Grace Uncovered
Posted by Ryan Woods
I've been blessed to be in good conversations lately with friends who believe very differently from me. It has grown me quite a bit, and I hope has challenged them too.
Through these conversations though I am becoming more aware of the fact that I view salvation much more different than many.
The way it first came up was the question was posed, what issues are salvation issues to you? I was like"...umm...none really. Well, I guess the only one that I'd really hold to as a salvation issue, as something that would cause you to lose your salvation, is if you reject Jesus. If you reject Jesus you will lose your salvation because you no longer want it. Other than that I don't think there are any issues that are salvation worthy." Is this revolutionary? Am I wrong? I thought this was the common belief of Christianity, but I may be wrong about this. Again I ask, am I wrong?
Isn't this one of the main thing that separates Christianity from every other world view, grace. There is nothing you can do to get salvation. Jesus gives it and you receive it. You're either taking grace from JC or you're rejecting it from JC (Jesus Christ). And so that is why I believe there are no salvation issues. You may smoke and drink a lot, but if you're pursuing Jesus, if you're saying yes to his offer of salvation then you are saved. (obviously this doesn't mean that you shouldn't pursue better behaviors. But your pursuit of better choices is not tied to your salvation, its tied to your response to your salvation). If you're serving at the local homeless shelter every single day of your life, you give all your money to poor kids, you don't smoke or drink or have sex with anything or anyone, and you're just an all around nice guy, but you're rejecting Jesus' offer of grace...you're not saved. It's not about your behavior. Am I wrong? I might be. But I think this is central to Jesus following and, well, I want to know if I'm alone in this.