How saved are we?

Over the years, I have heard from many people who love the Lord say that, there is not enough preaching on the subject of sin in the church. Along with this philosophy, the discussion of backsliding and going to hell after committing our life to Christ has come up. It made me think, “Why does it give them so much pleasure to make these statements?” Let’s reason and explore this train of thought and see what the scripture has to say about it.

1John 4:19 says, “We love Christ, because he first loved us.” The definition of love is a warm affection, a moving feeling and applying oneself to a relationship with a person. The Greek concordance describes love as a breath. Now common sense tells me, that a person, who is experiencing the rewards of this kind of affection, would respond with a desire to seek more of this kind of attention. Acts 28:28 tells us that, “we are the offspring of God.” It seems to me that the more of a loving relationship we have with God, the more we will have a desire to walk in obedience to His perfect will.

John 20:19-23 tells us that, the disciples were in hiding after Jesus was crucified on the cross because, they were afraid of being killed too. After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to them and showed them His side and hands that were pierced. When the disciples saw that it was the Lord, they were filled with joy and ecstasy. Then Jesus said, “be at peace, just as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Having said this, He (breathed on them) and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Now they having received the Holy Spirit, they now had the ability to be led by Him. He went on to say, that if they would forgive the sins of anyone, their sins would be forgiven, but if they retained the sins of anyone, they would be retained. By our attitudes, we can keep people in bondage to their burdensome faults by not exampling a forgiving spirit of forgiveness.

In John 3:3-8, Jesus tells us that a person must be BORN AGAIN, (Born of the spirit.) “The wind breathes where it will, and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it goes. So it is with every one who is born of the Spirit.” When Jesus breathed on the disciples, they became born again because they received the Holy Spirit.

Gal 5:22-23 says that, “the fruit of the Spirit is love.” If we have received the Holy Spirit, then we have the capacity to experience the love of God and not only respond to it, but we will be able to give it to others. The fruit of the spirit of love is described in the Greek and Hebrew as a, “spirit of release” or like something has been lifted from our souls. In one definition, it’s described as something taken by force. It’s only by us experiencing the love of God through the Holy Spirit, that we can love God back with passion and commitment. If we do not sense this relationship in our spirit, it’s impossible to have this kind of relationship.

John 1:29, says that when Jesus went down to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. John as he saw Jesus coming towards him said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

In Paul the Apostle’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he talks about what happened to us when we were born again by the Spirit of God. He says that, “we became a new creature. Our old moral and sinful nature had been crucified or been lifted from our soul. We were enslaved and weak willed by our sin or sinful nature to be continually breaking God’s laws. Now that we have this new nature, and have been changed, Jesus Christ has received us into His favor and brought us into agreement with Himself. He has also given us a ministry of reconciliation” meaning, that He brought us back into friendship with Himself, and we can do the same for others. The Holy Spirit from within motivates this spirit of reconciliation.

Romans 8:1 says “Now there is no judging of guilt or wrong for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who live not after the dictates of the old sinful nature, but after the dictates of the Spirit” In our spirit we have a witness that we have been set free and this weight of our sinful nature has it been lifted from our souls. This new nature now must be encouraged with total love and patient teaching. We must grow up so that we can experience God’s perfect love. We are no longer an enemy of God. We have been adopted into His family and have become His children.

Too many Christians today cannot define their relationship with God and identify their feelings between being an enemy verses a child of God. Parents who are healthy don’t look at their children as enemies and treat them like one.

The way we are to bring people into agreement with God is by our words and deeds. These words and deeds must be done with a spirit of grace and love. We must be led by the Holy Spirit telling and showing us how this is to be done, not by our own works and plans. An atmosphere of trust and safety must be created in this process because; a person must voluntarily feel free to confess their sin or faults to receive forgiveness for them. This is what (Romans 10:10&1John 1:9 states.) A condemning attitude will not cause a person to want to confess their sin or faults and therefore without confession there cannot come forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there is no restoration of relationship with God or others. Jesus by His words and deeds laid down His life for us. He restored the world to Himself by not counting up and holding against men their trespasses but canceled them out and gave us His favor. By His goodness, He became sin for us so that we might be acceptable and in right standing with Him. In turn, now we have become His ambassadors or front-runners and can offer to the world this same goodness, so that they can have their sin forgiven and be put in right standing with God.

Gal 6:1-2 states, “If any person is overtaken in a fault, you who are (spiritual and controlled by the Holy Spirit) should restore and reinstate him, without a sense of superiority. Be gentle and kind keeping an eye on yourself at all times, knowing that you yourselves are going through the same growing pains of conforming to the will of God. Bear each other’s burdens and troublesome moral faults and continue to seek God’s way of thinking. In this way, whatever may be lacking in your understanding of God’s ways may be completed in you.”

Since our sinful nature has changed when we become this new creature, we have to now allow God to empower us in our new life. There is a difference between leading people to Christ verses becoming discipled and growing up in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to stop making people feel like they never get past being totally saved. Too many still believe that they have the “old nature.” I hear repeatedly from people that they feel like their sins are never totally forgiven. The whole idea that Christ came to earth was to relate to His creation and restore them to wholeness, so that they would not focus on their lack and stay sin conscious.

11 Peter 3:14 tells us, “when Christ comes back to earth, He wants to find us without spot or wrinkle and at peace in serene confidence, free from fears, agitating passions and moral conflicts.” When and what is it going to take for us to realize that when we were born again that Jesus put a white robe on us and our sinful nature is not seen by Him. What pleasure do we get by picking up our white robe and looking under it, remembering our past and feeling guilty? This is the real issue. We look at ourselves with judgment, because we have a wrinkled thinking process. We don’t rightly interpret God’s word and understand that His total love is (without any conditions.)

Why do we (from the pulpits and among each other) judge our Christian family and allow a spirit of condemnation on them, and we are not even talking about the unsaved by pointing out their sins and faults. What we do is frustrate the grace of God. In turn, we condemn and accuse rather than forgive. Our words are not seasoned with salt and grace, we keep saved, and unsaved people from experiencing the total love relationship with God. Rather than becoming God’s ambassadors, we become judges by making people feel that their sin is not totally taken away. We need to allow people the freedom to confess and repent of their faults without criticism and give them time to grow. How many times do you have to get saved and be continually rededicating your life to Christ?

The grace of God not only saves us but it also keeps us from a self-hatred of ourselves.

When are we going to understand, that people that have not met Christ have value and people who have been born again and met Christ, now have the power to use their value in the service of Christ. Did Jesus give up His life on the cross for trash! Even when we where in our sinful condition, Jesus died for us. We need to understand that being saved changes us from sinners to saints; saints in progress. We’re saints, who as we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and are nurtured, begin to recognize that we have value in God’s sight and ours. You begin to understand why so many in the body of Christ are still children in their understanding of God’s love for them. They spend too much time being “sin conscience” focusing on their faults and trying to measure up to get God’s favor. Let’s start seeing ourselves with this new white robe that God put on us and concentrate on a spirit of worship and thankfulness for what God has already done for us. This attitude in us will cause us to run to God for direction and purpose. In turn this will create an expectation for greatness within ourselves and make life what it was meant to be; a hungering relationship for more of His presence in our lives.