God expects His newly-born children to feed and be fed in the right nutrients
through God’s Word, prayer, fellowship with other Christians, obedience to God’s
Word, and service to the Body of Christ. If the child is well fed, he or she will grow
into a strong, fruitful Christian who obeys God and serves the church and fellow
man.
If a child lacks proper nutrition or guidance for whatever reason, it could become
malnourished, have stunted growth and, in the worst case scenario, even die.
Spiritual nurture is no different.
A newly-born child of God who lacks guidance and proper spiritual nutrition
could also experience malnutrition, stunted growth and sadly, even spiritual
death. Malnutrition will lead to inadequate understanding of the Word and basic
principles of salvation. Death comes when we say the believer has backslidden, or
turned back to their old life before they knew Christ.
There’s much debate as to whether a born again Christian can really be
disconnected from God again. This is a mystery that has no yes or no answer. The
truth is, it takes a lot for our loving, merciful Father to let go of His children. When
Jesus was about to leave earth for heaven after resurrection, He prayed and said,
‘“ While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave
Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition , that the Scripture
might be fulfilled”’ (John 17:12, King James Version).
Now we all know Jesus’ disciples all deserted Him before His crucifixion, with
Peter even denying Him three times. So even though Judas betrayed Him to the
Pharisees, the other disciples did enough betraying of their own. The difference
between Judas and the other disciples however was only one: They returned to
Christ. They repented and went back ‘home’ to Christ. But Judas did not. He
hanged himself instead. Had he repented and gone back to Jesus, I fully believe he
too would have been forgiven, because our God is no respecter of persons and
shows no favouritism, and as He says, whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Judas squandered his chance to be forgiven and received back.
Yet even the thief on the cross with Jesus received pardon when he cried out to
Jesus. Such is the love, mercy and grace of our God.