Surrendering Salvation

Saved, Sinner or Slave?

Will God continue to forgive me? Am I saved?

My Daughter was due at summer camp for 8am. We let the dog out in the back yard as we were getting ready. She came back to door with dark stains around her neck.

This wasn’t our first rodeo, and we immediately knew what it meant. The horrid, putrid smell of whatever she rolled in hit us.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. I immediately ran up stairs and lifted her sixty pound body into the tub.

Turns out, dogs like the smell of certain animal feces or dead animals. She had done this before. It’s apparently a primal instinct of theirs and they find it weirdly enjoyable for many reasons.

As usual, she seemed relatively pleased with herself and immediately tried to rub it onto her pillow bed.

I washed her in the tub, removed her bed cover and then put her to dry in the empty room by the bathroom.

I then searched the yard to locate the area, found it and removed it.

Usually once the culprit is gone, things go back to normal until the next time.

Except not this week.

Day 2, she came to the door covered again. In the tub, rinse and repeat. There was another anew spot in the yard.

Day 3 she found yet another spot, did it again. I think we have an animal problem…

There is a lesson here, I promise you.

A sermon popped about online about God using animals to teach us something. It had nothing to do with rolling in smelly things but it was suddenly clear to me what God was trying to show me with my dog.

It was about struggling or falling into the same sin at times. Maybe one you have already repented several times to.

You struggle and war with it. You succeed… yet at times you fail. You ask God to forgive you, but you eventually do it again. You are not alone.

“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again…” Proverbs 24:15 NLT.

Whether it’s lust, lying, gossip, pride, addiction or name your sin. We all have sin that we need to work on.

I know there are some judgmental Christians here who will say we are condemned to hell for just one sin. They may even use certain scripture to justify this.

Yes, Jesus did say to the prostitute, “you are forgiven, go and sin no more.”

But here is the reality, if you repented once in your life for..say…lying, would you lose salvation if and when you did it again?

We tend to categorize sins by severity, but as far as salvation and repentance is concerned, can one send you to hell but not another?

No one is without sin:

“If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 1 John 1:8 NLT

The following verse is key

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9 NLT

So why do we keep sinning? Like the Bible says as a “dog returning to his own vomit” or a “washed pig returns to the mud.” (Proverbs 26:11, 2 Peter 2:22)

Or a dog to stink that is…

Paul says in Romans 7:18-24 NLT

“I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

21I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22I love God’s law with all my heart. 23But there is another powere within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24Oh, what a miserable person I am!

Some will say that if you struggle with a repeat sin, you have lost your salvation and they use the following scripture:

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left” Hebrews 10:26 NIV

Wait, so If I continue to “sin” any sin…that is…after accepting Jesus then his work on the cross doesn’t count?

So Jesus only died for sins before your salvation, but none after?

I heard one famous preacher asked this question and what he said was disappointing. He indicated there might point in which Jesus would stop cleansing us for sin.

Under that assumption there is some secret point of no return in your sin count in which Jesus’s death no longer matters? Or maybe God just got fed up with you?

“Ok, you reached the 550 sins, 551 is a ticket to hell.”

I want be clear here, one should strive to be righteous and holy as the scripture says, but only Jesus is without sin.

As well intentioned as these messages are to scare straight. They don’t match the gravity of the actions on cross.

Whether you can lose salvation is an age old question of debate, but here’s the truth…you have to want to lose it.

Hebrews 10:26 is referring to apostasy.

This is basically leaving the faith and walking away from God.

We need to look at the greek here in the original text for some clarification.

The word used for deliberately or willfully is “hekousiós.”(Strongs 1596)

Thayer’s greek Lexicon study says:

This is sin committed willfully “tacitly opposed to sins committed inconsiderately, and from ignorance or from weakness)

The Topical Lexion says “ this is in full awareness and with deliberate intent. It stands in contrast to anything done by compulsion, ignorance, or external coercion.”

Miriam Webster defines compulsion as

“A very strong urge to do something.”

We all know as Christians what we are doing is wrong when we sin. So most sin is intentional or “willful” let’s not pretend.

But most believers sin under weakness or compulsion…giving in to temptation.

Paul said in Romans 7:23 there was other power within us that is at war with our mind. Paul is talking about the battle with our flesh.

That’s why we have God’s law or the ten commandments to show us what is wrong, yet we are bo longer condemned to hell for it.

Paul interestingly enough says that knowing something is wrong, can make it more of a temptation.

I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”^{[a] 8} But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! Romans 7:7-8 NLT

So knowing that we all intentionally or willfully sin, based on that justification then none of us are saved.

So what is Hebrews 10:26 really saying?

It’s about accepting and embracing sin vs struggling with it.

Whatever you don’t war with, you walk with.

This is lack of conviction, Godly sorrow and ultimately faith. This is what leads one or even a generation into apostasy.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” 2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV

You are in danger when you lose the fear or just don’t care.

Hebrews 10:26 is about willfully walking away from and accepting to live in a lifestyle of sin.

It can also about those who were never saved to begin with.

Consider this powerful statement from Pastor Josh Howerton from Lakepoint Church

“You can’t lose your salvation, but you can fake it.”*

So let’s get back to my dog. Scripture says If you fear the Lord but fall into sin, he is quick to cleanse you ( 1 John 1:7, 1:9).

Every time my dog rolled in the stink, we were quick to clean her. Every time she does it in the future, we will continue to clean her. There is no point in which we stop or abandon her to remain in filth.

Of course we want to prevent her, but short of following her around the yard every moment, I can’t always.

We still love her despite her rolling in filth because she is our dog.

And we who fear the Lord are God’s children.

The Lord will continue to cleanse us as well when our faith and trust is in him.

In fact, he paid for all of our sins: past, present and future. There is no limit to this.

God showed me this whole revelation this morning because salvation has been on my mind.

Ironically if we are too focused on our salvation, then we aren’t focused on faith.

I don’t want my dog to keep getting dirty and God doesn’t want us soiling what He made clean either.

Yes we should be making every effort to remain clean. But understand those efforts aren’t what is keeping our salvation.

We’re not living on a Salvation scale that says + 5 points today, -5 points tomorrow based on our actions.

We aren’t holding onto Salvation , He, the one who saves is holding us.

But we also have to stop returning to that which makes us dirty.

Salvation is something so much greater than human understanding, actions or power.

It is a shame that certain sects of Christianity have portrayed it as something so feeble and vulnerable to human will power.

The improper messaging has made us a slave to salvation.

The message of sin and grace is then divided in absolutes resulting in either being a slave to your own salvation, or mistakenly un-convicted and a slave to sin.

A gentle warning for believers: If you view your sin life as spotless after salvation, you’re on a pedestal really high to fall from.

And it’s going to hurt when you fall.

Sometimes the biggest weapon the enemy can use against believers is themselves.

Nick

Photo credit Connie Kwan (@conniekwan)/Unplash free image.

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