Never Lost Again
In an article entitled “Never Lost Again” Francis Schaeffer says that once we have accepted Christ we can never again be lost because we have been sealed by the Spirit that now dwells within us. The Spirit plants a whole new divine life in us that is sealed for the day of redemption as Paul writes. Sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30
As John Piper writes “Everything else in lives may be unstable—our health, our family, our job, our education, our society, our world. At any of these levels you may feel as if you are out on a ledge forty stories up in an unpredictable wind. You feel yourself losing balance and falling, and every brick you grab pulls out of its mortar.”
When we accept Jesus the Spirit will sometimes lead us where we do not want to go. It was this Spirit that led Stephen to say. You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Acts 7:51 Even as the stones were busting his skull wide open, he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:60
To become sealed in the Spirit is to be able to block out the concerns of our physical bodies, that they can fail us—Paul being a living example. In the Spirit Paul writes. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Many of the apologists in the 20th century, including Francis Schaeffer, sensed the oncoming of a culture that would produce generations that believed in themselves rather than God. It took great spiritual courage for Schaeffer to say, in a God-like fashion, that once we accept Christ we will never be “Lost Again.” Such a statement came after a period of time when Schaeffer suffered depression.
We’re living in the 21st century now and think of the millions upon millions of us who find our way each day in the technology we have created—a technology that we scarcely could live without. I shudder to think of what would happen if these “grids” that make things happen would suddenly fail.
Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:25-28
As Paul suffered so did Francis Schaeffer but Christ never failed them. When we accept Christ all that God desires for us remains secure even if everything else in this world is uncertain. This is because our significance is in what God has planned for us.
Can you imagine what the reactions would be if at a chapel service in a church college today, the chaplain would tell the students that though they have come to college to save the world and the environment, they must first repent, turn away from their sinful ways and turn to God their creator and redeemer?
The first great universities and colleges were formed on the Word of God. The truth found there is that we have been handed His love and forgiveness through His means of grace, His Word, His meal, His baptism, His absolution with the full assurance that we will never be lost again.
