our chances for repentance are finite. If you die, then you have not repented of your sins and turned back to God, then you have chosen to sync beneath the waves of the endless sea of sin. You have chosen to abandon your salvation in favor of damnation.  

So… once saved always saved… that is true… But only for people who freely choose to stay on the raft of salvation that Jesus provided until he himself returns to rescue us from this fallen world.

The most dangerous illusion that the devil has is the one that makes you think you have all the time in the world. The one that makes you think he isn’t real.

Sin is real, salvation is real, heaven is real, and hell is real.  

Our God, the creator of all, is merciful and gracious.

When you choose the sin and you step off of the raft of salvation, out of grace, mercy, and love, through the blood of Jesus Christ, God will reach down and pick you up. He will forgive you and put you back on the raft of salvation, the one safe place a believer has in this fallen world.

However, he won’t do so, unless you ask him.

You must ask for forgiveness of your sins and you must repent of them.

You must turn away from the evil you’re doing and turn towards God.

If you live in sin, the devil will try to tell you that God doesn’t care about you. He will try to tell you that God doesn’t see you. He will try to tell you that God doesn’t hear you.

However, this is far from the truth as it said in God’s word.

Isaiah 49: 14-16 “ But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”

In closing, I will leave you with this scripture and one final thought.

John 10:28-29 “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

We cannot be taken out of God’s hand; we can, however, step out of it by choice.

The raft that I have been speaking of this entire time is the merciful and loving hand of God.

Stay in it, don’t jump out.

You don’t know if you will be given another opportunity for repentance. You don’t know if you’ve already used up your last chance.

Salvation cannot be taken from you, but you can freely give it up.

-MB