Can We Lose Our Salvation? Part five..

Our Condition: Washed; Baptized With the Spirit

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV)

To be washed means that we have been made clean of our former stains. Having been plunged beneath the flood of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are cleansed, washed, clothed in pure robes of righteousness. We are no longer covered in the filth of our sin. We are cleansed (cf. Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5-7). We have lost the stains of guilt. This being the case, how can we ever be considered guilty again?

...let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:22-23 ESV)

We can come before the Lord God in full assurance, knowing that we have been sprinkled clean. God considers us His righteous children, cleansed and washed free from evil. Look carefully at the reason for holding fast – He who promised is faithful. As we have seen, God’s faithfulness gives us confidence to trust His promises. We  can hope without wavering, for His word stands.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4 ESV)

If we possess salvation, and follow Christ, it seems absurd to suggest that we could lose what Christ has wrought, for we have been baptized with Him into His death, and raised into His life. We are alive in Christ! He is our Lord and Saviour. If we are saved, we are new. This is the theology behind every call and command to put off the old self and put on the new, to abstain from former lusts and proceed in good works. We can walk in righteousness because we walk in newness of life. Our former life is gone! It has passed away into oblivion by the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of Christ. As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). He has never seemed like the type to be put off. See the grace in Christ’s sacrifice and life anew! In Him we are met with more grace and mercy than we could ever understand, in this life or in the life to come.

Our Condition: New Creation

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 ESV)

God has created us anew in Christ. The old has passed away to be seen no more. See the care and detail of the Lord in these terms: as He first created the universe by His word and power, assigning each part and parcel of it to fulfill its task, so He has created us in Christ, new creations. The title of “creation” or “creature” is powerful enough without the addition of “new”. Focus on that for a moment – to be new is to be fresh, novel. Christians, made new in Christ, are something that has not been seen before. 

What a mind-boggling idea – that God cares so much for us, that He makes us into something entirely different. The old has passed away and the new has come. This is a great gift from God, tied in with the reconciliation that we have through Christ. What amazing grace!