Assurance of Salvation?
There are few more confusing topics than salvation. It goes beyond the standard
question posed by Fundamentalists: "Have you been saved?" What the question
also means is: "Don’t you wish you had the assurance of salvation?"
Evangelicals and Fundamentalists think they do have such an absolute assurance.
All they have to do is "accept Christ as their personal Savior," and it’s done. They
might well live exemplary lives thereafter, but living well is not crucial
and definitely does not affect their salvation.
Kenneth E. Hagin, a well-known Pentecostal televangelist
from the "Word Faith" wing of Protestantism, asserts that this assurance
of salvation comes through being "born again": "Unless one is born anew,
he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Though much of Hagin’s theology
is considered bizarre in Protestant circles, his explanation of being born
again could be endorsed by millions of Evangelical Protestants. In his
booklet, The New Birth, Hagin writes, "The new birth is a necessity
to being saved. Through the new birth you come into the right relationship
with God."
According to Hagin, there are many things that
this new birth is not. "The new birth is not: confirmation, church membership,
water baptism, the taking of sacraments, observing religious duties, an
intellectual reception of Christianity, orthodoxy of faith, going to church,
saying prayers, reading the Bible, being moral, being cultured or refined,
doing good deeds, doing your best, nor any of the many other things some
men are trusting in to save them." Those who have obtained the new birth
"did the one thing necessary: they accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior
by repenting and turning to God with the whole heart as a little child."
That one act of the will, he explains, is all they needed to do. But is
this true? Does the Bible support this concept?
Scripture teaches that one’s final salvation depends
on the state of the soul at death. As Jesus himself tells us, "He who endures
to the end will be saved" (Matt. 24:13; cf. 25:31–46). One who dies in
the state of friendship with God (the state of grace) will go to heaven.
The one who dies in a state of enmity and rebellion against God (the state
of mortal sin) will go to hell.
For many Fundamentalists and Evangelicals it makes
no difference—as far as salvation is concerned—how you live or end your
life. You can heed the altar call at church, announce that you’ve accepted
Jesus as your personal Savior, and, so long as you really believe it, you’re
set. From that point on there is nothing you can do, no sin you
can commit, no matter how heinous, that will forfeit your salvation. You
can’t undo your salvation, even if you wanted to.
Does this sound too good to be true? Yes, but nevertheless,
it is something many Protestants claim. Take a look at what Wilson Ewin,
the author of a booklet called There is Therefore Now No Condemnation,
says. He writes that "the person who places his faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ and his blood shed at Calvary is eternally secure. He can never
lose his salvation. No personal breaking of God’s or man’s laws or commandments
can nullify that status."
"To deny the assurance of salvation would be to
deny Christ’s perfect redemption," argues Ewin, and this is something he
can say only because he confuses the redemption that Christ accomplished
for us objectively with our individual appropriation of that redemption.
The truth is that in one sense we are all redeemed by Christ’s death on
the cross—Christians, Jews, Muslims, even animists in the darkest forests
(1 Tim. 2:6, 4:10, 1 John 2:2)—but our individual appropriation of what
Christ provided is contingent on our response.
Certainly, Christ did die on the cross once for
all and has entered into the holy place in heaven to appear before God
on our behalf. Christ has abundantly provided for our salvation, but that
does not mean that there is no process by which this is applied to us as
individuals. Obviously, there is, or we would have been saved and justified
from all eternity, with no need to repent or have faith or anything else.
We would have been born "saved," with no need to be born again.
Since we were not, since it is necessary for those who hear the gospel
to repent and embrace it, there is a time at which we come to be reconciled
to God. And if so, then we, like Adam and Eve, can become unreconciled
with God and, like the prodigal son, need to come back and be reconciled
again with God, after having left his family.
You Can’t Lose Heaven?
Ewin says that "no wrong act or sinful deed can
ever affect the believer’s salvation. The sinner did nothing to merit God’s
grace and likewise he can do nothing to demerit grace. True, sinful conduct
always lessens one’s fellowship with Christ, limits his contribution to
God’s work and can result in serious disciplinary action by the Holy Spirit."
One problem with this argument is that this is
not even how things work in everyday life. If another person gives us something
as a grace—as a gift—and even if we did nothing to deserve it (though frequently
gifts are given based on our having pleased the one bestowing the gift),
it in no way follows that our actions are irrelevant to whether or not
we keep the gift. We can lose it in all kinds of ways. We can misplace
it, destroy it, give it to someone else, take it back to the store. We
may even forfeit something we were given by later displeasing the one who
gave it—as when a person has been appointed to a special position but is
later stripped of that position on account of mismanagement.
The argument fares no better when one turns to
Scripture, for one finds that Adam and Eve, who received God’s grace in
a manner just as unmerited as anyone today, most definitely did
demerit it—and lost grace not only for themselves but for us as well (cf.
also Rom. 11:17-24). While the idea that what is received without merit
cannot be lost by demerit may have a kind of poetic charm for some, it
does not stand up when compared with the way things really work—either
in the everyday world or in the Bible.
Regarding the issue of whether Christians have
an "absolute" assurance of salvation, regardless of their actions, consider
this warning Paul gave: "See then the kindness and the severity of God:
severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided
you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off"
(Rom. 11:22; see also Heb. 10:26–29, 2 Pet. 2:20–21).
Can You Know?
