Fred Fickle Finds Faith

I’m no Ficklehead. Are you?

From my early days as a Christian, I have heard some people speak or teach in a manner that indicated a Christian could lose his salvation. For a time, I was fairly plagued by the fear that I might, in a fit of rage or covetousness or stupidity or lust or laziness, lose my heavenly place. Only later, after reading the whole New Covenant (there’s a novel idea), did I realize that God is in charge of our salvation, not us, from beginning to end. You and I are secure, not because we are security experts, but because God is. It was God who chose us before the foundation of the earth. (See Ephesians 1:4) Aren’t you a little bit glad about that?

And then there are several little biblical words with which God paints for us the vivid picture of what He thinks He has done for us, and where He thinks we are right now—He put us into Christ. Think about that. Because God wanted His life and security to be ours, as well, He co-crucified us with Christ (Galatians 2:20), co-buried us with Him (Romans 6:4), co-raised us with Him (Ephesians 2:6), and co-seated us with Him in the heavens (Ephesians 2:6). We’ve been put into union with Christ! (See Romans 6:5.) We’re enjoying God’s re-location plan right now. Frankly, we’re in rather good shape. That’s what God thinks.

If then we’re going to trust God and what He thinks He’s done, we’re going to relax about our supposed ability to lose the security we didn’t earn in the first place. We’re in! We’re in Him. God saw to it.

But, just for fun, let’s play out the “You-can-lose-your-salvation” game. Fred Fickle, affectionately known as “Ficklehead” by his buddies, gets saved one Sunday morning, but decides to reject Jesus by Monday. Tuesday dawns bright and cheerful, so Ficklehead let’s Jesus back in. Alas, Fred has a lousy morning at work, and dumps a seemingly useless Christ over lunch. By the following Sunday, Fred has accepted and rejected the Savior twenty eight times. That means Ficklehead, over and over again, has been un-co-seated, un-co-raised, un-co-buried, un-co-crucified, and had his "union" card taken away some twenty eight times. That's a lot of work. But then when Fred gets saved all over again, he would be co-crucified with Christ, co-buried, co-raised, and on and on it goes. Isn't that fun? I wonder if the on-looking angels in heaven would lack a little celebratory zest after awhile. Like maybe they don’t throw confetti anymore or shoot off as many party poppers. Hopefully, Ficklehead times it just right and dies in security before he can reverse the process and disappoint the angels all over again. (I wonder what kind of greeting Fred would get in heaven? Maybe instead of getting the new name promised to him, “Ficklehead” would continue to be his nickname. I don’t know.)

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts this morning as I enjoy Jesus, who is just now lavishing me with love. And security.