Salvation By Being Good?
I was cruising through a forum on MyPraize.com recently. (MyPraize is a Christian alternative to MySpace, and a friend asked me to be a forum administrator on there and contribute a comment from time to time.) Anyway, in a thread on the topic of whether or not a person can fall away from the faith, I saw this question posed by a member named "Tom" (I changed his name):It is possible and common for people to attend church, understand scripture, taste what God can offer, even take moral steps in accordance with God’s commands and not actually be saved?
Here's my reply to him:
"Tom," I think the answer to your question, sadly, is yes.A "salvation" that does not produce true Christian holiness in the life of the believer is no salvation at all.
Consider the rich man in Mark 10. He was able to identify who Jesus was (v. 17), he came to him asking for help (v. 17), had kept the commandments since his youth (v. 20), and had always been honest in his business affairs. He was a good person. But he wasn't willing to give his whole life away for the sake of following Jesus to Jerusalem (IE. to the cross).
Consider the words of John Wesley when describing what saving faith actually is (Sermon #1, Salvation by Faith). It's not the "faith of the heathen," who have a basic sense of right from wrong. It's not the "faith of the devil," who believes that God exists and affirms the divinity of Jesus. It's not the faith the disciples had prior to Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and Pentecost. It's more than intellectual assent to a creed or statement of faith. No, saving faith is a belief in the gospel as God’s whole revelation to mankind. It is a conviction of Christ’s divinity and a trust in his merits. It is a full reliance on the blood of Christ, and a fully trusting response to grace. It is a sure trust in the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ, and confidence that Christ died for my sins. In sum, it is a disposition of the heart.
In Mark 10, faith in Jesus meant forsaking all and abandoning the self for the sake of following him. How many Christians do you know who actually do this? In America, our brand of Christianity is usually not much more than cheap psychotherapy. We only want God to fill some self-perceived emotional void in our lives. We want Him to be everything we think we need Him to be for us, but we're not willing to be everything He wants us to be for Him. We want "unconditional love" from God, but we don't want to consecrate our whole lives to Him. We want the benefits of His atonement, but we don't want it to actually change our behavior. God's salvation in our lives is not so that we can simply "feel" good. It has vast ethical ramifications. The work God does in the life of a believer should change the way that person thinks, speaks, and acts. Salvation is so much more than attending church, understanding Scripture, tasting what God has to offer, and taking moral steps in accordance with God's commands.
Labels: theology