STEP 6: Stay Faithful
We must remain faithful until death.
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While baptism puts us into Christ and washes
away our sins, we must still be obedient and faithful to God, otherwise,
we will lose our souls. The Bible tells us of the reward awaiting those
who are faithful in Revelation 2:10 -
"...be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Some people believe that once a person is saved, he cannot
be lost. This contradicts what the Bible says in Hebrews 6:4-6 -
"...for those who were
once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers
of the world to come, If they shall fall
away, to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to
an open shame.
In the above verses, the Hebrew writer is describing those
who "fall away." If they never truly believed and were
never truly obedient, then they could not fall away! Clearly the writer
is speaking about true believers who first had and then abandoned their
faith thereby putting Christ to open shame.
Finally, Jesus himself warned of following Him and then
later abandoning Him when He said in Luke 9:62 -
"...No man, having put
his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Only by following God's word will we be assured of our place in His Kingdom.
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