My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish-ever! No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.  John 10:27-30 HCSB

In the Bible, Christians are commonly referred to as sheep. A good pastor is often referred to as a good shepherd. This is because sheep are dumb animals that survive with the help of a shepherd. The shepherd tries to protect the sheep and keep them from danger and harm. Sheep left unattended are not only vulnerable to attack, but are in danger of getting themselves into trouble or into situations that they are unable to get themselves out of, sound familiar?

Now, I have often heard pastors and other Christians say, “Once saved, always saved”.  Now this scripture passage clearly tells us that once we accept Christ as our savior that no one can separate us from Him. Romans 8:38 tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

I have told you before that I have a simple mind and I believe what is in the Bible without question. God said it, I believe it, that’s a wrap. But there has been some debate about this and the reason that this debate has any merit at all is that people who are saved go around behaving just like the lost. Many times you cannot tell the difference. My pastor often says, what were they saved from? Their behavior doesn’t seem to change.

If I were asked to debate this scripture, I could just pull any number of people that had gone before the church, made a public profession of faith, and been baptized then continued living as they had before with no visible changes, right? I myself lived my life in that way and trust me, I know I wasn’t the only one.  Perhaps what we should say is that once truly saved, always saved.

I believe that people go before their churches making public professions of faith and getting baptized for a number of reasons. Hopefully, it is because they have drawn near to God and He has called them to salvation. But often times I believe that people do this not because they are called by God to do so at that time, but because their friends do it or their family members do it and they are caught up in the emotion of it all. If this is the case they may not truly be saved.

Our salvation is like a baby. When we are first saved, we are baby Christians. Now we all know that you can’t bring a newborn baby home from the hospital and stick it in the corner and hope that it will grow and do well. You can’t even do that with a plant, right? But we do that with our Christianity and sadly many churches do the same thing with new members. We have new members come in and we welcome them into our church family and then we just hope that they will grow. We must encourage them. We must feed them and water them.  We must walk beside them.

Now in the case of someone who is not truly saved, they will walk like the world, talk like the world and live as they had. However, if you are truly saved, you will want to live for the Lord. You will want to do what God commands us to do and not do what He commands us not to do. You will want others to share in this new found freedom that you now have.

As Christians we need to be set apart. Yesterday, we spoke of being sanctified or set apart. We should be set apart not in pride looking down on others, but in humility looking up to God. If you are saved, then those around you will see that you are sanctified or different from the old you and different from those around you. If you are pretending to be saved then those around you will see that you are just like everyone else.

I don’t know what your situation is today. I don’t know if you are saved or “lost as a ball in high weeds” as my pastor likes to say. But I do know that if your salvation is genuine that no one and nothing can take that away from you. We live in a very temporary world. Friendships are often temporary, we lose loved ones, we can lose possessions and we can lose jobs. But we can never lose the love of Christ.

If you are not saved, you can turn to Him today. If you claimed to be saved but are not sure, turn to God. Talk to a trusted friend or pastor. You need to know that you know that you are saved and will spend eternity with God the Father. If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are saved, then be sure you are acting like it. Be sure that others can see Christ in you. Remember, that you may be the only Bible they ever read.

Have a great day!