Many
believe they are saved merely because they had a religious experience, but a
religious experience does not necessarily mean salvation. You can bathe and
brush your teeth religiously (and you should), but this will not save you from
Hell. It worries me when someone says they were so young that they don’t
remember much about the experience: If you had an experience that you don’t
remember much about then you didn’t have much of an experience. Many refer to
certain works or ceremonies as the reason to believe they are saved, but this
tends to indicate the opposite: Salvation is a personal experience with Jesus
Christ and is through the finished work of Calvary (the blood of Christ), not
the shed blood of Jesus Christ and additional supplements. (John 3:14-16; 1
Peter 1:19)
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again.” (John 3:7) There are always cases of people assuming that they are
saved because they were born and raised in a certain religion or denomination
or assuming that they were saved through rituals and ceremonies, and this was
true of many when Christ walked the earth. (John 1:12-13; 3:1-6) The new birth
is a personal experience with Jesus Christ. (John 3:5-16; Titus 3:5-7) “Jesus
answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things?” (John 3:10) Christ was teaching something Nicodemus should have
already known through familiarity with Old Testament teachings about the Holy
Spirit’s work of supernatural change in the lives of people in the new covenant
age. (Ezekiel 11 & 36, Jeremiah 31, etc.)
The teaching that merely committing sin means the loss
of salvation is a salvation by works (Romans 4:5; Ephesians 2:8-9) and works
determine rewards but not salvation. (1 Corinthians 3:14-15; 2 Corinthians
5:10; Colossians 3:23-24) God gives space to repent; a child of God can lose
salvation through apostacy, not merely committing sin. (Hebrews 10:26-31; 1
John 1:5-2:2) Before you insist that you would take your fill of sin if you did
not believe that merely committing sin means the loss of salvation, stop, and
think about what this implies about you. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath
appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” (Titus
2:11-12) “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when
thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as
with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be
without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not
sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we
gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father
of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their
own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto
them which are exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12:5-11) "They went out from
us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt
have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest
that they were not all of us." (1 John 2:19) “And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:3)
Did you repent? (Mark 1:14-15; Luke 13:3) Many
describe a salvation experience that did not include repentance, which
indicates that they are not saved. A mere belief without genuine repentance is
not saving faith, as saving faith is repentant faith. (Acts 3:19; also consider
Psalm 34:18; Isaiah 55:6-7; 57:15; 66:2) Repentance is the turning from sin to
God, and faith is the turning to Jesus Christ (God in the flesh) for salvation.
(Acts 20:21) Repentance is required for salvation; it is the effective agent
for forgiveness and remission of sins through the power of the cross. (Luke
24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30-31)
How do you describe Jesus Christ? Faith, like love,
always has an object and the proper object of saving faith is Jesus Christ, and
more specifically, the Jesus Christ who is presented in Scripture. (2
Corinthians 11:4; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 7)
Was there a change in your life? “Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) “For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world.” (Titus 2:11-12) Consider: A farmer gave his favourite pig a bath so
that it would look and smell clean at the county fair. Someone left a gate open
and that pig headed down the road searching for adventure. A strong wind blew
the pig off the road and into a ditch. In the ditch there was garbage, a bad
smell, and thick mud. When the pig realised where he was, he began thinking to
himself “this is heaven on earth, this is exactly where I want to be.” Why?
Because it is a pig’s nature to wallow in mud. (2 Peter 2:22) A lamb strayed
from the flock and wandered down the road. A strong wind blew the lamb off the
road and into a ditch where there was garbage, a bad smell, and thick mud. When
the lamb realised where he was, he began struggling to get out of the ditch,
and when he saw that he couldn’t get out he began crying out for the shepherd.
Why? Because it is not a sheep’s nature to wallow in mud.
Do you practice sin less than before? (1 John 3:3-6.
The word commit can mean practice, and so can the Greek word Poieo which is
here rendered as commit.)
What about sound doctrine and religious experiences or
spiritual gifts, doesn’t that confirm salvation? Not necessarily. If you went
to visit a millionaire at his home and you told him you are moving into his
house to live with him and he has to allow this because you are a good person
and you live right, unless you happened to be related and on excellent terms
with him you would not receive a positive response because he does not know you
and you are not even related. If you die lost, when you stand before Jesus
Christ as your judge your pleas that you were a good person and lived right
will not receive a positive response. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we
not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy
name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23; also consider
James 2:19; when you read Matthew 7:24-27 consider that sand is little pieces
of rock; also consider Matthew 13:24-30)
Consider that one especially noteworthy characteristic
of goats is that a goat is the most religious animal; goats spend more time on
their knees keeping up an appearance of piety than any other animal: Being very
religious does not necessarily mean being close to God or closer to the truth;
it often means the opposite. (Consider Matthew 25:31-34)
