My husband is convinced that you can lose your salvation. He believes we are initially saved by the blood of Jesus, but if we continue sinning once we know better, we will not go to heaven. Also, he believes that if we are caught sinning when Jesus returns, we will not go to Heaven.
I believe that that I will go to heaven because Jesus died for all of my sins; past, present, and future, and I have asked asked for His forgiveness. I believe he was God’s son, died on the cross, and was resurrected and because of this, he paid the price for me. I am very concerned about my husband’s views, and that he is teaching them to others, including our daughter. Please help me with this.
People who teach a conditional salvation have misunderstood several things. The first is the nature of time. Hebrews 10:12-14 says that the Lord’s sacrifice was offered once but that it covered all of time, past present and future. It says that by this ones sacrifice He has made us perfect forever, confirming a similar thought in 2 Cor. 5:17-21. The old has gone, the new has come. God now chooses to see us not as we are but as we will be, as righteous as He is.
And that brings me to the second thing, the nature of sin. Sin is a terminal illness. A resurrection body is the only cure. While on Earth believers are in remission because of the Lord’s shed blood, but the illness hasn’t left us. It only takes a surface reading of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) to understand that even our thoughts of anger, envy, or lust condemn us. We may be able to prevent ourselves from acting on our sinful desires, but without the blood of Jesus it would only take one unguarded thought to spoil everything forever. Who among us has not had even one sinful thought sine being saved?
And the third thing is grace. Grace is defined as an unmerited favor. Anytime you add any form of merit to grace, you nullify its effect (Romans 4:4). Our salvation can be described as a wonderful gift from God, freely given to all who believe. Like every other gift, it was given solely out of His love for us (John 3:16). No effort was required to earn it, and none is required to keep it. We have only to believe it to receive it. And no matter what happens in the future He won’t take it back (John 6:37-40).
Now it is God who makes us stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His spirit in our hearts as a guarantee of the good things to come (2 Cor. 1:21-22).