Question:  Dear Greg,

            Your work is a breath of fresh air!  Now my question: we are saved by grace.  Can one become unsaved, be it by continuing in sin or neglect, as the scripture seems to say, “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation”?

            Thanks and may God grant you all the grace to teach us more of His ways.

            Joe

Answer:  Dear Joe,

            While Christians debate this issue, PTM believes that salvation is assured.  That is, we are saved by God through grace, and we continue to be assured of that salvation by his grace.  We do not lose eternal life, which is given to us when we are saved; otherwise the Bible would not call it eternal life, but rather conditional life—conditional upon our continued obedience.

            We do not earn or merit salvation initially; neither do we maintain that status by our works.  It is all up to God—not to us, lest any man should boast.

            This unbelievable grace cannot be understood or completely appreciated by the human mind, so we usually then think: “well, that means I can sin as much as I want, and still be saved”.  If we are truly saved we will not want to do such a thing.  However, the “scandal” of God’s grace is that he does take a risk.  He does love us so much that he is “vulnerable” (at least to our way of thinking)--in the sense that he commits to us no matter what, saying that he will not forsake us, he will not lose us (in the context of a shepherd and sheep), etc.

            Of course, when we sin after conversion we do impact our relationship with God, for God is holy, and does not co-exist with sin.  But our sin after conversion does not impact our eternity, according to our view at PTM.

            Not all Christians see it this way, and basically believe that we are saved by grace but we are also judged from that initial point of conversion upon our works, and that we can lose our salvation.  While there are passages that can be interpreted that way, such teaching almost invariably leads to legalism—prescriptions about what one must do or not do to remain within God’s good graces.  Those do’s and don’ts are almost always run through human filters, resulting in lives that are not filled with joy, but with slavery to human traditions and rules.

            Big subject, lots to be said on both sides, but that’s all I have time for right now.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht