We don’t become a Christian over time. The second you accept Jesus as Savior, you belong to His family. [Spirituality & Religion]
The very second you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, you became a child of God, a member of His family. If it was any other way, that would mean you would constantly be trying to earn His favor, which is called “works”. We can never work, nor earn, our salvation. It is a free gift from God, just for the asking.
It is grace that saves us....unearned favor from God. Of course faith is involved, which tricks many people into wondering if they were truly saved....that is, if they did enough. But those words “did enough” imply they are still trying to earn their way to heaven by doing good works, which is an impossibility.
All one has to do, is ask Jesus to save them and forgive them of their sins, so they can receive forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. It is Jesus that does the saving. If someone gives you a free gift, you didn’t have to earn it. It was freely given. You’re just the receiver of it. Same way with salvation. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh.” Matthew 7:7-8
Don’t get “Grace” and “works” mixed up. Here’s the order. Grace always comes first. Always. Then, after one is saved, they give service to God, as the Holy Spirit leads them to. God arranged it that way, so that we would know full well, where our salvation comes from. Not by works, lest any man may boast (Ephesians 2:9) ... so not by man. We are never saved by our own efforts, but only because of the grace of God (unearned favor from God). It is Jesus who did the “work” of saving us from our sins, by His blood sacrifice on the cross. Why a blood sacrifice? There is no remission of sins, except by a blood sacrifice.
Hebrews 9:22 - “For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Everything must be sprinkled with blood, and no sins can be forgiven, unless blood is offered.” So we can see from this verse, that it is only the blood of Christ, that washes away our sins.
So to reiterate, Grace comes first, then works means anything we do for Christ, after we have received Him as our Lord and Savior. We receive rewards for what we do for Jesus, however motive is involved. We don’t do things for Jesus, just so we can be rewarded. We do it out of love for Him and all He did for us, in giving us a brand new life in Him, and saving us from an eternity in Hell. Without Him, this would never have been possible, so we should be grateful.
Then we have what is called our “walk” with Christ. This is where everything we do, is for His glory. Everything we say and do, reflects on Him. If we say we are a Christian, and are faithful...then we will not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Otherwise, we’re just hypocrites, and there are far too many of them out there, teaching false doctrine and ruining the true believer’s reputation. They’ll have to answer for that.
Our daily walk with Jesus, is also a time of spiritual growth, and that never stops, unless we stop it. When we stop reading and studying our Bible, and stop listening to the Word, we stunt our growth in Christ. This does not mean we’ve lost our salvation! It means we’ve gotten lazy, and stunted our growth in Christ, by not staying in the Word, praying, or hearing His Word. When we were young and didn’t listen to dad, our fellowship with him was interrupted, but he never kicked us out of his house! We were his, and still part of the family. We were not disowned, nor abandoned, but we felt that interruption in our spirit. We longed to restore that fellowship, so WE came back to our senses and ran back to dad...not the other way around. Dad, in his wisdom, was there all the time...just waiting for you to learn the lesson and come back to the safety and security of his arms. Same way with God. Your Heavenly Father shall never leave you, nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
As you can see, we don’t become mature Christians overnight. As “babes in Christ”, we grow spiritually each day, as we walk and talk with Him. We grow that relationship, over time, and will make mistakes along the way, but that’s ok, because that’s the way we learn and grow in Christ, just like any other relationship. When we were newborn babies, we didn’t learn everything at once. As newborn Christians, we do the same, learning one thing at a time, until we mature in Christ, and grow in the knowledge of Christ through Bible study, hearing of the Word, and prayer.
It is grace that saves us....unearned favor from God. Of course faith is involved, which tricks many people into wondering if they were truly saved....that is, if they did enough. But those words “did enough” imply they are still trying to earn their way to heaven by doing good works, which is an impossibility.
All one has to do, is ask Jesus to save them and forgive them of their sins, so they can receive forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. It is Jesus that does the saving. If someone gives you a free gift, you didn’t have to earn it. It was freely given. You’re just the receiver of it. Same way with salvation. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh.” Matthew 7:7-8
Don’t get “Grace” and “works” mixed up. Here’s the order. Grace always comes first. Always. Then, after one is saved, they give service to God, as the Holy Spirit leads them to. God arranged it that way, so that we would know full well, where our salvation comes from. Not by works, lest any man may boast (Ephesians 2:9) ... so not by man. We are never saved by our own efforts, but only because of the grace of God (unearned favor from God). It is Jesus who did the “work” of saving us from our sins, by His blood sacrifice on the cross. Why a blood sacrifice? There is no remission of sins, except by a blood sacrifice.
Hebrews 9:22 - “For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Everything must be sprinkled with blood, and no sins can be forgiven, unless blood is offered.” So we can see from this verse, that it is only the blood of Christ, that washes away our sins.
So to reiterate, Grace comes first, then works means anything we do for Christ, after we have received Him as our Lord and Savior. We receive rewards for what we do for Jesus, however motive is involved. We don’t do things for Jesus, just so we can be rewarded. We do it out of love for Him and all He did for us, in giving us a brand new life in Him, and saving us from an eternity in Hell. Without Him, this would never have been possible, so we should be grateful.
Then we have what is called our “walk” with Christ. This is where everything we do, is for His glory. Everything we say and do, reflects on Him. If we say we are a Christian, and are faithful...then we will not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Otherwise, we’re just hypocrites, and there are far too many of them out there, teaching false doctrine and ruining the true believer’s reputation. They’ll have to answer for that.
Our daily walk with Jesus, is also a time of spiritual growth, and that never stops, unless we stop it. When we stop reading and studying our Bible, and stop listening to the Word, we stunt our growth in Christ. This does not mean we’ve lost our salvation! It means we’ve gotten lazy, and stunted our growth in Christ, by not staying in the Word, praying, or hearing His Word. When we were young and didn’t listen to dad, our fellowship with him was interrupted, but he never kicked us out of his house! We were his, and still part of the family. We were not disowned, nor abandoned, but we felt that interruption in our spirit. We longed to restore that fellowship, so WE came back to our senses and ran back to dad...not the other way around. Dad, in his wisdom, was there all the time...just waiting for you to learn the lesson and come back to the safety and security of his arms. Same way with God. Your Heavenly Father shall never leave you, nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
As you can see, we don’t become mature Christians overnight. As “babes in Christ”, we grow spiritually each day, as we walk and talk with Him. We grow that relationship, over time, and will make mistakes along the way, but that’s ok, because that’s the way we learn and grow in Christ, just like any other relationship. When we were newborn babies, we didn’t learn everything at once. As newborn Christians, we do the same, learning one thing at a time, until we mature in Christ, and grow in the knowledge of Christ through Bible study, hearing of the Word, and prayer.
