When it comes salvation, once is enough

It was the winter of 1996-97 when my family and I began commuting out to the Valley from Anchorage to attend and eventually pastor a small church, Harbour Lights Baptist Church.

While there are those who commute to make a living, what sets commuting to attend church apart is what to do, week in and week out, in between Sunday morning and evening services. And about the only thing worse than this is to add seven to eight children under the age of 10 into the mix, and then to have the evening service start somewhere after 6 p.m. I guarantee, there is no nap time long enough to prevent boredom from setting in. Over the weeks we found various ways to keep ourselves entertained and on one particular Sunday afternoon we found ourselves down at the Wasilla High Gun Show.

Now, picture in your mind the last gun show you attended and imagine what might go through your mind if you saw our family moving from table to table. While it might be kind of unusual to see such a large family in attendance, what would have struck you as being even more unusual would have been our clothes — suits and dresses are not your normal, gun show attire. I cannot tell you how many people we talked to “guessed” that we had just come from church. One such man, a charter boat captain, was a little more curious than most and even went so far as to ask which church we attended. And once he heard that we were from a Baptist church, he said, “Oh, you’re one of them ‘once saved, always saved,’ aren’t ya?”

After affirming his suspicions, he added, “Well, personally, I’m working on my third time.” What he meant by this was that he had somehow lost his salvation twice previously and after each failure he got saved once again.

Up to this point the both of us had been smiling and our conversation was jovial, but as I looked deeply into his eyes my voice took on serious tones as I asked, “Have you ever read Hebrews chapter 6?” With a troubled look appearing on his face, he answered that he had not. And so I continued, “It says that if it is possible for you to lose your salvation, you can never get it back.”

The passage I was referring to is verses 4-6, which read, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance …”

The words “impossible” and “renew” are the operative words here. The very presence of these words tells us these Hebrew believers had come to believe that they could lose their salvation and then get it back again, but the writer tells them that they were wrong. Why? Because it is analogous to crucifying Christ a second time. What is Paul saying? Our security as a believer is bound up in the crucifixion, and the plain and simple fact is that Christ died only once. Therefore, you can only get saved once.

Folks, I am “once saved, always saved” because of the power of the cross. To say that you can lose your salvation is the same as saying that Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is not enough and is why verse 6 concludes that such a position puts Christ “to an open shame.” But when Jesus hung on the cross, he said, “It is finished.”

In I Corinthians 10, Paul reaches back into the Old Testament and talks about the Rock from which Moses gave the Israelites water to drink, twice, and he said, “… that Rock was Christ.” Have you ever wondered why Moses got in trouble with God and was not allowed to go into the promise land after striking the Rock both times? Striking the Rock pictured Christ’ crucifixion, and Moses was told to strike it only the first time, but when he struck it the second time rather than speaking to it, he was punished because Christ would only be crucified one time.

What we need to understand is where does salvation rest — in your hands or in mine, or in those of the resurrected Christ? The Bible says Jesus is the author and finisher of the Christian faith. And the Apostle Paul said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net.