Dear Professor Theophilus:

A girl I know says she believes she is going to go to heaven because she has done more good things than bad things. I explained to her that my salvation is a free gift. She asked, what if you're wrong? What if we have to work for it? For a period in my life I did immoral and wrong things. If she's right, then I am doomed to hell.

That's not what I believe. The Bible states clearly that salvation is a free gift. Still, what if I'm wrong? What if we're both wrong? Is it possible for us both to be right?

Reply:

You and your friend can't both be right, because your views are diametrically opposed. But your question is really two — first, why your friend was mistaken about earning our way into heaven, and second, how to answer the "What if?" question. I'll take each question in turn.

About earning our way into heaven. Your friend's view seems to be that her good deeds somehow make God not mind her less numerous bad ones. But love wants what is good for the beloved, and sin destroys us. If God loves us utterly, then in His utterly pure holiness He will inexorably hate what destroys us, and inexorably reject our sin. He will not tolerate even a speck of it in us. That means that we have to get rid of it completely — not only must we get rid of the guilt of it, we must get rid of the tendency to commit it. We have no power in ourselves to do this; it can be done only by repenting and giving ourselves up to the Rescuer, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the Cross paid the price for our guilt, and His Spirit cleanses and changes us so that by the time we are in Heaven we will no longer even desire to commit sin.

When people say they are good enough to please God already, they aren't being honest with themselves. Once one of my students asked if he could talk about God with me. I said OK. He told me he didn't see why he couldn't be good without God. I asked him why he didn't. He said, "Because I think I'm a decent person." I replied, "If you think your decency is high enough for God, your idea of God must be pretty low." At first he was shocked. But then I asked him whether he thought he could go a week without selfishness, without resentment, without lust. I asked whether he thought he could go a day, an hour, 10 minutes. He got the point, because he knew he couldn't. By myself, neither can I. If that's what it takes to get into heaven, nobody will get in. That's why the Gospel is called the "Good News": God has offered us a way back, a way which we could never have made for ourselves.

Now about the "What if?" question. The time to worry about a "What if" is when there is good reason to believe that the "What if" is true. To worry about a "What if" when there is no reason to believe that it is true makes no sense, because you can ask "What if” about anything. I can't see any cars on the street, but what if there is one I haven't noticed and I'll be killed if I step off the curb? I think I'm sane, but what if I'm really crazy? I don't believe in monsters in the closet, but what if they are in there after all? Fortunately, you have good reason to believe that your friend's "What if" is not true. Consider Christ's promises! See what He has already done in your life! You have experienced His forgiveness, and even your desire to sin has begun to change. Why would God do this for you if it was all a trick and you were doomed to Hell after all? Is our sin too strong for Almighty God to overcome?

A final thought. The fact that salvation is a free gift doesn't mean that God doesn't care what we do, and there is certainly a sense in which we do have to work for it. It may take sweat and tears to stay tuned in to the One who saves us from our sins, and to continue to trust and to follow Him. That's why Paul told the Philippians, "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling." But he didn't mean that we save ourselves from our sins. On the one hand Paul writes to the Ephesians "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — not because of works, lest any man should boast." But in the very next verse he says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Get the point? God does care about our good works — we're not saved by them, but we are certainly saved for them. He doesn't say "Get clean, and then I'll save you." He saves us so that He can clean us up.

I think the reason you are torturing yourself with the "What if?" question is that your heart is condemning you for your former sins. But you can be freed from this distress. Is Christ developing His love in you? I can see from your letter that He is. John says "By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before Him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

CAN I LOSE MY SALVATION?

Dear Professor Theophilus:

Me again. I was talking with two girls when the subject of Christianity came up. I mentioned how it's cool that we can't lose our salvation. That set one of them off. She said that we can lose our salvation by using our free will to reject God and commit mortal sins.

I understand her, but I can't believe that a true Christian would ever reject God. I'm meeting the girls later to discuss the matter further, and would like to know what you think about it.

Reply:

You seem to be popular with religious girls. But about your question. There are certain questions about which Christians have historically disagreed, and the question "Can one lose one's salvation?" is one of them. One of the answers must be wrong and one of them must be right, but real Christians are found on both sides. Some Protestants think you can't lose your salvation. Roman Catholics, as well as other Protestants, think you can. A frustrating aspect of the controversy is that Christians have historically disagreed not only about whether you can lose your salvation, but also about how important it is to settle the question in the first place.

The argument that a Christian can lose his salvation runs like this. Even Christians sometimes sin, and even Christians sometimes find it difficult to repent. Obstinate refusal to repent is a kind of rebellion against God, and it's hard to see how someone who is in rebellion against God when he dies can wind up with God in heaven. Why would he even want to be with Him? Those who think that a Christian cannot lose his salvation reply that if someone obstinately refuses to repent of his sin, persisting in refusal until death, he couldn't have been a real Christian in the first place.

You might say "Let's settle the question by consulting the Bible," and that's a good idea, but both sides of the controversy claim biblical support. They disagree about the meaning of certain important passages of Scripture. For example, those who think Christians can lose their salvation quote what Paul says in Romans 11:

Note then the kindness and the severity of God: Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.

But those who think Christians cannot lose their salvation quote what he says just three chapters earlier:

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul isn't contradicting himself. The question is: Which group has interpreted his words correctly? Instead of merely throwing verses at each other, we need to put those verses in context and think hard about what Paul is really saying.

I could give you my own view of the matter, but I don't want you to decide which view is right just because I say so. I'll just say that among Protestants, the most well-known defender of the view that we cannot lose our salvation is John Calvin, and among the most well-known defenders of the view that we can lose our salvation is John Wesley. You may want to look up what Calvinists and Wesleyans say about the issue yourself. The best source for the Roman Catholic view is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

IS IT MY HOUSE? CAN I SPILL THE MILK?

Dear Professor Theophilus:

In "Can You Draw Out Theophilus With A Hook?", you distinguished between laws that God intended only for the ancient Jews, and laws that still bind us today. I want to offer a thought about that.

My parents had rules for me as a child. In my house I now no longer have to follow them. Here is an example. My parents had a rule about spilling milk: Don't! But in my house I can spill the milk if I want to. I won't get into trouble or have to go to bed early. There are consequences; I have to clean up my own mess or get my wife to do it for me. She's glad to make the sacrifice, because, like Christ, she loves me. Because I love her too, I don't make her clean up my mess; I follow the rule as if it were binding. I learn from a rule that I no longer have to follow.

Reply:

I thank you for your letter, but I'm not sure what you mean when you write "in my house I can spill the milk." If you mean that because we are co-heirs with Christ, and because He is our sacrifice, we therefore have permission to sin, this is a serious misunderstanding which Paul bends over backwards to forestall. I don't want to argue about it, but here is what he says in Romans, chapter 6.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

That I can "spill the milk" is as true as it ever has been. That I am allowed to "spill the milk" is as false as it ever has been. Though God has prepared a place for us, we are always in His house.

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

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