As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do so that I may inherit eternal life?” But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not give false testimony, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth.” Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But he was deeply dismayed by these words, and he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.
And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus responded again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were even more astonished, and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:17-27)
First off, I have no idea why I’ve been meditating so much on salvation and I didn’t think I was going to write another post about it but here I am writing another one. Anyways, I’m reminded in the passage above that I have no power. None. Absolutely zero. I have nothing good to offer up. I have no power to save myself or keep myself saved. There is no good that resides in me. I am broken from the inside out, and I’m a creature that does not operate properly, but yet I’ve been made perfect by His good work on the cross. My salvation is a unilateral covenant. It is not bilateral. We live in a ultra sensitive world today. One offensive word and the entire world will come after you, and when you tell someone that they are a terrible person and there is nothing good in them the world will more than likely “cancel” you.
The incredible delusion is there is something good in all of us and if we are just good enough then we will get into Heaven. As if God somehow grades on a curve and that He grades our goodness compared to the goodness of others. The world states “I must be doing good because I’m not sinning like that guy.” For a believer a big one is… “I’m a sinner but I don’t willfully sin. I only sin unknowingly or unwillingly.” As if the only sin that exists in the believers life happens by accident and is not a conscious decision. They just somehow stumble upon sin sometimes. THIS IS A LIE. This is an awful reality for some, and it’s highly unbiblical. God says the issue begins when we decide to practice willful sin. In other words, we knowingly are sinning and continue to sin without any conviction to stop and it maybe a result of not truly being saved.
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins…. (Hebrews 10:26)
Examples for reference are getting drunk on alcohol or any substance consistently without any conviction or remorse to change. Desiring to be with and flirting with other people when you are married. These are huge examples that come to mind quickly. I’ve come across many people who fall into these categories who claim to be Christian, and in all cases the reason they cited to have the right to claim to be saved was because they were baptized as a child. In any case, God means we will not be willfully sinless, but we will willfully sin less because of God’s continual sanctification of us who are genuine believers.
In a nutshell, all of the above is what our Lord is conveying to the rich young ruler. He asks him… “Why do you call me good?” Meaning… “do you know who I am? You have nothing to offer towards salvation because there is nothing good in you. Only God is good” The rich young Jewish man then proceeds to tell Jesus that he has kept the commandments and based on his own power and accomplishments he must surely inherit eternal life. Christ then says he must give up his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Him. The rich young ruler cannot and does not follow. Jesus is not speaking of literally giving up one’s financial earnings or things you possess, but rather giving up the belief that you can be righteous on your own by your own strength. He uses this man’s financial portfolio as an example to bring out his deceitful heart and lie into the open. He tells the disciples “it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Translation…you cannot earn your way into Heaven being “rich” on your own understanding and strength.
Another poster child that comes to mind regarding admission into Heaven based on works is Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee who had it all “dialed in” when it came to the law, and was left scratching his head when Jesus told him “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and Spirit.” (John 3:5) Meaning you are not saved by physical baptism in water, but rather when you put your trust in Him. The whole context of Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus was physical birth and then spiritual birth. So being “born of water” means being born in the womb of your mother and then getting saved by being born of The Spirit. Not getting saved the moment you are baptized in water. So again, your salvation is nothing you do on the outside, but is based upon your trust and confidence in Christ. This is a matter of the heart and not a matter of external physical action.
Even some members of the church will be offended when you tell them you have nothing to do with getting into Heaven or not getting into Heaven. You cannot earn your way in nor can you earn your way out. This is an objective truth of God’s word yet we still have members of the body who see true born again believers having the right and free will choice to apostatize, for example, even when it is clear The Bible says true believers do not have this right. Once you are genuinely saved you are “shackled” to Christ for eternity and you now have no choice in the matter. Free will and our ability to make decisions for ourselves is a concept that is very hard to let go of for some. I struggle with this myself constantly, but in terms of salvation we most definitely do not have the ability to authentically choose to turn away once we genuinely come to Christ. Yes, one can backslide, but if they are truly “elect” Jesus will bring them back to the flock someday, or this person was never truly saved to begin with, and their moment of rebirth may be a future event.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Does this “eternal life” begin only when you are in Heaven or in a place that functions as an “intermediary” after earthly death to further atone to earn your way into Heaven? No, it’s obvious it begins the moment you are saved. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” (John 3:36). Notice how John says has. This is present tense not sometime in the future. God reiterates this fact over and over again in His word. Eternal life is from “the jump”. He doesn’t tell us He gives us eternal life if we are good and we don’t commit a massive amount of sins or don’t turn away from Him while on Earth. He tells us we inherit eternal life the moment we place our trust in Him, and this means we trust that He will persevere for us and keep us in the faith because we remain in the body of Christ not of our own doing or free will choice.
…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
Does the above say that He who started a good work in you will carry it out until you sin your way out? No. Does it say He who started a good work in you will carry it out until you turn away in apostasy? No. It says He will FINISH what He started until the day of Christ or rather until “completion comes” through earthly death or through the rapture of the church. If you don’t trust in God’s ability to persevere then you are relying on your own strength to keep yourself saved. Again, salvation is not a bilateral agreement or 1:1 series of decisions. It’s completely one sided. We have the free will decision to eat cereal or eat eggs for breakfast, or scratch our leg or itch our eye, or to sin or not to sin, but we do not have the free will decision to forfeit salvation. Only unbelievers do. They can appear to be in the faith only to then fall away.
They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (1 John 2:19)
So the whole entire point is you and I are rotten from birth into this world. This is the bad news. It’s extremely hard to come to terms with this especially when looking into the eyes of a newborn child. We will never have the ability to make ourselves worthy of God’s grace. Which, unfortunately, is the mentality of the unbelieving world and those who subscribe to “losing salvation”. These two camps are stuck in a works based program, and have taken it upon themselves that righteousness is, or a portion of, their own responsibility.
Those who believe a true born again believer can lose salvation are presenting an extremely arrogant and prideful view just like the world does, and the world wants them to. It looks like this… “I know that I’m saved, I know I’m going to Heaven. However, I also know I can mess it up…but so far I haven’t yet.” Can you see how arrogant this is? It’s all about you and your ability instead of being all about Him and His total sovereignty. If we were in fact able to carry out our salvation and it is our responsibility to persevere and preserve it, then based on the biblical data God presents in His holy word, this would mean you already lost it.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)