What is essential for salvation?
Discussion question for July 3, 2009.
There are traditional and expected signals that salvation has occurred, such as praying “the sinner’s prayer” and baptism. What are the essentials for salvation? Can a person be saved and not know it? Can a person lose their salvation once they have it? What assurances are there that someone is saved?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
Mark 16:16 says we must believe and be baptized. Acts 2:21 says we must call on the name of the Lord. Acts 16:31 says to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10:4 says to confess and believe. Matthew 7:21 says we must do the will of the Father. 2 Timothy 1:12 says we are to make a commitment and not doubt. Ephesians 2 talks about how we are saved by grace through faith.
Each of these actions can be important: believe, be baptized, call on the Lord, confess, obey (do the will of the Father), commit, and have faith. In some ways they represent effects of being saved rather than the agent through which one is saved. Similarly, they can be seen as outcomes or responses.
The key essential of salvation is to surrender my rights to my self and accept God as the Lord (or ruler) over my life.
That surrendering happens on a daily basis as an act of will, and in that way it looks like obeying. But, that surrendering must also happen once and for all.
We are not able to judge the heart of others to determine if they have truly surrendered, or put God first in their life. Their fruit give us an indication and we can make some guesses accordingly. But it is God who judges, and also is the only One with the authority to determine.
We believe that God loves everyone of His children that has been created. He will give whatever is the true desire of their heart, even if it breaks His heart to allow some to perish.
If we have truly surrendered our self and made God the Lord over our life, then nothing can get in the way of Him ruling us and keeping us in salvation. However, in order for us to express our love there must be authentic free will, meaning we have the choice of rejecting Him. Once we have tasted the benefits of surrendered relationship it is unlikely that we would fall away (Hebrews 6).