Today, I would like to talk about, not when we were saved, but how we continue to be saved. And I am going to do that using the analogy of a set of instructions.
When I first bought my mandolin, I had never played one before. With that mandolin, I bought a couple of ‘how to play the mandolin’ books. They were very specific and gave detail instructions and a lot of pictures as to where I put my fingers. I studied those books and tried my best to get proficient on this instrument.
But there was a disconnect there. I knew what the book said, but just couldn’t seem to understand how to do it. Finally, I cornered one guy at the music store and he sat down with me and stepped me through it, explaining the details as he went. And then he had me do it while he watched and corrected me. And then he told me something very valuable. He told me that unless I practiced it every day, I would never get it down pat, and I would eventually lose everything I had learned about it. In other words, use it or lose it.
There are many people who have learned the rules of salvation, but are not experiencing salvation as an ongoing event. They have read the Bible, have a basic knowledge of what salvation is, but they have never learned how to have a personal relationship with Jesus in their salvation. And when there is no personal relationship with Jesus, all we have left is religiosity.