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:
Tags: , ,
Topics:

Related Reading

How do you respond to Galatians 3:8?

“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.’” God has never wanted “any to perish”: he’s always desired “all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4). God’s goal has always been to reach…

Topics:

What is the significance of 2 Samuel 24:12–16?

The Lord gives David three options of how Israel will be judged. “Three things I offer you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.” This verse reveals how the Lord gives people genuine alternatives and responds to their choices. If God foreknew what David would choose, however, the purpose of the…

Topics:

What is the significance of Numbers 14:12–20?

In response to Israel’s bickering the Lord says “I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they” (vs. 12). Moses asks the Lord to forgive the people, and the Lord eventually responds, “I do forgive, just as you have asked” (vs.…

Topics:

What do you think of “confrontational evangelism”?

Question: In The Myth of a Christian Nation, you emphasize our need to sacrificially serve others. But you didn’t emphasize our need to “preach the Gospel to every living creature.” I’ve been intrigued by the movement known as “confrontational evangelism,” associated with Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. They stress the need to get people to…

How do you respond to Isaiah 48:3–5?

The Lord proclaims to his idolatrous people, “The former things I declared long ago, they went out from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared…

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…