Board index ‹ Salvation

[Susan]

What are the qualities/ qualifications of salvation? How does one know if/ when they are saved? It seems like you're working very hard to earn an entrance into heaven. Is salvation not the only ticket in?

[jimwalton]

How does one get to this wonderful state and place? The Bible says it has to be a free-will choice (Gn. 1-2—don’t eat the fruit from that tree; Jn. 1.12—but as many as receive him; Dt. 6.5—Love him with all your heart, etc.) and it has to be a choice of love. Now, to me this makes perfect sense, in a “comparative religions” sense. If we can be “born” to go to heaven,” or “oops, sorry” and you don’t qualify, there’s nothing fair or right about that. But if it’s free for ANYONE to choose, and what’s required is love, it’s not outside the scope of any individual, no matter what age, culture, mental state, gender, or whatever.

Now, since our free will has to stay free (by definition and by necessity), God is left with the dilemma of how to get people to choose to love him. (It’s no different for us—we can’t MAKE people love us. Then it’s not love.) So God woos. He calls, he informs, he tries to correct but he can’t force correction, he shows his love, he intervenes in the 2 ways that he can: in our souls and regarding the plan of salvation (David, Solomon, Jesus, the temple, etc.). Other than that, his hands are tied. It just HAS to be a free choice, or it’s not love.

“How do you know when you’re saved?” Great question. It’s both certain, and not, and so begs an explanation. Let’s go to humanity for an illustration. How do you know when you’re in love? Duh, anybody knows that. It certainly can’t be measured by science, but we know it. It’s in us. The more difficult question is, when you think you’ve met that special someone that you want to spend your life with, “How do you know he’s the one?” That’s a tougher question, and you know by experience how difficult that is. The answer is usually an issue of the will: when you’re ready to make the commitment to love, honor, and cherish through sickness and health, richer, poor, in plenty and want, until death. And when you are ready to make the commitment, you do. That’s why a group of witnesses and a piece of paper are so important. It gives substance to the act of the will that plays itself out in a ceremony of commitment. Then you know. Unfortunately, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of making a mistake, and so it’s not foolproof.

So let’s talk about salvation. The way it’s SUPPOSED to work is that I come to a place in my life where I understand the love of God, I accept that, and I realize I am loving him back. I choose to turn in his direction (just like we do with people we date), and that creates more love, which creates more will to love, and so on. It comes to the place where I am ready to make a commitment, and so I do. That commitment in humans is marriage; with God it’s supposed to be baptism: the public ceremony complete with witnesses.

Ah, but the system is fraught with problems, and here marriage and salvation are SO similar. Some people thought they were in love, but alas, they weren’t, and the thing falls apart so quickly. (Parable of the sower, part 2 seed on rocks, fat chance of growing anywhere.) Some people ARE in love, but they just don’t stick with it, and the thing dies out over a period of time. (Parable of the Sower, part 3 seed in thorns gets choked and just doesn’t survive.) And for some people it’s real, and it sticks, and it’s wunderbar. (Parable of the Sower, part 4.) Marriages too easily can turn into self-absorption instead of undying love, and so also faith. So many worldly Christians out there who are coasting, and don’t get it. (See last letter about folks in church.)

So are they saved, then? Good question. I believe that the Bible teaches firmly that once you’re authentically saved, you can’t lose it. But I also believe that people can renounce their faith, just like they can get divorces. 2 Timothy 1.11-13 tells me this. It gets to be a tricky thing, and only God truly knows who are the sheep and who are the goats. We can’t read hearts, we can’t see what nature a person has, and so we can’t tell.

But this I firmly believe: we each have one of only two choices for a nature. We either have a nature of sin, or the nature of Jesus in us. Just by raising our hand in a meeting doesn’t give us the nature of Jesus, but when we make an authentic commitment to love him. When we do, he miraculously changes our nature (something we can’t do ourselves), and then we are saved. It’s not of works. It’s a miracle God does in us that we don’t earn or deserve. Only God can tell who is truly saved and who isn’t.

