Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who commits sin is of the Devil, for the Devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil’s works. 1 John 3:6-8 HCSB
We know from Romans 3:23 that we all sin and fall short of God’s glory. When we get saved, however, we no longer want to sin. It doesn’t mean we never sin, unfortunately, we still do. It just means that we don’t deliberately sin and if we do, we are convicted by the Holy Spirit and repent.
We’ve talked about deliberate sin. We know deliberate sin leads to hell. How do we reconcile the fact that a person gets saved, but goes on sinning? Well, my friend, it could be one of two things. It could have been that it was not a true salvation. Or it could have been that this person has become what we call backslidden. They have slidden back to their old sinful ways. It happens to the best of us, unfortunately.
When we are truly saved, it changes our life. It changes our whole perspective. We no longer want to sin. We are convicted by the Holy Spirit when we slip up and sin unintentionally. We want to repent. We want to maintain righteousness and live a life that pleases God.
Often when we get saved, we are excited about our salvation. We want to tell others what Jesus has done for us. We want to commit our lives to Him. But just as love can fade when two people become all too familiar with each other, we can lose that first love. Jesus said this about the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:4.
When we lose that zeal that we once had for Jesus we may stop studying our Bible, we may not pray as often as we should. And we may lose interest in attending and being involved in church. If you have come to understand that you are backslidden, that’s a good sign. It means the Holy Spirit is convicting you and leading you back to Jesus. Turn to Him, confess your sins and He will cleanse you (1 John 1:9) and He will remove that sin from you (Psalm 103:12).
If you got saved but continued sinning, you might want to question your salvation. You might want to get down on your knees and pray Psalm 139:23-24 which says, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.”
Salvation can’t happen unless there is humble submission. We must surrender our life to Christ. We can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in the church and think it will all work out. God doesn’t want half; He wants all of us. He wants to be number one in our lives (Matthew 6:33).
When we have become backslidden or maybe realized we were never really saved it can be a good thing. The good thing is that you realize it. This is the first step to getting things straight with Jesus.
This is also a very vulnerable time because the devil doesn’t want you to realize it. He doesn’t want you to get right with God. He will lie to you and tell you things like, “What’s the use? You are too far gone to be saved.” Or, “God doesn’t really care about your sin, He’s okay with it. He will let it slide.”
Don’t believe these lies. Follow the instructions in James 2:7, submit to God, resist the devil and the devil will flee from you.
Take a moment to think about how you live your life. If you feel you have been truly saved but have failed to stop sinning, my pastor would ask, “What have you been saved from?” Pray Psalm 139:24-24 and ask God to guide you in the right way.
Realizing you’re a sinner is the first step to salvation.
Have a great day!