Day 124 - Eternal Salvation

Last night was Wednesday night service at church.

True to the last few weeks, it's a mad dash to make it in time, especially since I don't get off work until 5:00 p.m.

I zoom out of the office, fly in the front door of our home, greet the nanny and two of my children, quickly discuss nanny's day with my youngest daughter, throw the children into the cold and snowy SUV, zoom over to my middle daughter's theater school to pick her up from her after-school class, and try to get to church before all of the dinner food is eaten and gone. (Did I mention our church serves free dinner before Wednesday night service?) I arrive and my husband is patiently waiting. Because he works just down the street from the church, he just closes up shop and heads over at a leisurely pace.

Anyway, once the children are situation in their various classrooms, my husband and I collapse into our seats in the sanctuary, open our Bibles, and try to slow down our pounding hearts. :)

The last few sermons, the pastor has spoken of "eternal salvation," meaning that once a person is saved, they're always saved. Forever. Nothing can break their bond with Christ. Ever.

That's a new concept to me.

I've always been told that one CAN lose their salvation. It's called backsliding, I believe.

Anyway, the pastor gave this analogy:

Just as God closed the door on the ark and sealed Noah and his family inside, so it is with our salvation. God seals us.

And then the pastor also gave this analogy:

When we chose to accept Christ into our lives, God makes a covenant with us that cannot be broken. Why can't it be broken? Because we aren't the ones who seal the deal...God is.

Ephesians 2: 8-9 says this "For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not from works, so that no one can boast."

And Romans 8:33: "Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who will condemn? It is Christ who died (and more than that, He was raised), who is at the right hand of God and who is interceding for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, distress or persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword?"

And verse 38: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. "