David Diga Hernandez - Did I Lose My Salvation?

I receive many messages from people who are afraid of whether or not they have lost their salvation. They say, «Brother David, I messed up here; did I lose my salvation?» or «Brother David, I looked at a woman with lust; did I lose my salvation?» They will also ask questions like, «If I die and the last thing I did was sin, do I go to heaven or hell?» The reason they are asking that question in the first place is that they do not understand how salvation works. Imagine this: some people think they can be driving down the street, look at a woman jogging by, have a lustful thought, and then suddenly a diesel truck comes and wipes them off the road. They die in that moment, and guess what? They think they go to hell. That is not how it works. If that were the case, we would not only be saved by the cross; we would be saved by the cross plus good timing, making sure that we don’t sin right before we die. How do any of us keep that standard? You never know when your time is up, so that is not how salvation works. Just because you lose your confidence in your salvation does not mean you have lost your salvation. Let me say that again: just because you have lost your confidence in your salvation does not mean that you have lost your salvation. Having said that, when you walk with the Holy Spirit, you have better access to that confidence in what Christ has accomplished for you. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, «For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.» So obviously, biblically speaking, seeking God does not consider faith a work. All that is required of us is to believe. Romans 10:9 says, «If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.» Galatians 3:6 states, «In the same way, Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.» Therefore, it is by faith that you are saved. Come on now! I want you to visualize a tree—visualize a tall tree with roots that go deep into the ground. Now, some people imagine that if salvation were a tree, the roots represent good works, and the fruits represent salvation. That is not how it works. I wrote about this years ago; it’s called «The Salvation Tree.» You can look it up on Google, and it will come up. So if you are imagining salvation as a tree, you must know that the roots are not good works; the roots are faith, and the fruits are good works. Good works are not the roots of salvation; they are the fruits of salvation. We do not do good works to be saved; we do good works because we are saved. Imagine an operating table. Now, you go in for an operation. You do not come out of that operation and say, «Man, I did a really good job!» If you were operating on yourself, I do not know why you would do that; it is very dangerous. But nobody is going to operate on themselves because you need the surgeon to do his work. Well, Jesus is the surgeon of the soul. Salvation is like getting on the operating table; you really have nothing to do with it other than surrendering yourself to the table, and then the physician does His work. It would be like if I wrote you a check. You would need to have faith to deposit that check, but you would not have done anything to earn that money. In the same way, we have faith to receive salvation, but it is still a free gift and requires no works. Again, faith is not considered a work. Once you understand that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, your confidence in your salvation goes through the roof. You are no longer walking around paranoid, wondering if you sinned enough to lose your salvation today. Imagine this: before you is a long hallway, and on one side of that hallway is a door, and all the way on the other side is another door. Now, the first door before you is called justification. Justification is your position. Your position, once you are saved, is sinless, blameless, holy, and spotless. Once you put your faith in Christ, you switch records with Him, and now you receive that perfect, unblemished record. Being justified means you have been declared innocent in the courts of heaven. Justified—it’s done! Now, you open that door and shut the door behind you; that’s justification; you are saved. Now, that process in the hallway is called sanctification. So the first door, justification, is your position; the hallway, sanctification, is your process. But no matter where you are in the hallway of sanctification, you are still past the door of justification. You may take ten steps forward, twelve steps back, five steps forward, and two steps back. In fact, it does not matter. God is not looking for you to be perfect; He is looking for you to be submitted to the process of being perfected. Progress, not perfection—that’s sanctification. As long as I am in that hallway with sanctification behind me, I am saved. Now, you may ask, «Well, what if I slip up?» Well, that is a step backward, but as long as you are justified and in that hallway of sanctification, as long as you are in the process, you are saved. So, justification—the first door—is your position; the hallway, sanctification, is your process; the door all the way at the other end is perfection—that’s glorification; that is when you are done. Now here is what the Scripture says: Ephesians 1:14, «The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He…»