Choose Salvation

Bible Study

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

Grace is a gift and while believers don’t always agree on the extent of the grace, it IS grace.

Ephesians 2.8 tells us , “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

I happen to believe the grace Paul refers to is every minute of every day for every year.

Feel free to disagree because I will not be offended.

Part of my very long Seminary journey (144 graduate level hours) was embracing what God led me to believe.

I personally believe the God/Jesus I know could never ever give up on someone who believed. I’ve never personally met someone who once really believed and they then decided they did not believe. That’s not to say they don’t exist…it simply means I haven’t met a person who once loved Jesus with heart and soul and then they decided they changed their mind.

I have however known people who loved Jesus and when life took a bad turn they were angry with God. But they eventually came back to God when their anger subsided.

The main reason I believe in eternal salvation for everyone who has embraced God is found in Paul’s words.

Our salvation is not of our doing.

It is God who imparts salvation.

It is a gift and because it is an eternal gift it cannot be fully evoked.

Now, those who are angry with God may stay angry for a time but even if in their last second of life when the door to heaven opens and they see the glorious light of God I believe they will walk to the light.

I do not believe they would be able to turn away from God’s light once they see the beauty and glory of God.

So…we are saved by grace because we believe in God’s light and love.

We don’t have to “do” anything to receive it.

God’s love comes to us and we either open our hands or we don’t open our hands.

Some people believe we need to be a certain age and at one time I leaned in that direction, but one day something happened that changed my thinking.

We had a friend come to our church to preach and while he was there my very young son who had turned four years old told the visiting preacher he wanted Jesus but his mom and dad didn’t think he was old enough.

One funny look from the preacher forever changed my mind. He said, “really?” Then he prayed with my son and baptized him before the week was up.

Ergo…any age any time into forever.

Deborah

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