Safe to Save

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13 NRSV)

I would like to address a little more the false idea that if someone just says some words, even with strong emotion, that they confess Jesus as Lord of their life and call upon His name that somehow God has now been obligated to “save” them no matter what choices they make after that point. That is completely contradictory to God's respect for their freedom of choice.

A person has the right to choose to be lost after they have called upon the name of the Lord and have been saved. Because being saved is not so much about going to heaven as it is entering the process of healing and restoration that God wants to effect in our lives. If a person decides that that process is too painful and they are unwilling to learn endurance through the testing of their faith (James 1:2-4), they are free to withdraw from that process and go a different direction with their life. God will do everything possible to attract them back to Himself but He will not employ force to coerce them into compliance with His will. He will also not endanger the purity of heaven by taking them into paradise where their unwillingness to cooperate will reinfect the universe with the poison of sin.

Some people believe that at the moment we are taken to heaven that God does something miraculous in our brain that will cause us to suddenly not desire to sin anymore. Some believe that sin in our heart would go away if there were no more outside stimulus to cause our sinful reactions so if we can just somehow get into heaven then we will no longer have a sin problem.

But this kind of thinking misses a great deal of understanding of what sin really is and how our own minds and hearts operate. The first belief embraces a view of God who is willing to violate our free choice in favor of ending the problem of sin. But violating anyone's freedom to choose is to rob them of the ability to truly love. And God simply is not going to settle for imitation love. If He was willing to do that He could have ended this whole experiment long ago. He will only receive into His dwelling those who have freely chosen to give themselves totally into His heart of love and be molded into His image by any means necessary short of violating their will.

The second belief falls into the trap of thinking that most, if not all of our problems are simply a result of others or outside circumstances and we are not responsible for our own reactions. That is denial, failing to take ownership of our own stuff. And placing us into a perfect environment will not cure the deceitfulness and sin of our own heart. The sin problem is a lot deeper that others causing us to react negatively. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. (James 1:14-15) Sin at its root is really selfishness.

When a person “calls upon the name of the Lord” in a public or even private setting without a corresponding, deep heart change inspired by a new perception of God at the heart level, then we cannot expect God to force us into the process of salvation. For it is with our heart that we must believe, much more than with out intellect. Our intellect must cooperate with this process, but it cannot preempt it or replace the transformation that must take place in the heart.

God desires only service motivated by love. And for love to be genuine it must be totally free and uncoerced. Freedom means that I am always free to not love, or else love is not really love. Only those who are willing to be transformed by the renewing of their mind into the image of God will be safe to save in God's kingdom. Our love for God must always be based on the natural response to perceiving His intense love for us. And this must be perceived with the heart, for it is the heart that knows how to really love with passion and satisfaction. By beholding we become changed.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV)

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