If all we need to do to be saved is to believe in Jesus, what happens after we are saved and we start to have doubts? Do we stop being saved as soon as that happens. I’m not just talking about the doubts that often come right after you believe, kind of like buying a car and having immediate second thoughts.
I’m talking about someone who has known Jesus for a long time and they start to struggle in their faith. Maybe they don’t doubt God exists, but they doubt God’s ability to rescue them even while they are still trusting God. In other words, they struggle with God, but they don’t give up on God. They are filled with doubt if not unbelief. Or maybe they struggle even worse.
What happens after we are saved and we fail miserably? I mean really blow it big time? What happens if we keep blowing it, even after we are supposed to know better?
As I said in the last posting, when a person first believes in or trusts Jesus, they don’t know everything there is to know about God. They don’t even believe everything the Bible or the Church teaches. But they believe enough to know that Jesus will save them, in spite of all their own doubts and fears.
The same is true 5 weeks or 5 years or 5 decades later. We are not more “saved” because we believe more of the Bible or know more about God. So when doubts or worries start to flood in like a tsunami, we don’t suddenly get to the point where we are unsaved. Faith is not like some quota that you have to keep from dipping below a certain level.
That’s why Jesus uses that famous comparison with faith being the size of a mustard seed. A seed which is so miniscule – you’ve probably seen one hanging around someone’s neck in a glass ball – seems hardly worth anything at all. It is such “worthless” faith that is all that is needed to save us and to keep us saved. And such faith God’s Spirit provides – in fact, only God’s Spirit can provide and provide He does through revelation, meaning we can’t try to get it through our own efforts.
Even when I doubt. Even when I fail. Even when I am tempted by unbelief. As the great old hymn, “Our Great Savior” concludes, “I am his and he is mine.”
So when Peter denies Jesus and Judas betrays Jesus on the night before Jesus is crucified, are they both lost at that point? In short, no. When later Jesus talks with Peter, the question Jesus phrases is, “Peter, do you love me?” It is not a question of whether Jesus loves Peter – that is never in doubt as a fact. Jesus never gives up on Peter. All that Jesus wants Peter to admit is that he (Peter) has not given up on Jesus. Not that Jesus has any doubts, but he wants Peter to face up to his own faith, that he still has faith.
Judas never gives Jesus that chance. He takes his own life, robbing himself of any opportunity to hear Jesus ask, “Judas, do you love me?” What? After all that Judas has done? What Judas did was no different than what Peter did. Except that Judas then gave in to unbelief and denied himself the opportunity to be restored by Jesus.
Saving grace is a truly amazing thing. We don’t earn it. We don’t walk in and out of it like the children’s song, “Go in and out the window.” We can’t get more of it, like accumulating brownie points. It is a gift to us that we receive by faith and by faith keep, moving ahead in life one step at a time.
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