A Decision Doesn't Save Anyone
| “I accepted Christ when I was twelve.” “I walked down the aisle at four.” “I prayed the Sinner’s Prayer last year.” I know too many people who put their trust in a decision they made at some point in the past. As we saw in Mk 13.13 it is the one who endures until the end that will be saved. But the question hovers over your head...what are you deciding to do now? You cannot live your life by remembering when you walked don the aisle. There is no peace with God if you are not living in peace with God. What does this mean? Well, if you are not spending time listening to God through the preaching of his Word nor are spending time reading the Scriptures nor are fellowshipping with others you probably are not saved. It doesn’t matter what decision you made last week! If you don’t rest in Jesus for your salvation then you have no confidence. Our lives are not lived in a decision we made. They are lived by decisions we constantly make. What did you do yesterday to grow in your faith? What did you do the last hour to grow in your faith? The Christian life is a battle against sin. We don’t retreat when things get tough. We press into them in the strength we receive from being in relationships with other Christians. We press into it as we brandish the weapons of war. Sound a little fanciful for you? You might not be convinced of 2 Tim 3.12. You might be a little too comfortable in this life. North Americans live in a world totally different than the rest of the world. We live in warm houses and drive nice cars and talk about the weather. The problem is that we don’t think about eternity. Those who made decisions 20 years ago live as though they had never decided anything. What that does is harden their hearts to anything that God would want to do in their life. They put their confidence in themselves and continue to live in ignorance of God’s truth he offers us in the Word. People speak fancy words about faith, angels, God, Jesus, and all that...but their lives look like hell. Life is not lived by a decision but by decisions made every moment of everyday... |
posted by Matthew Wireman at 9:01 AM
Comments on "A Decision Doesn't Save Anyone"
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The Traveler said ... (Fri Feb 17, 11:24:00 AM) :
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Matthew Wireman said ... (Fri Feb 17, 12:09:00 PM) :
post a commentI completely agree with you Matthew. We have confused assurance of salvation with the perseverance of the saints. Surely it is good doctrine to believe that those who have been saved will continue until the end in obedience but the Bible does not give us a list of names as to who are saved. The only assurance we can recieve is if we are walking in the light, if we continue in the faith. No fuzzy feeling ought to commend our consciences as to our position before God.
Yeah, we must be born again. We must die in order to live. We must make sure our salvation.
I'm sure you are going to catch a bunch of flak for this post though.
Here is a similar post on my blog .. http://stiflethefolly.blogspot.com/2005/11/lords-day.html
Sorry but you need to cut and past it.
Thanks.
I liked your reference to 1 Jn 1 which is THE passage on perseverance for me. We walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with him...and remembering Jesus' words: And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn 17.3). There are plenty of people who seem to be Christians, but they go out from us to prove that they were not. In other words, when trials come, they get choked up and produce no fruit unto eternal life (cf. Parable of the Soils in Lk 8.4-15). This is a huge topic...I will discuss more in future posts...for the time being you can see some other posts of mine on this.
My first post on this:
Who is a Christian? {Entry 1}
The Series on True Christianity:
September 2006