Just as we are one breath away from death, a prominent thought among Christians is that each is one sin away from hell. I believe there are those (as I would have thought as well in my past) who would pounce on that observation with fire-breathing charge of a liberal who no longer recognizes that sin is sin.
I understand the charge leveled. The church understands it so well that the most don't understand that saved is saved. I speak from experience; many faithful believers feel their salvation is both suspect and border-line. This masks the saving power of God to iffy.
I like how Malcolm Smith puts it; Most of us define our Christian experience in terms of being forgiven, while the New Testament speaks of a forgiveness that cannot be separated from our being made one with Him......So Christ has died and in death has overcome sin, death, and the devil and now lives in the power of endless life. We are literally joined to Him, and His history becomes our history. His death is ours, so that Paul could say that he was crucified with Christ, even as His resurrection is ours and we walk in the power of that resurrection.
The Church of Christ battled and debated the once saved always saved doctrine to the extent our people have been brain-washed into living a life of once saved barely saved as well as once saved doesn't mean you are truly saved. At best it is felt that we will all find the outcome when we get there.
Once again we revert to our egotistical performance (did we do enough) rather than the performance of God through the Son. Our salvation is based upon Jesus. We are right with God because Jesus became wrong (crushed by our sins heaped upon him) with God on the cross....II Cor. 5:21. We are baptized into his historical death claiming the rinsing from all sins as he bore them on the cross.
Our salvation isn't borderline. It is secured because at baptism we joined Jesus in his historical rising. May we grow to accept His grace and mercy. Sin is major. It is not to be taken lightly. Jesus paying for that sin is, also, not to be taken lightly.
And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from the one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.
None buried in Jesus (historically with him when he was buried) should forget that as he was raised so are we. We are not borderline saved and lost. Salvation is for those who believe him.
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