Can we lose our salvation? It’s a theological question the Christian Church has different opinions on. But this is how I see it:

Let’s say a child is adopted from an orphanage by a parent at an age where they’re aware of such a wonderful gift. They can respond in three different ways: 1) they can accept this as a wonderful gift of a new life and delve into it wholeheartedly 2) they can pretend to delve into it only to get what they need (out of fear from having been without before) or 3) they can rebel and reject the love of this adoptive parent.

When the child is eighteen years old, if they’ve truly accepted this parent’s love and shown love in return, they’ll most likely maintain this relationship in this way. If their intent was only to use the parent to meet needs, this will become clear as there will be no evidence of relationship beyond what was necessary to keep up appearances. If the child completely rebelled, there will be an even larger fracture between this parent and the child.

In each scenario, though, the legality of the adoption didn’t change. That’s how I believe salvation is. Christ offers us salvation, and His salvation lasts. We can choose to accept it, with the proof being in the fruit of our relationship, or we can reject it altogether. We can even pretend and trick ourselves into believing that we’ve accepted it, but the fruit of our heart doesn’t lie.

In all of this, it’s not God’s extension of salvation that’s fickle or wishy-washy. It’s always us. Let’s choose to accept Him, even when His way runs against ours. What say you?