You Asked For It: Once Saved Always Saved?

Can You Lose Your Salvation? Understanding God's Love and Grace

For centuries, Christians have debated whether it's possible to lose your salvation. This challenging question stems from some seemingly scary verses in the Bible and touches on our deepest fears about our relationship with God.

What Does Salvation Really Mean?

Salvation is fundamentally about what God does, not what we do. Like someone trapped in a burning building who needs rescue, we cannot save ourselves from our spiritual condition. Jesus Christ came to rescue us from the consequences of our sin.

Two Important States of Salvation

According to Hebrews 10:14, believers exist in two simultaneous states:

1. Made perfect forever through Christ's sacrifice

2. Being made holy through an ongoing process

This creates an interesting tension - we are both completely saved and being transformed at the same time.

Is Faith Enough for Salvation?

While intellectual belief in God is important, James 2:19 reminds us that even demons believe in God. True saving faith requires more than just mental acknowledgment - it requires action and relationship.

What God Really Wants: Love and Relationship

The heart of salvation isn't about rules or religious duties - it's about love. Deuteronomy 6:5 reveals God's unchanging desire: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Can Sin Cause Us to Lose Salvation?

Rather than asking if we can lose salvation like a possession, we should consider:

1. Can we fall out of love with God?

2. Can sin harden our hearts against God?

3. Are we holding firmly to our original conviction about needing a Savior?

Life Application

This week, focus on these key questions:

1. Are you treating salvation as a relationship with God or just a ticket to heaven?

2. What is your "original conviction" about needing Jesus as your Savior?

3. How can you demonstrate your love for God in practical ways?

Challenge: Each day this week, encourage another believer in their faith walk. Remember that today is always "today" - don't wait to start encouraging others.

Remember: Salvation is more about God's faithful love than our perfect performance. Keep your eyes on Jesus and hold firmly to your conviction that He alone is your Savior.

You Asked For It: Good Intention or Holy Intentions?

Understanding God's Justice and Love: Making Sense of Violence in the Bible

When reading the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, many struggle with passages where God commands the destruction of entire peoples. This challenging topic requires us to approach it with humility and an open mind to understand God's perspective.

The Difficult Command

In 1 Samuel 15:3 and Deuteronomy 20:16-17, God commands the complete destruction of certain peoples, including men, women, children, and animals. This seems to contradict our understanding of a loving God who gives life rather than takes it.

Why Would a Loving God Command Such Actions?

God's motivation was not religious persecution, but rather protection of His people from corrupting influences. These nations practiced horrific customs, including child sacrifice to false gods like Molech, where infants were placed on heated metal altars to die as acts of worship.

Understanding God's Holy Intentions vs. Our Good Intentions

While we may have good intentions in questioning these commands, God operates with holy intentions - seeing the full picture of how sin spreads and destroys. Like a surgeon removing diseased tissue to save a life, God sometimes must take severe action to prevent greater suffering and death.

The Consequences of Disobedience

When the Israelites failed to fully carry out God's commands, they were influenced by these nations' practices, leading to:

1. Adoption of child sacrifice

2. Worship of false gods

3. Widespread suffering and death

4. Eventually their own exile and judgment

God's Consistent Character

The same God who commanded judgment also:

1. Offered grace to anyone who would turn to Him (like Rahab)

2. Provided laws protecting foreigners who chose to follow Him

3. Ultimately sent Jesus as an innocent sacrifice to save humanity

Life Application

Consider these questions this week:

1. Where do I need to trust God's wisdom even when I don't fully understand His ways?

2. Am I humble enough to acknowledge that God's perspective is greater than mine?

3. How can I better appreciate both God's justice and mercy in my daily life?

Challenge: This week, practice surrendering your judgment in situations where you don't understand God's ways. Instead of questioning His methods, pray for understanding and trust in His perfect wisdom and love.

You Asked For: Are There Different Severities of Sin?

Understanding God's Perspective on Sin and Life

Life through Jesus offers something far greater than what our old life of sin and death could provide. While we may sometimes feel pulled back toward old habits and desires, they ultimately leave us empty and unfulfilled compared to the joy and peace found in Christ.

Can God Create a Rock So Big He Can't Lift It?

This question attempts to create a paradox to disprove God's unlimited nature. However, the question itself is flawed because it tries to put limits on a limitless God. Scripture tells us that "with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26) and that His understanding has no limits (Psalm 147:5).

To illustrate the difference between a million and a billion, we talked about in terms we might understand. A million seconds works out to a little over 11 days. A billion seconds is….over 30 years! And a trillion seconds? It would take 1,000 generations to experience 1 trillion seconds. Our human minds struggle to comprehend true infinity - whether in terms of space, time, or power. The vastness of the universe, with its billions of galaxies, gives us just a glimpse of God's unlimited nature. He exists outside of our limited understanding of time and space. This perspective on God set’s up our next question.

