“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sins—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus; 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast… 10 being God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Ephesians 2: 4-6, 8-10
I’ve been lost before. I’ve lost my car keys. I’ve lost my wallet. I’ve lost days of work due to illness or neglect… but I can never lose my salvation. Word.
I was leading an adult Bible class this past Sunday and we were talking about Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin John and how Christian baptism came to be and how the promises given to anyone who is baptized includes being connected to one another in holy, wonderful and mysterious ways. And in that conversation… there were twists and turns and thoughts of faith, salvation and eternity including big church words like justification and sanctification and honest concerns about who’s in and who’s out and by the time we got to the end of our discussion time… the question was asked by a sincere person in a sincere way… “can we lose our salvation?” It’s a good question to ask… and I’m glad it was… as we’re not alone in the asking and it’s a query which goes back to the beginning of time…
And just so everyone remembers… I’ve been a Christian all my life… even though I’ve searched for a better way than following Jesus… and tried more than once to walk away from it all due to selfish and short-sighted thoughts… and that I’m also part of the ‘Lutheran’ tribe of Christians who can sincerely say Martin Luther wrestled with this question like so many before and after his life. How about you? Can you lose your salvation? Faith matters… for all of us and God!
In addition to being of the ‘Lutheran’ tribe I’m one who is firmly camped out in the “salvation is a gift of God” clan and am ready to die on that hill… until someone can show me a better way… and it’s like this… as I echo St. Paul’s words to his friends in Ephesus… by grace I have been saved… this is God’s own doing… a gift I didn’t ask for or frankly deserve… just like… I didn’t ask to be here in this world… my parents loved each other enough that they took a risk of having a son… me… and then went so far as to take care of me and nurture me until I could get out on my own… and again… I didn’t ask to be here… but here I am… almost 69 years later still amazed at how that all happened yet pondering still what’s down the road…. AND… and this is a BIG and… that’s how it is with salvation. I didn’t ask for it but the more I paid attention to my life and the life around me the more I realized how much I needed it…like food and water and air and love… etc… salvation does for me what I cannot do for myself.
So, can I lose my salvation? No. Really. Why would I want to? It’s a gift… I didn’t ask for it… and it’s always there and now that I know it’s there… I’m striving to live deeper into it because as I do my life just gets better and better… and the only way to have my salvation interrupted is to walk away from it… neglect it… even reject it… but even in so doing… it’s still there… offering again and again an opportunity to journey with Jesus as that was his ask of Peter, James, and John to … “follow me”… and it’s in the following that makes life better… for me… for you and for everyone as when we ignore this gift of salvation and go our own way that’s when it all starts to break down… actually becoming the “hell-uv-it” for any of us… so… if you think you’ve lost your salvation… think again… do an about face and trust the grace of Jesus bound to find us all!
