Serious and respectul question: How do you look at salvation?

Question

It is a gift a grace of God, this too I know and believe. But what I am asking is do you believe you cannot lose it? Or can one throw it away? Does faith require works and love or does faith demand it? Example: I was given a gift for my birthday and it is now mine. I can keep it, throw it away or misuse it. It is up to me to care for it and use wisely. What are your beliefs and if you will your faith that brings this understanding. I am Catholic and I believe that faith requires and demands love in action. I believe that the gift can be lost or thrown away.
Peace Be With You,
Debra

Answer 1

yes you can forsake the faith but God will NEVER forsake you

Answer 2

Hi Debra,

I have some thoughts about "salvation" you might not have heard before. After spending many years reading scripture, and just plain getting to know God, I have a slightly different take on it than the standard issue version. There are several points to the teachings of Jesus that have just plain been overlooked, or forgotten by the churches. He came to this world, to bring a message that was simple and elegant: "The Kingdom of God, is within you". When we come to God as humble children, and invite Him into our hearts, He sends His Spirit into us, and bonds with us. We become new creatures, part mortal, part Immortal. The old values of materialism and fear, fall away. Love and Wisdom, become the foundation of all our choices. We have embarked on the Path of Eternity, and we will never be the same again. Jesus taught, that unless you undergo this Spiritual Rebirth, you shall not enter into God's Spiritual Kingdom. This, is what we have mistakenly come to call "salvation", and it is not dependant on any religious ritual, or pronouncement. Once the Indwelling Spirit, has come into command of your life, there is not much of a chance that you are going to turn back to a life of selfishness, sin, and rejection of the Holy Spirit. The reason so many people accept the salvation offered by churches, and then return to their old ways, is because they never experienced Spiritual Rebirth. Until you do, you are still counted among the dead, and subject to the influence of darkness. Once you have tasted, and seen the Goodness of God in person, you will never go back. His Love, is irresistable.

Answer 3

Great question The apostle Paul wrote that we are saved by grace through faith it is a gift of God not as a result of works so no man can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 The apostle John wrote that God loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 Now as far as loosing it. the word eternal life is in a special tense. a perfect tense. this means that its something that happened in the past and is in the present and goes on in the future. So once you got it you don't loose it. If you don't' want it anymore than you probably never had it.

Answer 4

if i may just use the birthday gift anaology

when we are given a gift is it not the giving that matters and not what we do with it or even if we keep it ?
i know i have been given a gift in the past that someone else admired and i said " you have it you would appreciate it more and i would be happy for you to have it "
it is the act of giving the gift that is the real gift
you know god and know jesus , that gift was given to you
i dont feel your life or your salvation would be any less important or real if you didnt work on it ( with respect ) .. it is how that " knowing " has affected your life and your efforts in making a good life for you and for those around you
take the gift with appreciation of the love that has been given and live a good life without too much demand
just my thoughts on it
love always
pangel xx

Answer 5

Great question...

Well personally I know that salvation is the gift of God, there is no other way to get it than accepting Jesus and Jesus alone... not Jesus plus works of any sort including Baptizim... but you should be baptized none the less.

Can you lose your Salvation... not in that sense no, you can't just lose it do to sin however you can very well forefit it by conforming to the world and not living for God, that becomes clear in Revelation 3:5 that it can happen if we don't overcome.

We all backslide and thats a tad bit different, but when you start living for the world and not God that is when you forefit it.

Answer 6

Faith is something hoped for and not seen. Love puts action (works) to being one of God's children. I believe we can lose salvation. I'm sure if I would tell God that I was no longer interested, that He would honor that and take this gift back.

Answer 7

I too believe that salvation is freely offered to all who trust Jesus Christ by the free and sovereign grace of God alone. His salvation was made possible through His finished work of the cross. When one repents of sin (Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God), and trusts Christ and His gospel alone to save, that person is immediately born again, justified (declared “not guilty” before heaven’s tribunal), adopted as a child of God, reconciled to the Father and destined to spend eternity with the Lord.

