It’s clear from God’s Word that once we believe, we are saved. We’ve all read and memorized John 3:16 because it is a statement of the “Good News” but that part about “whosoever believes in” has a special meaning and it comes with a lifelong commitment to repent from our sins, take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Remember, even the demons believe but tremble in fear of the place which they are going because they have already been judged. We haven’t been judged and have an opportunity to change our lives and avoid their fate.
Taking up our cross means to willingly suffer ridicule, harassment and even imprisonment and death for our beliefs. Following Jesus means we are to die from our own sinful carnal natures (lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and Pride of life) and be born again as a spiritual creature. It is the Holy Spirit who then helps us take on the mind of Christ and express it in our outwardly actions until the end of our lives here on earth.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 24:13 that “He who endures to the end will be saved.” Enduring means continuing on the path we have set upon in following Jesus and not turning back or away.
In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul tends to see the primary importance of salvation as a delivery from a future judgment of God that occurs in the End Times. So true!
So while we can be “saved” immediately, its most important effect (being spared from eternal death) will not come until later.
There is another interesting, and I think nearly lost, aspect of salvation that regards the person who is being saved. While it is long held Christian doctrine that simple faith and trust in Jesus as Savior is the requirement to obtain salvation, that is not exactly what Paul says. In Romans 1:16, the English translations say, “salvation to everyone who believes” but what he meant is “salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting”. There again we have enduring continuing commitment. This isn’t a one-off idea so read on…
Believing means that we are in continuing action of being transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ. One must continue, persistently, to keep on trusting in Jesus for our salvation by following him.
The doctrine of “once saved always saved”, essentially says that one can believe briefly, and then it simply doesn’t matter from that time forward. If I believed for a while, but now I fell away and stopped believing, I’m still saved because of “once saved, always saved”. That is not what Paul says; he says that salvation continues only so long as we continue trusting. If our trust ends, our salvation ends.
Paul even asks and answers this question in Romans 6 begining in verse 1: Can I receive God’s grace and go on sinning so that Grace can abound?
Here are some verses to consider in this regard about continuing on our path to our salvation:
Hebrews 6:4-6
4 For when people have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly
gift, become sharers in the heavenly gift, 5 and tasted the goodness of God’s Word and the powers of the age to come 6 and then have fallen away- it is impossible to renew them so that they turn from their sin, as long as for themselves they keep executing the Son of God on the stake all over again and keep holding him up to public contempt.
James 5:19-20
19 My brothers, if one of you wanders from the truth, and someone
causes him to return, 20 you should know that whoever turns a sinner from his wandering path will save him from death and cover many sins.
2Peter 2:20-22
20 Indeed, if they have once escaped the pollutions of the world
through knowing our Lord and Deliverer, Jesus the Messiah, and then have again become entangled and defeated by them, their latter condition has become worse than their former. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the Way of righteousness than, fully knowing, to turn from the holy command delivered to them. 22 What has happened to them accords with the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit.” Yes, “The pig washed itself, only to wallow in the mud!”