Saved or Lost? #5

Saturday, September 3, 2022

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you” (Galatians 4:19,20 KJV).

Are these people really saved—or really lost?

When we hear of a professing “Christian” who joins a cult, or suddenly “no longer believes in God,” et cetera, what should we conclude? Are they now lost and Hell-bound? Let us ask better questions. Did they trust Christ in their heart, and then become confused? It is highly possible. Or, did they get confused and never trust Christ in their heart? This is equally likely. Frankly, only the Lord knows their heart attitude.

Firstly, authentic (!) Christians can (!) turn from the truth by thinking and/or acting like lost people. The Galatians did—and so did the Ephesians, the Corinthians, et cetera. All these saints heard God’s pure words from the Apostle Paul himself. However, today’s apostates often had extremely little to practically no understanding of the truth anyway. Since they learned superficial or shallow information, not much error was required to move them away from whatever “truth” they had.

Secondly, only God knows their heart—if they were ever actually saved in the first place. Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone cannot be revoked. God’s righteousness credited to a person’s account is permanent, for human works cannot play any role in gaining eternal life or maintaining it. Romans chapter 4: “[4] Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. [5] But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. [6] Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, [7] Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. [8] Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Yet, and we never want to forget it, these verses have, unfortunately, been true of few people anyway because most have never actually had heart faith in Christ.

Let us return to dealing with more deceived saints in Scripture….