For Anyone Who Believes Salvation Is a Process...
By Sally Bishai (07/17/06)
I have a friend who is struggling between several Christian denominations. She is confused by the ancient "first-ness" of one religion, but she also can't deny the whole "sola scriptura" (going by the Bible alone) thing.
Well, sir, for a person like Moi, who happens to believe that the Bible is God's word, and the ultimate (and only) source of direction for all things Christian, I prefer to not go by labels and denominations, mostly because 1- the Bible is the Bible is the Bible, and 2- many labels have negative connotations.
But. Certain denominations put stock into beliefs that I think are not only extraneous but dangerous to believe.
For example, my friend thinks that you have to go through life NOT KNOWING if you're going to heaven or not.
Now, I am not suggesting that once you're saved you can just do what you want (kind of like getting dolled up pre-wedding, and “letting it all hang out,” sans makeup, after the knot-tying), BUT if a person is trusting Jesus to save him from sin—if this person chooses Jesus and truly forsakes all other, if this person trusts that the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to save him—then how can we turn around and basically lessen the strength of His sacrifice?
And people DO lessen it when they intimate that the Blood isn’t enough.
I know what you’re thinking: “Well, Sally, you can’t just up and expect to go to heaven coz you said three nice words, can you?”
But I can, and I do.
Because when a person CONFESSES that Jesus is the Son of God, when they ACCEPT that He died on the cross and became a bridge to the Holy God who couldn’t even look at the unholy and sinful humans, when they REPENT from their sin (and I don’t just mean they put down the bottle or finally married the person they’ve been living with, I mean they asked God to make them into a new creation)—then the person is saved from sin.
Consider:
ROMANS 10:9-13
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”[e](that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”[f] 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”[
Now, then. This does NOT mean that you can just go out robbing banks and violating laws (God’s or man’s).
What it DOES mean, however, is that, by your acceptance of Jesus, you sort of give the Holy Spirit the request that He would both reign in you, as well as rein you in, both before and after the fact.
A person who was truly saved would be unable to live with him- (or her-) self, knowing that they had hurt God in such a way. So he would either NOT do it, or beg for forgiveness and have a slightly harder time returning to his sin (as a dog returns to his vomit. Sorry for the dramatics, but a mental picture like that is worth 10,000 words!).
Of course, there’s always the issue of a reprobate mind, or the other issue of planning to sin and planning to ask for forgiveness (which won't wash, by the way) but that’s another story.
My final—and most hard-hitting—argument isn’t some obscure verse; rather, it’s mere (human) logic: If God is so holy that He required a bridge/sacrifice/what-have-you to even be able to interact with the imperfect and unholy humans that we are, can anyone even think that they can be good enough in their lifetime to “earn” their salvation?
They can’t. Mother Theresa wasn’t good enough, and neither are you.
And even if a person WAS able to “be that good” (like, perhaps, a baby or a mentally-challenged person who is innocent and good-natured, unable to conceive of or carry out sin), there is always the matter of original sin that is as much a part of humanity as DNA and a need for water and oxygen.
I’m sure I’ll get a boatload of email with verses that Catholics and Orthodox (and, indeed, other “non-Protestants”) like to cite, and guess what: I already have all sorts of answers ready for y’all, but I want to stress that, to me, anyway, it’s not about “which denomination is right,” it’s about following Jesus as best as we know how (assuming we’re Christians in the first place!) and really being so in-tune with the Holy Spirit that we would rather die than grieve Him with our shenanigans. (And, while I can’t speak for you lot, I myself have more shenanigans in my past, present, and future than I care to admit, though I kind of have to, don’t I?)
At ANY rate, I do thank God—so much!—that He provided a way for us imperfect and sin-ridden people to be with Him forever.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Sally Bishai
