Is My Salvation an Event or a Process?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Happy Friday, everyone.

00:00:06.040 | We have a good one for you today,

00:00:07.560 | an episode that will answer a question

00:00:09.160 | we get all the time in the inbox.

00:00:10.760 | Basically it's this.

00:00:12.480 | Is our salvation an event, or is our salvation a process?

00:00:17.480 | Are we saved in a moment,

00:00:20.540 | or are we saved in a series of unfolding events?

00:00:25.000 | We need to work that out with open Bibles.

00:00:27.520 | The question comes to us from Andrew,

00:00:29.320 | a listener in Jonesboro, Arkansas, with an open Bible.

00:00:32.880 | Hello, Pastor John.

00:00:33.720 | My brother sends me questions frequently

00:00:35.720 | so we can discuss them.

00:00:36.760 | The most recent one from him comes from Colossians

00:00:39.560 | chapter one, verses 21 to 23,

00:00:41.880 | where it seems as if Paul is saying

00:00:43.300 | that salvation is a process, not an event.

00:00:46.760 | The only reason I have an issue with this

00:00:48.480 | is because he seems to think that this also indicates

00:00:51.240 | that the once saved, always saved teaching is incorrect.

00:00:56.240 | It says we aren't actually once saved,

00:00:58.680 | but are more accurately continually being saved

00:01:02.120 | as we continue in the faith.

00:01:03.520 | This seems contrary to the many verses

00:01:05.600 | that say salvation is by faith, not by works,

00:01:08.060 | but I still cannot completely reconcile verses

00:01:10.600 | such as these in Colossians.

00:01:12.440 | What are your thoughts?

00:01:15.040 | - Well, let's read the text

00:01:16.400 | 'cause we need to have the verses right there

00:01:18.240 | in front of us so that we can see

00:01:19.880 | what the real problem is for so many people.

00:01:24.880 | It goes like this.

00:01:26.840 | And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind,

00:01:31.840 | doing evil deeds, he, Christ, has now reconciled

00:01:36.960 | in his body of flesh by his death

00:01:41.640 | in order to present you holy and blameless

00:01:45.160 | and above reproach before him,

00:01:47.720 | if indeed you continue in the faith,

00:01:52.080 | stable and steadfast,

00:01:54.400 | not shifting from the hope of the gospel.

00:01:56.960 | I think we need to make the problem worse

00:02:00.000 | before we make it better.

00:02:01.800 | Andrew says that it looks like salvation

00:02:05.520 | is a process, not an event,

00:02:09.000 | and that this is what creates the problem

00:02:10.940 | of the possible loss of salvation.

00:02:12.700 | But actually, salvation is an event and is a process.

00:02:17.700 | Salvation, that word salvation,

00:02:22.520 | and the reality behind it is the really big,

00:02:26.440 | all-encompassing word in Scripture.

00:02:29.700 | It includes election, predestination,

00:02:34.600 | redemption, propitiation, divine calling,

00:02:38.600 | regeneration and reconciliation and forgiveness

00:02:41.940 | and adoption and sanctification and glorification.

00:02:45.840 | I mean, it is a big, glorious word.

00:02:49.920 | All of those events and processes,

00:02:53.480 | 'cause some are events and some are processes,

00:02:56.040 | are involved in how God saves us forever,

00:03:00.760 | and all of them are essential.

00:03:02.760 | So Paul says in Ephesians 2:8,

00:03:04.920 | "We have been saved."

00:03:07.520 | And he says in 1 Corinthians 1:18,

00:03:09.940 | "We are being saved."

00:03:12.920 | And he says in Romans 13, 11,

00:03:15.280 | "Salvation is nearer to us now

00:03:19.080 | than when we first believed."

00:03:20.960 | So we have been, we are being, we will be saved,

00:03:25.960 | event and process forever.

00:03:30.100 | But that's not what makes this text

00:03:33.080 | look like salvation can be lost.

