Can someone say they believe that Jesus Christ lived, died and subsequently resurrected, professing to be a Christian and yet not be saved? If there is nothing we can do to earn salvation can we lose it through our actions? There are preachers today that would have you believe that repentance is not a necessary component of being born again and that there is no need to die to oneself since Christ has already died for us. That all you have to do is say a prayer asking Jesus into your heart and you are forever saved. Are these notions even biblical.
This has become a delicate subject in discussions ranging from OSAS (Once Saved Always Saved) to progressive Christianity and it threatens to divide the body of Christ. While there is no such thing as salvation through works, nominal faith is no better than no faith at all. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing” (John 14:12a), and in verse 15, He added, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
When Jesus called the disciples to follow Him, His appeal was for action. He didn’t say, “believe in me, but carry on living for you, putting yourself before Me, putting your worldly aspirations before Me, even putting your family before Me. What He did say was, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39).
J.C. Ryle once said, “It costs something to be a true Christian. Let that never be forgotten. To be a mere nominal Christian, and go to church, is cheap and easy work. But to hear Christ’s voice, follow Christ, believe in Christ and confess Christ requires much self denial.” Many are washed in the water but are not washed in the blood.
R.C. Sproul adds, “Easy believism is a modern form of antinomianism. It asserts that once a person makes a decision for Christ or prays to receive Jesus as savior, it is not necessary to embrace Him as Lord.” Antinomianism has been considered to teach that believers have a license to sin and that future sins don’t require repentance.
Because there is no call to yield fruit in this teaching, the proponents of such theology scatter seeds that produce a shallow-rooted response in their followers. They may go to church and call themselves Christians, but there is no conviction in their beliefs or substance to their faith. This is precisely what Jesus alluded to in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13).
John MacArthur explains, “The modern definition of faith eliminates repentance, erases the moral elements of believing, obviates the work of God in the sinner’s heart, and makes an ongoing trust in the Lord optional. Far from championing the truth that human works have no place in salvation, modern easy-believism has made faith itself a wholly human work, a fragile, temporary attribute that may or may not endure.”
Grace Is Not A License To Sin
In 2 Corinthians 13:5, the apostle Paul writes, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” And in Galatians 6:7-8, Paul says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Many people who identify as Christians trivialize the words of Jesus and the disciples, including the apostle Paul. To teach that God doesn’t call His children to holiness is not practicing the gospel, it is practicing deception. To say one believes the message while failing to practice the words of the message is simply a dishonest proclamation of belief. It demonstrates a hypocritical self righteousness that withholds the continual sacrifice of praise for God from God, that is the modus operandi of true believers.
Someone once asked Billy Graham if God forgave Judas for betraying Jesus. Dr. Graham responded, “No, Judas was not forgiven for his betrayal of Jesus… and one reason is because he could not bring himself to repent of the sin he had committed. You see, there’s a difference between feeling sorry over something we have done and actually repenting of it.” Matthew 27:3 tells us, “he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to those who had paid him.”
Jesus said in Matthew 26:24, “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” God predetermined that Judas would betray Jesus, however, this fact does not absolve him from the punishment for his actions. He had the opportunity to repent but hanged himself instead.
Judas followed Jesus for nearly three years as one of His intimates. He proclaimed loyalty to Him. He was included with the group that Jesus sent out to proclaim the gospel and perform miracles (Luke 9:1-6). He walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, had a relationship with Jesus and had some level of belief but he was not committed to Him. Judas had faith but it was not a sincere, saving faith.
Repentance Sets True Believers Apart From Pretenders
The same can be said for those who seem to have a love for Christ, say they believe in Christ and even lead others to Christ. People that fall away and later become atheists fall into this category along with those who commit mass murder while insisting they are Christians, as George Sodini did in 2009. These people want to believe, understand the concept of belief but Christ remains an enigma because they have not surrendered to nor have been filled with the Holy Spirit. They didn’t lose their salvation because they never possessed it in the first place.
This is what Jesus meant when he said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name preform many miracles?’ The I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23).
The Bible is clear that you cannot lose your salvation, however, those who continue to willingly sin or walk according to their sinful nature and embrace worldly values are not true believers (Romans 8:5-8). They are deceived. James, the brother of Jesus wrote, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4). We are called out of the world (John 15:19; John 17:14-15) and we are not to conform to the world (Romans 12:2). Society today seeks to normalize sin and even celebrates sin in an ostentatious and pernicious attempt to justify sin, so why would we want any part of it?
1 John 3:6, informs us, “No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him.” To truly believe in Jesus Christ and be saved through faith, one must have the type of faith that the woman who had been suffering from bleeding for twelve years had (Luke 8:43-48). She pushed through the crowd and touched the fringe of Christ’s clothing because she believed it would heal her. And what did Jesus say to her? “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (verse 48).
Alive In Christ
This is a different kind of belief than someone who says they believe in Jesus but lives a life indistinguishable from nonbelievers. Satan believes in Jesus but he is not saved! James 2:19 qualifies that type of belief, “You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” The verses immediately preceding (James 2:17-18) proclaim that faith without deeds is dead. If Jesus has made us alive we must not live as though we are still dead! And if we do, perhaps we still are dead!!!
May we have the same kind of belief the woman who was bleeding had in Luke 8. The kind of faith that Jesus spoke of in John 5:24, when He said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” Oh to have that precious saving faith and live as people who have life!
In his book, Three Dollars Worth of God, Wilbur Rees wrote, ”I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk, or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want warmth in the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”
Don’t settle for superficial, counterfeit or apocryphal faith. If you are reading this, I pray that you will be blessed with an unshakable, indubitable, emphatic, and sincere saving faith that compels you to live in such a way that proclaims Christ through your life in a demonstrable way. That dissociates you from the worldly values you once prized and sets you apart as a true child of God! Amen!
