April 20, 2022

…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… Joshua 24:15

Making the choice to serve the one true God is exercising freedom that He grants. It is a deliberate choice to serve the Lord; an act of our will. To “serve” is at the heart of worship.

Choosing Him is called a “new birth” because, like a baby, there is no record of a sinful past. Those old sins are wiped clean and a fresh start has begun. Entering into a life of faith will steadily reveal greater depths of the struggle between good and evil, the extension of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Each day presents new opportunities to exercise faith and obedience.

Those who choose Christ become targets for the adversary. You have “switched sides”, and he does not like it one bit. One of his subtle, anti-Christian tactics is perpetuating the “once saved, always saved” philosophy. But the Bible does not teach that once someone is saved, he or she loses the freedom to be lost. This is why Jesus instructs us to abide in Him.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23

Is it really possible to be lost after accepting Christ as Savior? Many preachers today are teaching that such a thing is impossible. But it is best to let the Word of God provide the answer.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, … For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” Hebrews 10:23,24,26

But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die. Ezekiel 18:24

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, and sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire. 2 Peter 2:20-22

The belief that once we are saved we cannot be lost is to believe that God takes away our greatest freedom—the freedom of choice. The Lord graciously assures us, however, that He is both willing and able to finish the work that He has begun in our lives. While it is true that His love for all people is unconditional, there is a participation factor in each one’s personal relationship with Him: to abide in Him. Sanctification unto salvation is conditional upon our being partakers of His grace.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as . . . you all are partakers with me of grace. Philippians 1:3-7