Related to the issue of whether one can lose one’s
salvation is the question of whether one can know with complete certainty
that one is in a state of salvation. Even if one could not lose one’s salvation, one still might not
be sure whether one ever had salvation. Similarly, even if one could be
sure that one is now in a state of salvation, one might be able
to fall from grace in the future. The "knowability" of salvation is a different
question than the "loseability" of salvation.
From the Radio Bible Class listeners can obtain
a booklet called Can Anyone Really Know for Sure? The anonymous
author says the "Lord Jesus wanted his followers to be so sure of their
salvation that they would rejoice more in the expectation of heaven than
in victories on earth. ‘These things I have written to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God
(1 John 5:13).’"
Places where Scripture speaks of our ability to
know that we are abiding in grace are important and must be taken seriously.
But they do not promise that we will be protected from self-deception on
this matter. Even the author of Can Anyone Really Know for Sure?
admits that there is a false assurance: "The New Testament teaches us that
genuine assurance is possible and desirable, but it also warns us that
we can be deceived through a false assurance. Jesus declared: ‘Not everyone
who says to me, "Lord, Lord" shall enter the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt.
7:21)."
Sometimes Fundamentalists portray Catholics as
if they must every moment be in terror of losing their salvation since
Catholics recognize that it is possible to lose salvation through mortal
sin. Fundamentalists then hold out the idea that, rather than living every
moment in terror, they can have a calm, assured knowledge that they will,
in fact, be saved, and that nothing will ever be able to change this fact.
But this portrayal is in error. Catholics do not
live lives of mortal terror concerning salvation. True, salvation can be
lost through mortal sin, but such sins are by nature grave ones,
and not the kind that a person living the Christian life is going to slip
into committing on the spur of the moment, without deliberate thought and
consent. Neither does the Catholic Church teach that one cannot have an
assurance of salvation. This is true both of present and future salvation.
One can be confident of one’s present salvation.
This is one of the chief reasons why God gave us the sacraments—to provide
visible assurances that he is invisibly providing us with his grace. And
one can be confident that one has not thrown away that grace by simply
examining one’s life and seeing whether one has committed mortal sin. Indeed,
the tests that John sets forth in his first epistle to help us know whether
we are abiding in grace are, in essence, tests of whether we are dwelling
in grave sin. For example, "By this it may be seen who are the children
of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right
is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother" (1 John 3:10), "If
any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he
who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he
has not seen" (1 John 4:20), "For this is the love of God, that we keep
his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).
Likewise, by looking at the course of one’s life
in grace and the resolution of one’s heart to keep following God, one can
also have an assurance of future salvation. It is this Paul speaks of when
he writes to the Philippians and says, "And I am sure that he who began
a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ"
(Phil. 1:6). This is not a promise for all Christians, or even necessarily
all in the church at Philippi, but it is a confidence that the Philippian
Christians in general would make it. The basis of this is their spiritual
performance to date, and Paul feels a need to explain to them that there
is a basis for his confidence in them. Thus he says, immediately, "It is
right for me to feel thus about you all, because I hold you in my heart,
for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and
in the defense and confirmation of the gospel" (1:7). The fact that the
Philippians performed spiritually by assisting Paul in his imprisonment
and ministry showed that their hearts were with God and that it could be
expected that they, at least in general, would persevere and remain with
God.
There are many saintly men and women who have long
lived the Christian life and whose characters are marked with profound
spiritual joy and peace. Such individuals can look forward with confidence
to their reception in heaven.
Such an individual was Paul, writing at the end
of his life, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I
have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day" (2 Tim.
4:7-8). But earlier in life, even Paul did not claim an infallible assurance,
either of his present justification or of his remaining in grace in the
future. Concerning his present state, he wrote, "I am not aware of anything
against myself, but I am not thereby justified [Gk., dedikaiomai].
It is the Lord who judges me" (1 Cor. 4:4). Concerning his remaining life,
Paul was frank in admitting that even he could fall away: "I pummel my
body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified"
(1 Cor. 9:27). Of course, for a spiritual giant such as Paul, it would
be quite unexpected and out of character for him to fall from God’s grace.
Nevertheless, he points out that, however much confidence in his own salvation
he may be warranted in feeling, even he cannot be infallibly sure
either of his own present state or of his future course.
The same is true of us. We can, if our lives display
a pattern of perseverance and spiritual fruit, have not only a confidence
in our present state of grace but also of our future perseverance with
God. Yet we cannot have an infallible certitude of our own salvation, as
many Protestants will admit. There is the possibility of self-deception
(cf. Matt. 7:22-23). As Jeremiah expressed it, "The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?" (Jer.
17:9). There is also the possibility of falling from grace through mortal
sin, and even of falling away from the faith entirely, for as Jesus told
us, there are those who "believe for a while and in time of temptation
fall away" (Luke 8:13). It is in the light of these warnings and admonitions
that we must understand Scripture’s positive statements concerning our
ability to know and have confidence in our salvation. Assurance we may
have; infallible certitude we may not.
For example, Philippians 2:12 says, "Therefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence
but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling." This is not the language of self-confident assurance. Our
salvation is something that remains to be worked out.
What To Say
"Are you saved?" asks the Fundamentalist. The Catholic
should reply: "As the Bible says, I am already saved (Rom. 8:24, Eph. 2:5–8),
but I’m also being saved (1 Cor. 1:8, 2 Cor. 2:15, Phil. 2:12),
and I have the hope that I will be saved (Rom. 5:9–10, 1 Cor. 3:12–15).
Like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling
(Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2,
2 Tim. 2:11–13)."
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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