We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

How can I feel secure in my salvation?
Question: I constant worry about whether I’m saved or not. Do I lose my salvation every time I sin? How can I feel secure that I’m saved?
Answer: It seems to me you’re framing your “salvation” within a legal paradigm rather than a relational paradigm. It’s like God is an angry judge and your a guilty defendant in a court of law. If you meet requirements x,y,z you’re “saved, ” but if you fail requirements x,y,z you’re “damned.” No wonder you worry about whether you loose your salvation whenever you sin.
This legal paradigm of salvation is a very common, but very unfortunate, way of thinking about the matter.
When you read the New Testament, don’t think court of law: think marriage. God doesn’t want to be your prosecuting attorney or probation officer; he wants to be your passionate, heavenly lover! You are the “bride” of Christ, the Bible says. When we pledge our life to Christ, we enter into a marriage covenant.
Now, in a marriage the spouses don’t go around asking, “What are the legal requirements I must to do stay married?” Or, “What are the does and don’ts that will keep my spouse from divorcing me?” If a couple lives in these kind of questions, they’re in a pretty sick marriage!
The right question in marriage is; “How can I grow in my capacity to love and please my spouse?”
A marriage isn’t a legal contract, it’s a relational covenant. See the difference?
I don’t worry about my wife divorcing me every time I’m an imperfect husband (which, of course, I hardly ever am). But neither do I take advantage of my wife’s love by trying to see how imperfect I can get away being without her divorcing me. In response to her love for me, I rather want to grow in my capacity to be a good husband. The same is true of her. And the same should be true of our relationship with God. He loves you more than you can imagine, Calvary is all the proof of this you need. To be married to him, you simply need to trust that this is true and pledge to pursue growing in your capacity to live faithful to him and in your capacity to be “a good wife.” Of course you’re not going to be perfect, and when you fall you need to just go back and remind himself of his unconditional love, expressed on Calvary. Learn from your mistakes, and move on.
But always remember: He’s your lover, not your probation officer.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Q&A, Salvation, Security
Topics: Death and Salvation
Related Reading

What makes the claim that Jesus rose from the dead unique?
Question: What makes the story of Jesus’ resurrection different from other pagan resurrection stories, such as those surrounding the Egyptian god Osiris? Answer: In Lord or Legend? (and more academically, The Jesus Legend), Paul Eddy and I address this, and many other, objections to faith in Jesus. I encourage you to check either of these…

Do you believe God is pure actuality?
The basis of the classical view of God as pure actuality (actus purus) is the Aristotelian notion that potentiality is always potential for change and that something changes only because is lacks something else. So, a perfect being who lacks nothing must be devoid of potentiality, which means it must be pure actuality. I think…

Are you an annihilationist, and if so, why?
Annihilationism is the view that whoever and whatever cannot be redeemed by God is ultimately put out of existence. Sentient beings do not suffer eternally, as the traditional view of hell teaches.I’m strongly inclined toward the annihilationist position. The reason is that it strikes me as the view that has the best biblical support. I’ll…

If God is already doing the most he can do, how does prayer increase his influence?
Question: If God always does the most that he can in every tragic situation, as you claim in Satan and the Problem of Evil, how can you believe that prayer increases his influence, as you also claim? It seems if you grant that prayer increases God’s influence, you have to deny God was previously doing…

What about the Gospel of John and Calvinism?
Question: The Gospel of John seems to teach that people believe because God draws them, rather than that God draws people because they believe. If this is true, how can you deny the Calvinistic teaching that salvation is based on God’s choice, not ours? Answer: As you note, many people find support for the view…

Will people get married in heaven?
Question: I lead a Bible study group for teenagers. One recently asked a question: “Will there be marriage in Heaven? And if not, why? God created marriage when He created the perfect earth, so why won’t there also be marriage in the New Earth after the resurrection? Surely the New Earth will be a restored…