Can we KNOW that we are going to heaven?
04/11/07 09:14 PM *Spirituality
This is how I answered
the last time I was asked that question:
The evangelical view of salvation, which is basically what the Reformation was all about (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, et al seeking to return to the earlier views of Augustine, Paul, et al after the medeival RCC made salvation works-based in order to control people): is that salvation is entirely a work of God, received by sinners as a free gift of God's grace and cannot be earned or deserved in any way. Jesus paid for our sins on the cross (the atonement) and salvation is free to all who trust in His person and His work. Once we are justified (a once-for-all-time event), i.e., our debt incurred by our sins against God is declared paid by Jesus, we cannot lose our salvation.
To reiterate what I wrote before: our life as Christians is not meant to be a worrisome, "I wonder if I'm being good enough and doing enough to please God enough to let me in" (which presumably would be followed - after death- by "Hey look, we made it, we're the good people", resulting in a heaven full of at least semi-self-righteous people); but rather- "I don't and didn't deserve salvation any more than anyone else but Jesus paid for my sins and I've been adopted into God's family by grace and nothing I can do will ever cause me to be rejected" This security leads to a life of gratitude, peace, joy and growing freedom from self-interest (no longer having to obsess over our own eternal prospects we can focus on serving others). If you never quite know if God has accepted you there will also be a hesitancy to be grateful (hard to be grateful for something you don't know if you have), and a certain lack of peace and joy for the same reason.
And, as I hinted earlier, the whole theology is wonderfully spelled out in the hymn "Amazing Grace" by former slave-trader John Newton.
Scriptures which encourage believers to rest in the security of knowing they are fully and eternally accepted by God include (among many others):
(click here for references)
In that last reference the Greek word translated "know" (oida) refers to a settled, certain knowledge.
The evangelical view of salvation, which is basically what the Reformation was all about (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, et al seeking to return to the earlier views of Augustine, Paul, et al after the medeival RCC made salvation works-based in order to control people): is that salvation is entirely a work of God, received by sinners as a free gift of God's grace and cannot be earned or deserved in any way. Jesus paid for our sins on the cross (the atonement) and salvation is free to all who trust in His person and His work. Once we are justified (a once-for-all-time event), i.e., our debt incurred by our sins against God is declared paid by Jesus, we cannot lose our salvation.
To reiterate what I wrote before: our life as Christians is not meant to be a worrisome, "I wonder if I'm being good enough and doing enough to please God enough to let me in" (which presumably would be followed - after death- by "Hey look, we made it, we're the good people", resulting in a heaven full of at least semi-self-righteous people); but rather- "I don't and didn't deserve salvation any more than anyone else but Jesus paid for my sins and I've been adopted into God's family by grace and nothing I can do will ever cause me to be rejected" This security leads to a life of gratitude, peace, joy and growing freedom from self-interest (no longer having to obsess over our own eternal prospects we can focus on serving others). If you never quite know if God has accepted you there will also be a hesitancy to be grateful (hard to be grateful for something you don't know if you have), and a certain lack of peace and joy for the same reason.
And, as I hinted earlier, the whole theology is wonderfully spelled out in the hymn "Amazing Grace" by former slave-trader John Newton.
Scriptures which encourage believers to rest in the security of knowing they are fully and eternally accepted by God include (among many others):
(click here for references)
In that last reference the Greek word translated "know" (oida) refers to a settled, certain knowledge.
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