used to ask myself that when somebody gets saved, do they stay saved i.e. [under Jesus] when they sin or they lose their salvation and only regain it when they confess their sins. The more I thought about it, the more it appeared to me that there were generally two scenarios, these being
a) Once saved, always saved... or
b) Saved then lost, confess then resaved, then lost, then born again and again and.... [basically that a person can jump in and out of salvation]
The a) camp believes that once someone is saved, he will always stay saved in spite of sin, because they have the belief that your spirit is sanctified and perfected forever. They reason that since you aren’t saved based on your goodness, then you cannot be unsaved based on your lack of goodness thereof. If you confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are born again, period. According to them since faith is the issue then sin has no part in subtracting your salvation in the whole equation.
There are many people mostly in camp b) who would classify this as heresy and even assemble an arsenal of verses to dispute this belief. These people strongly believe in confessing every single time you fall into sin, otherwise they say you could fall out of salvation. Confessing in a way is like a sin offering to stay in salvation.
Glass door
Now James 2:10 says “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
When I read these verses I realized that keeping the law is like maintaining a glass door. You can catapult a small stone through that door and make a little hole or throw a giant rock and leave a giant hole but the bottom-line is that, size doesn’t matter; the entire glass is broken and has to be replaced.
You might be an average Joe and you always avoid trouble, you might not be transgressing all of God’s commands, but I can assure you, you will never be able to do everything He’s told you to do. While many of us might be good citizens who are law abiding, none of us is able to do all God asked us to do. Some of us are teachers, others are prophets but we are not walking according to our calling or causing salvation to spread the way it ought to. Think about it, if we did the good we know to do, there would be zero influence on earth by evil. Evil prevails because we fail to do the good we ought to. Most of us simply try but have no serious zeal to do exactly what God wants, let alone knowing what God wants.
James 4:17 says “therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
Most people say “once saved, a believer must make sure they live Holy, he /she should not tolerate sin in their life, God is Holy, and any sin in our life removes our salvation and blah blah...” Such people after trying hard and with much sincerity in an effort to be sinless, end up realizing how impossible it is and then they start categorizing sin into small and big. But even with that categorization it is impossible to be Holy. Why? Because holiness is not only about not breaking the law, but also doing the right thing all the time and according to James 2:10 a big sinner such as a mass murderer like Joseph Kony is the same weight on the “sinner’s weighing scale” as a small sinner such as a housewife who enjoys gossiping. God sees them in the same way.
Am sorry for bursting your bubble but that’s what religious tradition is! As far God is concerned a sin is a sin, big or small in the eyes of man. God hates both categories of sin in the same measure, that’s why Jesus died for all kind of sin, big or small, committed today or in the future.
Driving at 80.1 KMPH in an 80 KMPH zone is as sinful and as disgusting as being a homosexual, since the bible in Romans 13:1-7 says you must obey the laws of the land. Both fall short of God’s standard of perfection. So even if you have violated the requirement a very tiny bit, it’s as bad as obliterating the entire constitution of Uganda. This is so to God even if according to man there is a radical difference in that both scenarios attract varying consequences and penalties. To God sin is sin, period.
Based on the above argument, supposing a born again believer who slightly over sped died in a car accident before confessing, does that mean he goes to hell? If so, then all believers are in serious trouble because all of us have at least made some bu-small mistakes here and there, that we forgot to confess. If that be so then no body qualifies for heaven, because honestly all of us fall short and fail in many different ways.
God has no scale for meeting His standard in that He only considers those who are in the top 10% as they will have tried. Either you are perfect on your own or YOU ARE IN NEED OF A SAVIOR WHO ALONE IS ABLE TO ATTAIN GOD’S STANDARD.
The b) camp means, if you can sin your salvation away, then the only way to get to heaven is to die as soon as you are born again. That means, if I was an evangelist who wanted to get my flock to heaven I would have my “mujolo [panga]” nearby and as soon as someone accepted Jesus I would kill them before they have a chance to sin away the salvation they have just received. In a sense that’s what Jesus implied that if your eye is the cause of sin, pluck it out and if it’s the leg chop it off. So if I knew that my entire flesh was the problem preventing me from being holy, then I should die before I fall into sin. So while I the evangelist would go to hell for running an amputation ward and murder centre, at least my flock would not have had the time to void their salvation ticket to heaven. I hope this sounds ridiculous enough for us to get the point.
Think about it this way, some old folk would choose to live a very sinful lifestyle and then when they have messed up enough and are very old, they would come to the evangelist for salvation and as soon as they receive it, are put to death and to go to heaven. That’s how silly this idea of sinning away salvation is, to the extent that God gave as Colossians 2:6 which reveals that the way you receive salvation is the way you walk in it.
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
If you received salvation by believing, that’s how you walk in it. Our salvation depends on our acceptance of Christ Jesus and His finished work.
I want to submit that, once you are born again, your spirit man is sealed, sanctified, and perfected forever. This spirit man is identical to Jesus and can never sin or fall short. He is in a righteous state that cannot fluctuate with the holiness or sinfulness of your attitudes and actions in the mind [soulish realm] or body. Why? Because Ephesians 1:13-14 reveals that the day you believed in Jesus, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
What was sealed? Was it my flesh? No! Was is it my Soul? No. It was my spirit man because your thoughts and actions never underwent any radical change, but a new spirit was born inside you . In this the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance until that time in future when the body and soul which have been purchased are also redeemed [immortality], when we shall have a fully sanctified and perfected Spirit, soul and body, all understanding and seeing everything in full... that’s why renewing the mind to the word is important in enabling it see what the spirit man sees.
As the mind is renewed, reflecting on the word of God just as the spirit man has been designed to live, the bodily actions start following suit and then you end up living a holier life than you have ever tried on purpose. That is transformation. If you do not try to live holy by your effort, but instead renew the mind to the life in the spirit man which is according to the bible, then you will find it easier to serve God in spirit and in truth [life under Grace]. When you try to do it according to the law the bible says you have fallen from grace,
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
As I conclude, salvation depends on your faith in Jesus and being born again, your sin cannot affect your relationship with God. God fellowships with you based on your faith in Christ Jesus, period!!