The Bible is full of warnings about making sure you are saved. Matt. 7.7-11 (Not everyone who says Lord Lord). Heb. 6.4-6, and the passages in Rev. 2 & 3 that keep repeating, “The one who endures to the end will be saved.” It can be scary stuff, EXCEPT…2 things:

I know when I’m in love. And I know I love God, and I am determined to be one of the ones on the narrow road, finding the small gate. I will not quit, I will seek him with all my heart, not because I’m earning my way, but because I’m choosing to love.

Secondly, God has promised he will not let me go. Phil. 1.6 says he will see it through to completion. Jn. 10.29 says that God will not let anyone or anything snatch me out of his hand. I know this is true, because I too have children, and they are MINE and I will love them and protect them, and they will always be mine no matter what. If they make mistakes, I will forgive them. If they hate me, like they did as teen-agers, I will still love them. They are still mine. No matter what, we always belong to each other. Unless they take legal action to separate themselves from me, in which case I can’t stop that. I still love them, but they don’t belong to me anymore, except in my heart.

How do I know I’m saved? I love, and I know I love. God tells me about his love and his family in his word. And I accept that. Plus, it’s faith. I have gotten to the point in my spiritual maturity where, for me, there’s no doubt. There’s no question or uncertainty. I am saved, and I know it. I love, and I am loved. My wanderings through the years did not lose salvation. But it’s not science, you know. It’s a RELATIONSHIP.

And it makes sense that we tell new believers that they’re “in”. They’re not mature enough for deeper truth. But that is also problematic if later they walk away from it, but think they have their “fire insurance”.

Am I working hard to get into heaven? You bet I am. But I am not saved by my works. Am I making the distinction clear?

“What about deeply religious, unselfish and generous, amazingly loving individuals who go by another book or none at all, or call god by another name?” This is a very tricky dilemma. It’s not fair to condemn those who never had a fair chance to make a legitimate decision, but if there’s an unbreakable rule (“NO one comes to the Father but by me.”) it’s not fair to break the rules for some and not for others.

First of all, the statement is absolutely true: no one comes to the Father but by Jesus. There are only two natures: the sin nature, and the nature of Jesus. Those who have the nature of Jesus spend eternity with him, and those who have the nature of sin, don’t. What the statement doesn’t necessarily address is, “Who all gets to acquire the nature of Jesus?” Obviously, there’s a plan that carries for anyone who has had an honest choice to make a legitimate decision, and that’s what I outlined in the previous paragraphs: Salvation by grace through faith, because I make a willful decision to love and commit. So the statement from Jn. 14.6 doesn’t help us answer the question.

We know how C.S. Lewis answered it. He felt that God recognized in others the legitimate search for the true God, and he honored that even if they didn’t have an honest chance to choose for Jesus. That’s an intriguing thought. Lewis may be right, but it’s hard to tell. A thought that I have is that more times than we probably recognize, there are at least a time or two or three in all of our lives where we are confronted head-on with a clear decision about Jesus, and it hits us smack in the face and we must make a decision. “Was that God or wasn’t it?” “What DO I think about Jesus?” “Does this make SENSE to me?” I believe that most people are spiritually confronted at least once in their lives with the bald truth. But I also believe that most people are spiritually confronted many many times, and they make their choices. So saying, I believe there are far fewer out there “who have never heard” than we imagine.
The deeply religious, unselfish generous loving person? If he’s decided against Jesus in a legitimate way, he will not live in heaven. But it’s so tricky, Susan. Some are so brainwashed against Jesus, and so trained in their religions that it’s not really a fair choice. And so also with people who NEVER heard—they didn’t get a fair chance, either. Again, Lewis would say that when either of these types die they will meet face to face with Jesus, and at that time be given the free choice to love and be with him or to reject him. We may think, “Who in their right mind will stand face to face with Jesus after death and decide against him?” Think of how many stood face to face with him during life and decided against him, and you have your answer. Oh, it will happen and it will be legitimate.

So saying, Lewis makes sense to me where the Bible doesn’t speak. It’s not rock solid, but to me it rings so strongly with the truth I can accept it, and its holes are smaller and fewer than with anything else I’ve heard. God isn’t going to be unfair, and these thoughts pocket the whole dilemma squarely in the pocket of “Well, that sounds pretty fair” to me.