Eternally Secure? Really?
A letter to a man questioning his salvation near the end of his life . . .
Dear Friend,
When you were a young boy, you ‘asked Jesus into your heart’ and you were baptized. It was a childhood faith, not well informed but faith all the same. (Nobody can be well informed about such things at a young age) But Jesus said ‘blind faith’ is what it takes. He said, “Unless you become like a child, you can’t experience the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Your profession of faith created a covenant relationship between you and God. A covenant that God made. By definition, God cannot and will not break a covenant. It’s ‘one-way,’ meaning He decided to make it and He doesn’t ever back away, no matter what you say or do. A good example of a God covenant is the one He made after the Great Flood. He covenanted that the world would never again be destroyed by water. He created the rainbow as a symbol to remind us of that one-way covenant. We hear all about global warming but I haven’t heard a single fear expressed about another global flood, have you? I know that’s illogical, but most things about God are illogical. That’s why it’s called faith.
I can’t explain why you were invited into this unbreakable relationship, but you were. It’s not fair you were told about Jesus while lots of others aren’t, but it doesn’t matter. It’s important to remember this covenant isn’t a two-way deal. Its validity is not dependent on you. It’s a one-way deal, extended from God to you. And you accepted it . . . you accepted Him way back then. He’s got your soul and He’s had it all this time. Remember the father of the prodigal son? He gave his son free will . . . freedom to love and serve and freedom to run off and waste his inheritance. When his boy came back, he was there . . . excited . . . he even threw a party for him. God has never let go of you and He never will. Illogical? Yes. True? Yes. Meaningful? Absolutely.
This means that when you were a young boy, God ‘adopted’ you into His family. Just like in our legal system, that adoption is permanent. You can’t be un-adopted, no matter what you say or how hard you try. Just as you were born into your family and will always be a member of it, you were born again into God’s family and you will always be God’s son.
Looking back on my life, I have many regrets. Things I wish I’d done, things I wish I hadn’t done, things I wish I’d done better. But what I know and what I want you to know is none of that matters! The Cross happened over 2000 years ago and what happened there covers every sin . . . before and after. When you started to believe in Jesus all those years ago, you got the benefit of His payment for your sins . . . all of them, past, present, and future. When He took all that punishment, He took it for the soldiers who were killing Him right then and there. He took it for the crooks crucified on crosses beside him, promising one of them, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” Think about that. This thief, who probably did nothing good his whole life, is forgiven in a moment and goes to heaven. Totally unearned, yet totally true. That’s what I hang my hat on . . . if Jesus’ forgiveness applies to that thief, to the soldiers who crucified Him, and to everyone else who believes in Him, why not me? No matter what your behavior, why not you?
Just something to think about,
Your Brother
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Responses (6)
This is a tragic letter. It’s well meaning, it’s not wrong on every point but it’s still wrong.
First, I don’t know what translation of the Bible you are using but “blind faith”? No, it’s not.
More importantly you equated praying a prayer to ask Jeaus in your heart with entering into a covenant of salvation. That is also not in scripture. Salvation is by faith and through grace we are saved. Now a child may in fact have faith in Christ. But there is no way of knowing if another person had faith as a child. Being a good person isn’t proof. Attending church isn’t proof. If you really sent this letter to someone you did them a great disservice by not challenging him to make his calling and election sure. Refer him to the study of first John. Ask him to examine himself as to whether he is Now in the faith. That is far more important than a child’s ‘sinners prayer.’ This person may be in Gods gracious covenant but don’t assume that.
I did all that. He assured me multiple times of his salvation over several years. But in the dark days of terminal cancer, he looks back at his performance and wonders if he’ll be in heaven.
Up to this point I have really enjoyed and benefitted from your posts. They have really helped me personally and especially helped me in mentoring Bible college students here in Albania. I must say I was a bit sad to see this post. The Bible seems quite unclear on eternal security and I just believe there are a great many other things to discuss and talk and think about then throwing this in the mix. This will always be debated until Jesus comes. Looking forward to your future posts. Thanks so much for all you do!
I apologize for my tardy response to your comment. I’ve been traveling and just got to the comments, which I knew would be many. Please note the context of the letter. A man at the end of his life. A man looking back at his woefully inadequate performance as a Christian, thinking he just didn’t do enough to make the cut. I agree with your comment… this concept will be debated until Jesus returns. Thanks for reading and sticking with me.
Apparently my critique of this inadequate “letter” didn’t make the cut.
I like the idea of mentoring, I have been blessed by it. But can’t recommend your group.
I apologize for my tardy response to your comment. I’ve been traveling and just got to the comments, which I knew would be many. Please note the context of the letter. A man at the end of his life. A man looking back at his woefully inadequate performance as a Christian, thinking he just didn’t do enough to make the cut. I agree with Gary Gallina’s comment… this concept will be debated until Jesus returns. There is no way to know if a person is ‘saved’ or not. When I’m in doubt about any theological question, I look at what Jesus did. On the cross, with minutes left to live, He had two people dying beside Him. He could have turned to the unrepentant one and shared the 4 spiritual laws and tried to lead him to faith. Instead, he affirmed the small faith of the other one. John 3:17 “No one comes to the Father unless the Father draws him”. God does the saving, we do the sharing, loving, and yes, confronting as the Lord leads. But at the end of life of a confessing Christian? What would your letter say? What would you ask this man to do? This blog isn’t about theology, it’s about ministry . . . about making disciples. If you discard everyone who disagrees with your theology, your church will have one member . . . you. I don’t think that’s you and I hope you won’t give up on Radical Mentoring because of a blog post you disagree with. That’s what’s killing the church and making ‘outsiders’ turn away.