“God’s response to Abraham’s initial act of faith was to credit him with perfect righteousness.” This a quote from the this weeks Sunday school class that I attended. That statement is wrong. Abraham lived a life of faith, there is a difference.

So it is a “one and done” kinda thing? Becoming a Christian that is. Say the sinners prayer, Jesus comes into your heart, boom… your saved.

That’s it!

Come on folks, most people aren’t buying that. And neither am I. The reason is one, the Scripture doesn’t agree with that and two, common sense does not agree with that.

And I don’t care what your pastor, teacher, spiritual leader says. I really don’t. Its what the Bible says that count. Let me repeat that, it is what the Bible that counts.  Here’s what Jude said:

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people who pervert the grace to our God into a license for immorality.”

So lets us say that once your saved you are always saved is true. (I call it the one and done doctrine) then what?

Just a side note here; one and done is the name of my blog, I decided on that name because I want to mock that whole idea of one and done in Christendom. I digress, so once your saved you are always saved, right? Well then what?

Well I suppose you can kick back and enjoy the pleasures of this world and receive the treasures of the next world as well. It a thing of beauty if you think about it, you really, truly can have it all. Yahoo!!

Or you can pick door number two. Because you are thankful for all that God has done for you, you are going to stop sinning altogether.  Well, okay, you know that is not going to happen so you compromise on that and decide you will throttle down your sinning somewhat. 

There is a door number three where you decide you are going to obey God’s commandments come hell or high water. And you are going to work hard at it. You should easily be able to spot this error, its legalism and the Bible teaches against it.

And there is door number four where you learn to live a righteous life by faith. “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed— a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Ro.1:17 NIV

If you picked door number four you are on the right track. But wait there is more! For it is not enough to believe it you must live it, for it plainly says that you will live righteously and that you will do it by faith.

So you must live it. So much for the one and done thingy. Now here’s comes the harsh part , if you are believing and living in a one and done thing you are putting yourself in danger of the fires of hell.

Why do I say that? Well as long as you are living according to door number four you are golden. But If you picked one two or three you are in trouble and I am afraid that if you start out by believing in the one and done thing it will make you susceptible to picking the wrong door because after all you are saved, you have checked that box, now you can choose whatever door you want, it doesn’t matter, your saved period.

Now I am going to get really radical on you for a bit, so here goes: salvation is a two step operation. Step one is your “salvation” experience however you believe it, step two is your sanctification experience.

You must be sanctified or you will perish. There it is as plain and as simple as I can say it. And I know that most of the Christians living in the developed parts of the world would disagree with me. Like I care, I don’t. It is our wealth that has spoiled us rotten, we want it all and by golly we are going to get it. We can have heaven and keep our favorite sins.

So let’s think about this a bit. Why the one and done belief? The answer is as plain as the nose on your face. It gives you a license to sin. There it is, I said it and so did Jude, right? I mean think about it, if once you are saved you are always saved what prevents you form living an unsanctified life? You are going to go to heaven, right? So what is stopping you. Maybe you want to express your thankfulness to the Lord by at least throttling down your sinning somewhat. Good for you, I’m  beginning to think most of us modern, affluent  christians do just that.

I have two problems with that. One, you are not “throttling down your sinning” by your faith, you are doing that by your own works. And you should know that a works based righteousness in unacceptable to God.

If you want to argue with me about that and say, “ oh no, I’m cutting down how much I sin by my faith, it is not by my works.” But the problem with that is the Bible says the righteous shall live by faith. You can juggle those works around and it will always come out the truth. So we can say if you are living by faith, then you are living righteously, (and that would mean a God pleasing righteousness) and not a throttled down version. To put it in another way throttling down your sinning and living a righteous life by faith are incompatible. You are either doing one or the other.  

We don’t live a sanctified life because we are thankful for all the Lord has done for us, we do so because as soldiers of God’s army we have been commanded to do so and if we don’t we will be put on a firing line and shot for treason.

That sounds harsh but it is a very good analogy. Now back to the title of this paper, one more chance.

We have only one shot at this. What I mean is we only live once and once we die we will stand before Christ’s judgment seat and be judged. And if he says that I am right about these things and that you have failed to live the gospel, you remember what the gospel is right? “In the gospel… the righteous will live by faith.” then you will be cast away from his presence and into hell you will go forever and ever. There will be no do overs. You will not be given a second chance. We like to think of God as kind and merciful and he is but he can also be stern. He is the Almighty, you don’t want to mess with him.

He has given us ample warning, read your Bible for heavens sake and heed the warnings, he does not threaten in vain. He keeps all his promises and he will make good all his threats. Both are true. He has given you this one chance, don’t screw it up.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face shine on you. May he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.