00:03:35.680 | What makes it look like salvation can be lost

00:03:38.820 | is that big, daunting word if, in verse 23,

00:03:44.440 | "Now you are reconciled through his body in the flesh

00:03:49.440 | if indeed you continue in the faith,

00:03:55.040 | stable and steadfast,

00:03:56.600 | not shifting from the hope of the gospel."

00:03:59.140 | This is what makes so many people think,

00:04:02.640 | wow, if our present condition of being reconciled

00:04:07.640 | and saved and justified and regenerated,

00:04:10.920 | if our present condition is contingent,

00:04:15.000 | dependent on our persevering or continuing in faith,

00:04:20.000 | then it must be true that we can lose our salvation

00:04:24.180 | for why else would there be a condition?

00:04:26.860 | Now that inference, that conclusion from the text is false.

00:04:32.960 | That's not a true inference from this text,

00:04:39.400 | but it's not false because there's no condition.

00:04:44.200 | There really is a condition for perseverance.

00:04:47.760 | One must persevere.

00:04:49.920 | The text says, "We have been reconciled

00:04:53.040 | if we continue in the faith."

00:04:57.040 | That's a real condition.

00:04:59.600 | If we don't continue in the faith,

00:05:02.040 | that is, if we throw away the faith,

00:05:05.760 | renounce Jesus Christ, turn against him and his truth,

00:05:10.580 | never repent, we'll perish.

00:05:13.740 | That's what John says in 1 John 2:19

00:05:19.680 | about those who fall away.

00:05:22.280 | Here's the absolutely crucial thing that he says.

00:05:27.160 | "They went out from us, but they were not of us.

00:05:32.800 | For if they had been of us,

00:05:36.200 | they would have continued with us,

00:05:38.680 | but they went out that it might become plain

00:05:42.760 | that they are not all of us."

00:05:46.940 | Two crucial things are made clear in that text.

00:05:50.840 | First, if we don't persevere in faith,

00:05:54.560 | we were never truly of God and of the people of God,

00:05:59.560 | never born of God.

00:06:01.600 | They went out that it might be plain

00:06:04.320 | that they were not of us, of God, of the new birth.

00:06:09.320 | That is, not born of God.

00:06:13.180 | Second, if we are born of God, he says,

00:06:18.180 | we will persevere, we will.

00:06:22.000 | If they had been of us,

00:06:24.220 | that is, among those who are born of God,

00:06:27.080 | they would have continued with us.

00:06:31.080 | So there's no thought of losing salvation,

00:06:35.080 | no thought of being born again and then being unborn again,

00:06:40.000 | being justified and then being unjustified,

00:06:43.120 | having eternal life,

00:06:44.320 | and then it turns out it's not eternal after all.

00:06:48.240 | So the question becomes,

00:06:51.160 | how can there be a condition in Colossians 1:23

00:06:56.560 | if you can't lose your reconciliation?

00:07:01.440 | How can Paul say, "You have been reconciled

00:07:05.800 | if you persevere?"

00:07:08.880 | The answer is God uses such warnings

00:07:14.720 | to cause his children to persevere

00:07:19.920 | and he secures their perseverance.

00:07:23.300 | He guarantees it by his faithfulness

00:07:27.120 | to keep us in the faith.

00:07:30.480 | The Bible plainly teaches that all of those

00:07:34.620 | who are truly born again will in fact be saved.

00:07:39.620 | They will meet the condition.

00:07:43.440 | Consider just three passages.

00:07:46.600 | So here's Romans 8:30.

00:07:48.320 | I think this is the most important.

00:07:50.440 | Those whom God predestined, he also called,

00:07:53.980 | and those whom he called, he also justified,

00:07:56.900 | and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

00:08:00.240 | This is an unbroken chain of salvation.

00:08:04.780 | All the predestined are called.

00:08:07.180 | All the called are justified.

00:08:09.680 | All the justified are glorified.

00:08:12.540 | No dropouts.

00:08:14.100 | Eternal security of God's predestined ones

00:08:19.220 | is a biblical truth.

