Our Salvation is Not an Event

As was discussed two weeks ago, we have very little capacity to predict the trajectory of our lives very far into the future. Yes, we have items on our calendar that say we have an appointment on Thursday and that we have an out of town meeting on the following Monday. Given that these are very near term events, we have an expectation that they will happen as planned, but that is not totally a given. Emergencies, unforeseen contingencies, and life in general have a tendency to upend our plans and expectations. We have the reasonable expectation that things will happen as planned, but it is hardly guaranteed. The same thing can happen spiritually. A 20-year-old man might expect to follow Jesus closely all of his life only to abandon Him a few years later when things don’t go his way. At 20 he, his family, and friends could describe him as ‘saved’ only to say later, after the young man abandons Jesus, that he was never saved in the first place. Perhaps, when the man turns 40 and holds his baby daughter on the day of her birth he returns to following Jesus, he and his family might again regard him as ‘saved.’ Was he saved all along or did he only appear to be saved before forsaking Jesus and only appear to be saved after the birth of his daughter changed his life?

Prior to the heresy of John Calvin in the 16^th century, the idea that the man was saved all along or only appeared to be saved throughout his life would have been rejected by any theologian. The idea of once-saved-always-saved has reduced our salvation to an event of some sort, whether it is an unbiblical altar call, an unbiblical acceptance of Jesus into the heart, or an unbiblical recitation of a particular prayer. This heresy minimizes the gravity and the effects of our sins, even making morality of minimal importance in the salvation of souls. It also makes a mockery of Jesus’ teachings. Indeed, the Prodigal Son is welcomed back into the father’s household when he comes to his senses. The father, representing God, reinstates the Prodigal Son and declares to the older brother “now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Lk 15:32). The Prodigal Son was spiritually alive, then becomes spiritually dead when he repudiates his father, and then becomes spiritually alive again when he repents and is reconciled with the father. Yes, he was the father’s son all along, but was for a time estranged from the father by his own poor choices.

People gravitate to the idea of being saved and infallibly remaining saved because it is a comforting falsehood. Once-saved-always-saved is built upon the truths that God is faithful, that God is utterly sovereign, and that Jesus keeps His promises but it almost completely discounts and ignores our moral infidelity and our capacity to spurn the promises that flow from being disciples of Jesus. We are sinners, a fact usually acknowledged by the one-saved-always-saved crowd, but we are called to think, speak, and act in accord with the Gospel. This is not an option or a spiritual nice-to-have, but is essential as the Apostle John testifies: “And by this we may be sure that we know [Jesus], if we keep his commandments. He who says ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: he who says he abides in [Jesus] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1Jn 2:3-6). The man who claims to know Jesus can say he has faith, but his works can betray that faith making him a liar. It is hard to see how such a man is saved.

So, how are we saved? It is not an event but a way of life. It is not earned but accepted and retained as an unmerited gift that can be renounced. Salvation can be boiled down to having the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: “But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:9-11).