Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Good Enough To Be Saved And Remain Saved?

Peter struggled for many years when he was with Jesus. He tried to keep Jesus from going to die in Jerusalem (Matt. 16:21-23). He followed Jesus to His trial, but then denied the Lord three times, with progressively worse language (Mark 14:66-72). And years later, after all his marvelous work as an apostle, Peter still slipped in putting back from eating with Gentiles (Gal. 2:11-14).

Peter seems to have never gotten it all just right. He did well most of the time, but he too struggled with his attitude and his actions, even years after committing himself to Jesus. None of us is good enough to be saved on our own. The reality is that all of us are sinners (Rom. 3:23) and all of us have deserved punishment for our

sin (Rom. 6:23). None of its could get out of that condition without the grace of God. We cannot be saved by our efforts alone. Only by trusting God to forgive as He promised can we know that we were forgiven when we came to Christ.

"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Col. 2:12-13). How can we know that our submission to God in baptism actually saved us? Because God promised us it was so. Our faith is God's working, and our obedience to His gospel, is our assurance that our conversion was complete (Rom. 6:17-18).

Sadly, many believers, having realized they weren't good enough to be saved, then start to think they have to be good enough to stay saved. We were not good enough to be saved before we were baptized and (like Peter) we will not be good enough to stay saved after we are baptized. What saves us now is what saved us back then, the blood of Jesus. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son c1eanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7).

John is specific in describing what keeps us saved. It is not our performance, but our ongoing submission to God's will in all things. As we walk in the light, the "blood of Jesus" keeps on cleansing us, moment by moment. Walking in the light is not perfection, as John goes on to say. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (I John 1:8-10).

John reminds us that we are sinners and cannot say, at any time, "I have no sin." But all who struggle with sin and weakness, can stay saved. This is not based on our performance. It is based on the working of God who forgave us at our baptism and keeps forgiving us through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.