During my graduate education at Northwestern College, Dr. Muska said something very important that advanced me theologically. I had formerly thought that salvation could be lost if one gave up, threw in the towel, or otherwise betrayed his or her faith. What Muska said was:
We can’t lose our salvation.
This didn’t fit into my theological schema. How can we be expected to live holy, but never worry about salvific matters?
I remembered reading discussions that defended this idea through the articulation that if we fall away from the faith, then we really weren’t true believers in the first place. However, I know that there have been times in my life when I’ve been sure of things and later decided against them. Both perspectives were legitimate feelings and desires. I wouldn’t say that I didn’t really mean it at the time. I did.
So how can I make sense of this?
Ultimately, I was putting too many biscuits on the same warm, Thanksgiving plate of theology. This meal requires at least two plates.
I owe a debt of gratitude to what Dr. Hewitson, also from Northwestern College, has added. From Old Testament to New Testament, the commands of God have always been both to Trust and Obey. (I will be posting a review of Hewitson’s work in the near future)
We have two things going for us: Christ is perfection and faith pleases God. So then those who have trust in the promises of God attain the perfect righteousness of God that is available through the obedience of Christ.
In the matter of salvation, Dr. Muska is absolutely correct. Salvation cannot be lost. As we believe on Christ there is no failure on our part that can cause the foundation of our faith to fall out from beneath us.
In the matter of abandoning our faith, we can. But this requires purposeful acts. It does not happen because we missed some step in our sanctifying path. It requires our rejecting the faith.
Dr. Bill Mounce posted an article that helps makes some sense out of how this can be so. In his recent post on Romans 9:10, Mounce says that “Christians are people who confess Christ.” It is when we “cease to confess and if we cease to believe” that we start affecting the new covenant we have made with our God in coming to him through Christ. This is different than losing salvation. This is abandonment and betrayal of the covenant.
I think this is further supported by what Hosea 6:7 reveals. Transgressing or breaking the covenant requires an act of faithlessness (depending on Translation, see i.e. ESV vs. KJV). The Hebrew is bagad, and covers the semantic range of acting covertly or deceitfully to being unfaithful. For the limited purpose of this blog post, any of these words are sufficient to show that our salvation is never dependent on how well we follow, but how wholly we follow.
This is how theologically we can affirm both that salvation cannot be lost and that God still requirement faithfulness from his people. To love God is to do acts of love upon him, even though as human beings we still fail so often.
So then we shan’t lose heart. God is faithful. (Hey, I just read the King James Version – it’s contagious!) And he will not lose any of his sheep.
