Losing It All On Judgment Day
There seems to be those who say that once you are
saved you don’t have eternal life until judgment day. The way I’m understanding them is that you are saved but yet some kind of sin that is not repented of (to cease doing) that comes into your life before you die will cause you to lose your salvation on judgment day.
Q. I can’t believe that I’ve having one of those salvation security moments but I have a question.
There seems to be those who say that once you are
saved you don’t have eternal life until judgment day. The way I’m understanding them is that you are saved but yet some kind of sin that is not repented of (to cease doing) that comes into your life before you die will cause you to lose your salvation on judgment day.
The reasons they seem to give are verses that tell us to endure to the end..do deeds worthy of repentance..or that since we are also being saved that we can somehow sin and mess that up in the end so that we end up not acquiring eternal life in the end. They really are confusing me. Can you clear it up for me?
A. This idea doesn’t make any sense because if you follow it to its logical conclusion, then only those people who have stopped sinning altogether will be saved. That means that Jesus didn’t have to die for us because we could stop being sinners by our selves.
Part of the problem is their interpretation of the word “repent” It doesn’t mean to stop doing something, it means to change your mind about something. When John the Baptist said “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matt. 3:2) he wasn’t telling people to stop sinning so they could enter the kingdom. If he was then only people who had already become sin free could be saved. And yet we know that we can’t be saved until we change our minds and admit that we’re sinners who can’t save ourselves and need a Savior. He was telling them to change their minds about their need for a Savior, and stop relying on keeping the Law.
Those verses they quote all have to do with keeping our faith, not having perfect behavior. Romans 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”
That statement can’t be true if we’re constantly worrying about losing our salvation, and won’t know for sure if we still have it until it’s too late.