00:08:22.560 | Here's 1 Corinthians 1, 8, and 9

00:08:25.280 | to see where it really rests, where that security rests.

00:08:29.660 | Christ will sustain you to the end,

00:08:33.580 | guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

00:08:36.580 | God is faithful by whom you were called

00:08:39.580 | into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

00:08:44.460 | So the issue is, is God a promise keeper?

00:08:48.060 | Is he faithful?

00:08:49.840 | And here's Philippians 1, 6.

00:08:52.760 | I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you

00:08:57.760 | will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

00:09:04.220 | So what makes us eternally secure in Christ

00:09:10.660 | is not that there are no conditions

00:09:14.780 | or that salvation is not a process.

00:09:18.280 | Not a fight to be fought and a race to be run.

00:09:21.280 | It is.

00:09:22.120 | There are conditions.

00:09:24.440 | If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast,

00:09:28.380 | what makes us eternally secure

00:09:31.500 | is the sovereign keeping faithfulness of God.

00:09:36.500 | Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 1, 5.

00:09:41.040 | You are being guarded by God's power through faith

00:09:46.640 | for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

00:09:50.480 | In other words, God's power sustains our faith

00:09:55.320 | so that we persevere and inherit

00:09:58.440 | what has been promised to us.

00:10:00.400 | Here's the way Hebrews 3.14 says it.

00:10:05.140 | We have come to share in Christ

00:10:08.840 | if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

00:10:14.800 | In other words, perseverance shows

00:10:18.760 | that our original union with Christ was real.

00:10:23.760 | And here's the most beautiful promise of all

00:10:28.600 | about God's keeping his own people, Jude 1, verse 24 and 25.

00:10:33.600 | Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling

00:10:41.600 | and to present you blameless

00:10:44.800 | before the presence of his glory with great joy,

00:10:48.080 | to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

00:10:52.840 | be glory and majesty, dominion and authority

00:10:55.560 | before all time now and forevermore.

00:10:58.920 | Amen.

00:10:59.880 | So yes, yes, yes, salvation is an event and a process.

00:11:04.880 | Salvation is conditional upon perseverance.

00:11:09.960 | Nevertheless, and this is an absolutely glorious,

00:11:14.160 | nevertheless, it is completely certain,

00:11:18.520 | certain for God's predestined,

00:11:21.600 | called, justified, believing children.

00:11:25.880 | Therefore, all the warnings, like this one,

00:11:28.920 | all the warnings of the New Testament

00:11:32.400 | are to be taken seriously

00:11:34.680 | because God uses them to keep his children vigilant

00:11:40.200 | in the fight of faith.

00:11:42.560 | We are found to be secure

00:11:46.000 | by how seriously we take all the promises

00:11:49.800 | and all the warnings of Scripture.

00:11:51.600 | - Very good.

00:11:53.600 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:54.440 | And Andrew, thank you for the thoughtful Bible question.

00:11:56.600 | We love thoughtful Bible questions.

00:11:58.920 | And if you have one of your own,

00:12:00.240 | send it to us by going to our online home

00:12:03.000 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:12:09.080 | Speaking of great Bible questions,

00:12:10.280 | we start the week with a Great Commission Bible question.

00:12:13.840 | This one, did the Apostle Paul say

00:12:16.040 | that the gospel had already reached the ends of the world

00:12:19.880 | in his own era?

00:12:22.120 | We get that sense that it did

00:12:23.760 | in Colossians chapter one and verses six and 23.

00:12:28.360 | If that's what he said, it raises questions

00:12:30.800 | about our urgency with the Great Commission today.

00:12:34.320 | We will look at those texts and see what John Piper says.

00:12:36.640 | All the modern translations get wrong

00:12:38.940 | with them.

00:12:39.800 | I'm your host Tony Reinke and Pastor John

00:12:41.360 | and I will see you back here on Monday.

00:12:43.640 | Have a great weekend.

00:12:44.640 | (upbeat music)

00:12:47.220 | (upbeat music)

00:12:49.800 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Is My Salvation an Event or a Process?

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