ETERNAL SECURITY
I believe that a person who genuinely trusts Jesus Christ alone and what He accomplished on the cross, accompanied by real biblical repentance is sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. God’s word promises that that believer has eternal life and that nobody will snatch them out of the Father’s hand. God will complete the work He began in the believer until the day of Christ Jesus. However, it is essential to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” by firmly embracing the grace of God to obey Christ in abiding in Christ and His Word. I believe this means that one can’t be lost by God assuming that one had a genuine conversion. God never loses anyone but raises them up on the last day (John 6:44)

I believe that in many cases, where it appears that one loses their salvation, even after showing external signs seeming to authenticate the validity of salvation, that the person never was truly born again or was “superficially converted”. In other words, there was never genuine saving faith regardless of what looked like the outward fruit of genuine salvation. This is extremely common in the modern Church. I believe this is because many have responded to a watered down version of the gospel (in some cases a misleading version of the gospel), by being rushed into a “sinners prayer”, assured of their salvation which they may not have obtained, began discipleship, and then apparently fell away. Did they in fact fall way or lose their salvation if their conversion experience was suspect?

I don’t believe they ever lost it because they never really had it. When ignored, watered down, distorted, or key truths are left out in the explanation and declaration of the gospel, it will not bring about a true and deeply abiding conversion.

Answer 8

I believe once we have TRULY asked Jesus Christ into our hearts and repented of our sins we are forgiven and nothing can separate us from beloning to Him.

Salvation cannot be earned, it is a gift. It's in the Bible, Ephesians 2:8-9, TLB. "Because of His kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves; it too is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it."

Even if a man has "good actions" Jesus Christ will be the judge of who they did the good actions (what was their motive to Glorify God, themself, etc.)

Plus if salvation could be lost then we would continually be save, lost, saved, lost with every sin we commit daily. We are either saved or we are not. Wonder if I got saved today, sinned and then got in an accident and died. Was I truly saved or would I got to Hell? I believe I will be saved because Jesus died for ALL my sins...not just the ones that I committed until my request for salvation.

If a man who accepts Christ continues to sin and turn their back on God one must question if this person was TRULY saved.

Answer 9

I think that all the people who want to be saved will understand to pay attention to instructions God gave us regarding salvation.

As Paul is teaching us to become a Christian, James ( half brother of Jesus ) will go more to the detail what is expected from us once we are saved.

I also believe that the gift can be lost or thrown away. God will respect our free will. We must use it wisely.

Answer 10

I'm with in that salvation is a gift from God. I might want to muddle with it if not throwing it away altogether, and I'm afraid that his could be the psychological reason behind penance and acts of mortification. It's more honorable to my human pride to achieve salvation. It crushes my pride that salvation is generously presented to me without making a dent in my banking account. But I trust that since God invested his or her entire life into it, neither I nor the other sinners who need it will lose it.

Answer 11

I believe that salvation is a free gift from God, if we had to work for it, it would not be a gift, it would be wages.

I do not believe that someone who is truly saved can lose their salvation, the Bible says that "no man can pluck you out of my hand" that would include you yourself. I say TRULY saved because, if you are truly saved you would never want to give it up. the Bible says "they went out from among us because they weren't of us" meaning they left because they were never TRULY ours.
now about the birthday gift , you are right, it was a gift.. you did nothing to earn it. it's from someone that you love.. you know in your heart that you would never throw it away or misuse it, but rather you would cherish it forever. same with salvation. it's more than the gift, it's the deep, respectful love for the one who gave the gift.
you are also right about a gift of grace.. "grace" meaning "unmerited favor" with God. we did nothing to deserve it, but he freely gave us this wonderful gift of life through his Son Jesus Christ.
I don't understand how someone can say that they can work for salvation, if this were true, then Jesus died in vain and mankind could have worked out their salvation without help from him.
I think this is a wonderful question. it does remind us of Jesus' perfect sacrifice for us, and God's mercy and grace.