Robin Hardy Online
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Or, If I Accept Jesus Christ as My Savior,
Can I Do Whatever I Want and Still Go to Heaven?
"They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds." (Tit. 1:16)
"The person who says, 'I know Christ,' but does not obey Him
is a liar." (1 John 2:4)
I have heard the question posed in many ways, but it usually goes something like this: "If the Bible says salvation is unconditional, once I accept Jesus as my Savior, can I do whatever I want and still go to heaven?"
The short answer is: No.
Where did we get the idea of unconditional salvation? The New Testament presents salvation as a free gift from God, attained for us by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We cannot earn it; we can only accept it. As you may notice, acceptance itself is a condition. If salvation were truly unconditional, you wouldn't even have to receive it to be saved. You wouldn't have to do anything.
So, "What must I do to be saved?" That's the question the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas after a supernatural prison break. They gave him this condition: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31). Okay, but what does it mean to believe? The only honest definition is: to hold an idea so strongly that it dictates your outlook and behavior regardless of the consequences. That's why the early Church kept getting martyred: they insisted Jesus was Lord and not Caesar.
But giving up something I want now in hopes of a theoretical future paradise can be a bummer, so peripheral modern Christians have come up with a novel way of having their cake and eating it, too with the concept of unconditional salvation. The catch is, I don't find any place in the Bible where salvation is called unconditional. Instead, I find numerous warnings to the opposite:
"Those who formerly received the good news failed to enter [God's rest] because of disobedience. . . . Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience." (Heb. 4:6, 11, RSV)
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matt. 7:13-14)
"[The Christian] does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. . . . For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, 'If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?'" (1 Pet. 4:2-5, 17-19)
These are just a few examples. Skim through the Bible, Old and New Testaments, and you cannot miss the emphasis on obedience, on doing the right thing. It is the proof of our salvation: "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). "If you love Me, you will do what I tell you to do" (John 14:15, paraphrased).
One of the greatest dangers in reading Scripture is to assume that warnings apply to everybody but "me." "I" am such a good person inside that God will surely make special allowances for "me." To think that "I" have to obey Him like everybody else is "legalistic." To see the fallacy of this reasoning, apply it to the most basic of human relationships--that of a child to his parent.
Imagine the best possible father trying to raise a son. When the child is old enough to communicate and understand, the father attempts to instruct him: "Son, don't play in the street. Come play catch with me in the yard." "Son, stay away from strange animals. Take care of the one I've given you." "Son, come sit with me and let's read." "Son, tell the truth." "Son, don't take things that don't belong to you." "Son, be courteous and respectful to other people."
What happens to the child who consistently and willfully refuses his father's direction? Even if the father has the supernatural ability to protect him from the consequences of his "mistakes," think about what kind of person the child becomes who believes he can do what he wants with impunity. Such a person would see no need to be saved. If he does, he would think it means something entirely different from the Biblical concept of salvation.
Why is there all this confusion over what it means to be saved? I believe it comes from (1) a misapprehension of terms, and (2) diabolical laziness. First, just because something is handed to you freely doesn't mean it remains yours regardless of what you do with it. You can be handed a check for a million dollars and still lose it if you are careless with it. Likewise, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3)
Salvation means more than just a mental assent to the fact of Jesus' death on the cross (or to the presence of the Man Upstairs, or whatever belief seems to be required). Salvation is an awakening of our souls to the claim of God on us: "You were bought at a price" (1 Cor. 7:23). By His death on the cross, Jesus accomplished for us what we could not do: He made us capable of choosing to belong to Him.
Before we were saved, we were so drugged by sin that we could not have followed Him if we wanted to. This great awakening from that state of deadness must affect us mentally, spiritually, and physically—if you don't open your eyes and climb out of bed, what good is your being awake? Salvation means that we now want to do things His way. Someone who even asks, "Can I still live however I want and go to heaven?" has seriously missed the boat.
Second, I believe that there is a concerted propaganda effort straight out of hell to convince Christians that faith means resting in God—literally. Doing nothing. Taking the path of least resistance. Floating to heaven on "flow'ry beds of ease." I consider this to be a dangerous perversion of the concept of faith. Why? Because at its worst, I have seen several instances of this attitude played out to its natural conclusion: a "Christian" deliberately and repeatedly does something detestable (usually of a sexual nature) then commits suicide when he gets caught, confident that he can slip past earthly consequences while he has his reservation booked in heaven.
This attitude reveals a presumption on God's forgiveness bordering on lunacy. Do we really think He is such a doddering old fool that we can cover ourselves with insincere apologies for sins that we fully intend to commit again? "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Sprit will reap eternal life." (Gal. 6:7-8) No genuine Christian can live in blatant hypocrisy.
Again, search the Scriptures. You will find the Christian life depicted in terms of discipline (Heb. 12:5-7), hardship (2 Tim. 2:3), suffering (Rom. 5:3), warfare (2 Cor. 10:3-4)—and overriding victory:
"This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." (1 John 5:3-5) If the hardship, suffering, and warfare belonged only to the early Church, then so does the victory.
Finally, we can't address this question without talking about the unpardonable sin (1 John 5:16-18). The consensus is that this sin involves a protracted refusal to listen to the Holy Spirit. While it's easy to assume this can only happen prior to "salvation," I believe that someone's heart can grow hardened at any time during the process of salvation. Repeated disobedience to the promptings of conscience without repenting leads to the devastating consequences outlined in Hebrews 6:4-6: "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." Does this sound like unconditional salvation?
Many young Christians are like children: before they are strong enough to obey God out of love, they obey out of fear (or intense reverence, whatever you want to call it), and a little fear of losing salvation (or blessing) is not a bad thing. Better to fear the consequences of disobedience than not to fear Satan's effectiveness and fall into his oblivion. Those who are crippled by fear of losing their salvation probably, in reality, have the least to worry about: you've obviously heeded the warnings. You are the ones--not the slackers--to whom Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28, RSV).
Revelation 22:17 says, "Come forward, you who are thirsty; accept the water of life, a free gift to all who desire it" (New English Bible, my italics). Whether you get it depends on whether you desire it.
Years ago I was given a vivid illustration of the consequences of our choices in the earthly realm—see This Really Happened.
Copyright 2003 Robin Hardy, who thanks Stephanie Cole for her contributions to this article. Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Am I a soldier of the cross, a foll'wer of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own his cause, or blush to speak his name?
Must I be carried to the skies on flow'ry beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize, and sailed thro' bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace, to help me on to God?
Sure I must fight if I would reign; increase my courage, Lord!
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by thy Word.
"Am I a Soldier of the Cross?"
Isaac Watts
1724
Are the words of the hymn too extreme? Then what did Jesus mean when He said, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it"? (Matt. 11:12)
revised 12-9-07
