There are no degrees to being saved. A person is either saved or they are not. We say of this or that person, "She is sweetly saved" or "So-and-so is really saved!" I repeat, we are either saved or we are not. Admittedly there are degrees of intimacy with God. For instance some saved people scarcely know Him, but they are still saved. Some know God on a first name basis (they call Him Jesus), but that does not mean they are more saved from the wrath of God than the one who knows God from a distance.
If you are just "slightly" saved, does that mean you will have a slight brush with the torment of hell before being ushered into heaven? Or if you are saved "through and through," does that indicate you will know more rewards in heaven? I see nothing in the Bible to back up either one of those statements.
Contrary to salvation, which is not given on merit, but by faith in Christ alone, the rewards we receive in the afterlife are firmly based on our good deeds in this life and that includes what we did with the talents (abilities) God gave us. (Mat. 25.14-30) http://bit.ly/e2wcrK
I should caution those who are not very familiar with God that He is not pleased at all with your self-imposed estrangement from Him. Think about it. Is it seemly that the God of the universe should be pursuing you across the countryside as in the poem “Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson? And should you the insignificant “prey” of the same poem be running scared away from the mighty God of all Creation? Reverse your direction at this moment and scurry quickly into His arms; He seeks only to do you good.
God is serious in the hunt for a close relationship with you. He came down from glory and suffered and died for us all (and He would have died just as surely if there were only one sinner in the entire world!) How can you be so lackadaisical in responding to such outstanding love? How can you in effect yawn in the face of a love so overwhelming that it should sweep you off your feet of clay? It’s a shame that we at any time put God on “hold.” It’s a tragedy that divine love should in any instance and in any measure go unrequited. Has humanity lost its collective mind?
It tears at my heart to think that I was once one of the uncaring throng who didn’t have time to react in a strong, positive way to what God in Christ did for me at Calvary. If it tears at my heart, what pain must God, the One who impaled Himself on Calvary’s cross, suffer even now as you give him mere scraps of your available time? I am not pleading for you to love me; I really don’t amount to much. I did not suffer for you as no man ever suffered nor did I die in agony for you. God did – and His heart is grieved that He went through the agonies of hell to save you only to have you respond to that supreme sacrifice and that fervent love by a tepid, “Thanks, Lord,” as you go about “doing your own thing,” whatever it is that pleases you.
As I said early on in this discourse, there are no degrees to salvation: you are either saved or you are not saved. Search your own heart, and if you conclude that you are saved, where is the overflowing gratitude, where is the fervor in serving the Lord, where is the giving all of yourself? I cannot believe that at one time I was so laid back in loving my Lord in return for the flood of love He lavished on me and I cannot fathom how you or I could treat divine love so offhandedly.
Come with me, my friend, and let’s push our way through our inborn carnality and depravity in a determined effort to gain a much closer walk with God! And may God forgive us both for our past disregard of His unparalleled, agonizing love!
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