Can You Walk Away … Part I

Can we … if we choose to … walk away from God and lose our salvation? Or as some teach, once you are born again, and have been accepted in God's family, you can never be lost … no matter what you do.

I want to look at this question starting with what Jesus has already done and what He will continue to do for us.

Hebrews 7:25 … "Wherefore he (Jesus) is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

Hebrews 10:12 … "After he (Jesus) had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God …"

Jesus is now seated on the Mercy Seat of Heaven and … "He ever liveth to make intercession" for us continually, without end. The general meaning is … that Jesus, as often as is needed, constantly intercedes for us through that sacrifice; and we need not fear that His mercy will ever be exhausted.

Because there is nothing else in the way of a sacrifice required by God, and knowing the work of the cross was complete, satisfying God's judgment for sin; the Apostle Paul makes one of the greatest statements found in Scripture …

Romans 8:1 … "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus …" Period!!!

Paul continues in verses 33-34 …

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."

The question now arises … Why does Jesus need to continue making intercession for believers after being born again if you cannot be lost?

So … if all this has been done by God the Father, through His Son Jesus, our Lord and Saviour … why would anyone ever want to walk away from their salvation? But if they do …

What happens if a Christian does decide to walk away and return again to his old sinful lifestyle? The Apostle Peter speaks to this and it doesn't sound too encouraging.

2nd Peter 2:20-22 … "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."

Can this actually happen to a Christian? Yes, I believe it can. But if it cannot happen as some teach, why is this warning given?

If a man has escaped the sin of the world through the knowledge of Christ and faith in Him; and then is entangled or ensnared again in sin, and overcome; Peter says their last state is worse than the first … for they no longer have an excuse, having once been set free from sin.

Is there a warning given in the Bible, about going back to our former sinful lifestyle?

2nd Peter 3:14-17 … "Wherefore, beloved … be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness."

The last of these four verses, 2nd Peter 3:17 in the Amplified Bible reads this way … "Let me warn you therefore, beloved, that knowing these things beforehand, you should be on your guard, lest you … fall."

Beloved … that's addressed to Christians. We are to be … on guard.

Proverbs 4:23 … "Keep and guard your heart … above all that you guard …" (Amp.)

Adam Clarke says … "Above all keeping, guard thy heart. He, who knows anything of himself, knows how apt his affections are to go astray."

It doesn't always happen because of sin. Some believers have endured tragedy and heartache in their lives, and have had sorrow overtake and blind them from the truth of God to the point where they shook their fist at God and blamed Him for whatever it was that happened to them, and then proceeded to walk away never looking back.

Can anyone truthfully say that could not happen to us?

I think some people are "still born" instead of being "born again."


To be continued …


Comments welcome.