Are There Different Levels of Sin?

From our human perspective, we often try to categorize sins as "worse" or "better." However, God's perspective is different. Romans 6:23 tells us "the wages of sin is death" - all sin leads to death and separation from God. While there may be different earthly consequences for various sins, God's primary concern is whether we are spiritually dead in sin or alive in Christ.

How Do We Receive New Life?

The path to life comes through:

1. Faith in Jesus Christ

2. Believing in His death and resurrection

3. Accepting His gift of righteousness

4. Being justified through faith

5. Experiencing baptism as a symbol of dying to sin and rising to new life

Life Application

This week, instead of comparing sins or trying to justify behavior, focus on this core question: Are you living in death or in life? Consider:

1. Do you truly believe Jesus loves you and offers new life?

2. Are you still finding satisfaction in things that lead to death?

3. What areas of your life need to be surrendered to experience more of Christ's life?

4. How can you pursue things that lead to life rather than death?

The challenge is to stop playing the comparison game with sin and instead embrace the new life Jesus offers - a life that finds no satisfaction in the empty promises of sin but finds complete fulfillment in Christ. We spent a lot of time in Romans this week. It’s so full of this language and helps us understand how we move from dead to sin to alive in Christ. Take some time this week to read Romans.

You Asked For It: How Can God Be Loving When Bad Things Happen?

Introduction:

With a new year comes a new series! For the next few weeks, we’ll be in a series called “You asked for it” where we tackle some tough questions submitted by you all. At Hope Summit, we don’t shy away from the tough questions. Your mess is welcome here, and we feel it’s part of our mission to wade through the mess with you. So this week we dive right it. How can God be loving when bad things happen? When facing severe injustice or suffering, many people struggle with reconciling God's love with their painful circumstances. This week we look at how four biblical figures dealt with injustice while maintaining their faith.

Four Biblical Examples of Facing Injustice

David's Experience

Despite being anointed as future king, David faced persecution from King Saul and had to flee for his life. In Psalm 13, he cried out asking how long God would forget him, yet ultimately declared his trust in God's unfailing love. In 1st Samuel 24, we read about a time when David had the opportunity to kill King Saul, who had relentlessly been pursuing David, seeking to take his own life. Despite this opportunity we could have hardly faulted him for taking, we see he instead chose to trust in God, his goodness, and his timing. Even if he didn’t feel it at the moment, he understood God’s love involved a bigger picture he couldn’t fully comprehend. 

Habakkuk's Story

As a prophet facing rejection and persecution, Habakkuk questioned God about injustice. In chapter 1, he cries out: "How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.” Like Habakkuk, we can take our raw questions to God. He’s not afraid of what you have to say. But what’s important is that Habakkuk maintained dialogue with God even while questioning Him. God responded by teaching him to live by faith and trust in His perfect timing.

Elijah's Trial

After a great victory against the prophets of Baal, Elijah had to run for his life from Queen Jezebel. Even strong believers can face seasons of doubt and even depression. God often meets us in our weakness. In Elijah’s despair, God spoke to him not through dramatic displays but through a whisper, providing him with rest and a gentle restoration. 

Paul's Persecution

Despite faithfully planting churches, Paul faced severe persecution including being stoned and left for dead. Despite facing beatings, imprisonment, and constant opposition, Paul maintained an eternal perspective. In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 he writes that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." He maintained his faith and taught about God's perfect righteousness.

Understanding God's Perfect Love

God's love is perfect and complete, extending to both the righteous and unrighteous. This can be hard for us to understand since human love is inherently biased and imperfect. God allows both sun and rain to fall on everyone equally, demonstrating His perfect justice and love.

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

The difficult truth is that we live in a broken world where no one is truly righteous except Jesus Christ. The book of Job addresses the issues of why God allows suffering. In fact, that's one of the key points of the book - when Job demands answers from God about his suffering, God responds not with a philosophical explanation but with questions about His sovereignty and wisdom. God allows suffering while walking alongside us through it, using these circumstances to demonstrate His power, sovereignty and wisdom, through our faith, trust, and perseverance in him.

Life Application

Consider these questions:

1. What injustice or pain are you currently facing?

2. How can you trust God's perfect love even when circumstances are difficult?

3. Where do you see opportunities to be God's hands and feet in responding to suffering?

This week's challenge: Instead of praying for God to remove difficulties, ask Him to strengthen you through them and use you to demonstrate His love to others who are suffering. Look for practical ways to show up and serve in places where people question God's goodness. God's love is perfect and His plan is perfect, even when we don't understand it. Our role is to trust Him and be His representatives of love in a broken world. Remember, one of the ways that we can let people know God really is loving is by showing up and representing him, even in the really tough stuff of life.