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Remaining faithful to Christ
The sixth step in the plan of salvation is to live
your life faithfully to what Christ asks of you. The first five
steps, culminating in baptism, add you to Christ's church. But to
retain your salvation, you must remain faithful to Christ. Galatians
1:6-7 says, "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from
Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel;
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to
pervert the gospel of Christ." If it is not possible for us to
fall from the grace of God, why would Paul be concerned that the
people of Galatia would be following other teachings?
We must also consider that some people will be close
to right in their beliefs, but will still not make it into heaven.
Matthew 7:21-23 says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord,
Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of
My Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Your name, and done many wonders in Your
name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart
from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"
Salvation is not a gift handed out to those who
don't seek it or don't deserve it. See
(Matthew 6:33, 7:7-8),
Our
salvation is a gift of God's grace that we can attain only if our
faith moves us to action. The book of James spends a lot of time
discussing how our faith will be proved and made complete by our
actions. See James 1:22-25,
James 2:15-18,
and James 2:20-26.
This is not to say
that we work to earn our salvation -- we need only have faith. But
faith that's not demonstrated by actions is dead, which is the same
as not having it in the first place. |
