By Lamont H. Fuchs, Ed.D.
Scripture references: Acts 2:21, Psalm 107: 10-15
Questions often remain in people’s minds about Salvation and whether they have it or others have it. It is usually based upon the judgment of others when a living testimony fails in the eyes of the beholder and judge.
Our calling is to love, preach, teach, glorify, praise, and walk in the Spirit like our example in Christ Jesus. We are not the judge. We are to look to our own Salvation.
Many times in my life, I have heard people say with conviction that this person is saved; that person cannot be saved; several people were saved during this event or service. It has always bothered me to hear talk like those sound bites. How do we know? I know what I know, and I pray you, too, know what you know about ourselves being saved. That is all we know. God knows the rest.
The nineteenth-century English scholar, Bishop B.F. Westcott was Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University.
On one occasion, he was approached by a zealous undergraduate who asked him, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘Ah,’ said the Bishop, ‘a very good question. But tell me: do you mean…?’ And then he mentioned three passive participles of the Greek verb ‘to save’, indicating that his answer would depend on which of the three the student had in mind. ‘I know I have been saved,’ he said; ‘I believe I am being saved; and by the grace of God that I shall be saved.’ (Mcjovial, 2017).
This story is an intellectual understanding of Salvation. I pray Bishop Westcott has internalized the philosophical aspects of being saved, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and accepts Christ as his personal Savior. It sounds like it.
I do not know that as a fact. No one does. God knows for sure, and I pray Bishop Westcott has no doubt he is saved. But you and I do not know and won’t know until we meet him in heaven one day. See? This is the sticky part of our Christian understanding of Salvation. Who is saved? Who is not? People say they are and then fall away. Others say they are but do not act like it very much. Some people live a life of sin and profess to repent and accept Jesus as their Savior on their deathbed. Judges look at those last-minute people facing death as fire escape salvations or fire insurance purchasers who say the words but may not really get the indwelling Spirit.
I have heard preachers say that those who say the Sinner’s Prayer in front of an audience, revival, or even some Christian events are not really saved. Some people see five, six, seven, and up to twelve-year-old kids come forward and repeat what was told to them and get baptized under peer or youth pastor pressure to accept Jesus as not saved.
Some see older men and women live sinful lives only to come forward with tears in their eyes, pleading they are saved and need baptism. Some profess they are born-again Christians in prison only to be judged as a charlatan trying to get an early release on parole or better treatment inside. Can you believe that a murdering criminal as pathetic as Jeffrey Dahmer accepted Jesus as Lord and was saved? Where do you fall in all that? As others have said, we will all be surprised to see who is in heaven and who is not.
To open this bucket of worms wider, let us discuss what it takes to be saved. If you want to get into a serious debate, here is a good one. Acts 2:21 says, “And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Look that up in any translation you want. They all say the same. How about the 2nd Thief, who was pardoned by Jesus while on the cross in his last minutes on earth? What did he do to deserve what Jesus did for him? One day, I saw an advertisement on TV to order a free pamphlet from some televangelist on the seven things you must do to be saved. Seven?
