I’ve been thinking for a while about doing a series a blog posts on the good questions campers asked me this last summer and the great answers the Bible supplies, and I think I’m going to do it. No one (but me and the random people who get the ‘privilege’ of being told about my latest post that I think might actually pertain to them or who have the “luck” of clicking through the link I post on facebook) faithfully read this blog, so I think the real reason I need to do this is to keep myself accountable to keep writing and working on these questions.
I applied to counsel again this summer, and I have this crazy idea to make these into a booklet of questions and answers for reference, or to give campers. I want to somehow set it up so that, depending on your question, you jump in on a certain page. I want it to all run together and build on each other, but also have it separated by questions so you can read as little as you want. I still have to figure out the logical order for these questions. I think I want to end each question with options. Like, “the next questions this leads to are ________ and _________. Turn here to read _______ and here to read _____________. But each question would need at least one other question leading to it, and they’d still have to be in a logical order for those reading straight through. So yeah. I dunno. We shall see how it works out!
So for question number 1 (for now!):
Q: Once I’m a born again Christian, if I sin, will I still be a Christian, or should I pray to become a Christian again?
A: Once I’m born a human being, if I bark, will I become a dog and no longer a human being? No! That’s extremely silly!
If we look at what the Bible says about this question, we’ll find the same. I’ll type a few passages and a short explanation in brackets within the passage: “And I [Jesus] give them [believers] eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. [They are my followers whom I have given eternal life, and no one can take that from them.] My Father [God] who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. [God will keep true believers’ Salvation safe and secure because he is more powerful than anyone.]” (John 10:28-29)
“All that the Father [God] gives Me [Jesus] will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out. [Every person who God wants to trust Jesus, will obtain Salvation. Jesus will not send away anyone who wants to trust Him for Salvation.] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me: that of all he has given me, [true believers] I should lose nothing, [none of them will be lost from trusting Jesus for Salvation] but should raise it up at the last day [I will raise them up to spend eternity with Me]. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise Him up at the last day. [This is why Jesus was on earth: to show himself to the world so they could trust in Him so he could raise them up at the end of the world, and give them eternal life.]” (John 6:37-40)
Bottom line: if you are truly trusting Jesus for Salvation and you sin, your Salvation is not permanently lost. Your joy and fellowship with Jesus will be lost for the moment until you repent, but you do not lose the gift of eternal life which Jesus has promised to you.
The Bible does, however, speak of those who fall away from the faith. These people never were truly Christians, but only pretended to be. Check out these verses: “They [fake Christians] went out from us [left the church of true believers; no longer claimed to be Christians], but they were not of us [they never really were Christians]; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us [if they had really ever been followers of Jesus, they would not/could not have left]; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. [God let them leave to show us they were not truly followers of Him]” I John 2:19 “But he who endures to the end will be saved [True Christians will endure to the end-death].” (Matthew 10:22)
If you are truly trusting Jesus for Salvation, don’t worry! God isn’t just gonna snap one day and say, “That’s it! She messed up one more time. No eternal life with Me for her. I’m cutting off her Salvation!” You don’t have to keep living in fear and praying every night for God to save you, or walking forward every year at camp to “accept Jesus” once again.
However, maybe you still need to be asking whether or not you’re truly a Christian, especially if you don’t see a change in your life from the time you “became a Christian” until now. The Bible NEVER describes becoming a follower of Jesus (a Christian) as praying a prayer, then living however you want because you can’t lose your Salvation. If you’re not a true Christian, you have a totally different problem to deal with.
This leads to two questions: How can I know if I’m truly a Christian? I believe in God and prayed a prayer asking Jesus comes into my heart. Isn’t that how I get and to heaven? How do I become a Christian? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?
(Stay tuned for more!)
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