Free The Gospel in Ten Words by Paul Ellis Page A

and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were
taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6 – 7)
     
    How
did you receive Jesus? By faith. How should you continue to live in him? By
faith. It’s faith in his all-sufficient grace from first to last.
     
    But
now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present
you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue
in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the
gospel. (Colossians 1:22–23a)
     
    This
sounds like a conditional statement, as though you are saved for as long as
“you continue in your faith.” It sounds like you can lose your salvation. As we
will see in the next chapter, that is simply not possible. When you were born
again you became something new; you were put into Christ. If you are faithless,
he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13). Once you
have been born you cannot be unborn.
    Here
in Colossians Paul is talking about falling from grace and coming back under
the influence of carnal religion, or what he calls “hollow and deceptive
philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this
world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). He is talking about any teaching
that promotes trust in self rather than Christ. The point is not that God
changes his mind but that we can change ours. We can go from trusting to trying,
from resting to striving. When that happens God remains as gracious as ever, but we no
longer experience his grace. We become distracted and, as far as we are
concerned, cut off from grace. We begin to doubt our identity and we stop
acting like who we really are.
    How
do we avoid falling from grace? How do we continue in the faith? We have to
hold fast to the “hope held out in the gospel.” We need to take care that we
are not seduced by the false hopes offered by grace-less religion.
    Religion
will tell you that you are incomplete and in lack and that you have to work to
get what you don’t have. But the gospel Paul preached declares “you have been
given fullness in Christ” (Colossians 2:10). In him you don’t lack a thing. Religion
says God may forgive your sins if you play your cards right and behave, but the
gospel declares “he forgave us all our sins” already (Colossians 2:13).
Religion says God relates to us through grace when we’re good and through the
law when we sin: But the gospel says he canceled and nailed to the cross “the
written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed
to us” (Colossians 2:14). God doesn’t relate to us on the basis of grace some
of the time but all of the time. He never changes.
    The
gospel of heaven is infinitely better than the religion of earth. Manmade
religion would have you trust in yourself dooming you to certain failure. But
the good news of grace inspires trust in the Lord who has already won and who
therefore can never fail. Why is it that those who see this are overflowing
with thankfulness? It’s not because we have learned to be grateful for the little
things like the grass and sunshine. It is because Jesus is supremely good at saving
us:
     
    Therefore he [Jesus]
is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for
all time and eternity) those who come to God through him, since he is always
living to make petition to God and intercede with him and intervene for them. (Hebrews
7:25, AMP)
     
    Jesus
is our Great Redeemer and our only Savior. He is the One who stills the storms
and calls us to dance with him upon the waves.
    And
this brings us, finally, to the lifeboats.
     

Scuttle the lifeboats
     
    The
lifeboat gospel is the idea that salvation is all about avoiding hell and gaining heaven. The
problem with this gospel is that it has sidelined entire generations of
believers by telling them the earth is nothing more than a waiting room for
eternity.
    Afraid
of