Losing Your Salvation

I used to fear that the things I've done since I've become a Christian were bad enough for God to take away my salvation. Deep down, I know this is ridiculous, but nevertheless I still have that fear. Verses like 2Peter 2:20-21 which says, "If they've escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they're worse than if they had never left. Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command," only intensified my fears. The key word in this verse is "repudiate." This word has 5 different meanings:

1) to claim as having no authority or binding force
2) to cast off or disown
3) to reject with disapproval or condemnation
4) to reject with denial
5) to refuse to acknowledge and pay a debt, as a state, municipality, etc.

In other words, the only way to lose your salvation is to reject God; He doesn't reject you. It starts when people slide back into their old sinful lifestyle, which means they are using definition #1 and saying that God has no authority or binding force over them and His commands don't matter. As the Casting Crowns song says, it's a "slow fade."

Another way to think of this is through the analogy of adoption. The Bible says that God has adopted us as His children. That means that He chose us. What would you think of a parent who adopted a child and then disowned it because it was too bad? If we as humans can't imagine doing something like that, why would God do that? We are the ones who leave Him, He never leaves us. As Hebrews 13:5b says, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."