by Larry Hallock

I remember scoffing, as a righteous teenager, at my Baptist cousins for their belief in "once saved, always saved"—the idea that once you accept Christ you can never fall out of God's good graces. How great it felt to have the truth!  Back then, Seventh-day Adventists didn't just know the truth, we had it. And it wasn't just truth, it was the truth. Baptists didn't have the truth. They didn't realize staying saved required constant vigilance. 

The older me isn't so smug. Now instead of having the truth, I seek it. And I believe the Baptist notion about salvation makes some sense. They believe in salvation through grace (faith) alone, and, ironically, their view is more "Adventist" than the practical notions of many Adventists themselves on the topic. You never hear a Baptist rush to add the phrase "but good works will follow, out of love!" whenever someone mentions salvation as a free gift with no strings attached. Many Adventists say they believe in salvation by faith alone, but still believe good behavior has to be there for salvation to really work. Since "good works will follow," they figure if good works aren't there, it's a sign that salvation isn't either. At the very least, one must be trying, in order to qualify for grace. The smoker must be trying to stop; the homosexual must be trying to change. Call it "salvation if proven by behavior."

But behavior simply isn't where it's at when it comes to salvation. It isn't even where it's at when it comes to staying saved. If it were, who could possibly be saved? Not even relatively good behavior is a requirement. Nor even a promise to try to be good. Only faith, a state of mind is required.

Perhaps "faith" isn't the best word, especially when we try substituting our favorite definition: "...salvation by the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Does anyone really understand exactly what those words mean in their 400-year-old vernacular?

Try this instead: salvation by attitude. Salvation by attitude happens in the mind, not in behavior. Or call it salvation by relationship (our relationship with God). This means it's a lot easier to be saved than many realize. No tricky God! No cryptic formula! No maze of grace—just amazing grace! Just wanting to be saved—and asking God to do it, by faith in Christ—is enough. Is this a gimmick? Not unless you think keeping the lines of communication open between you and God is a gimmick. You can entirely forget about "good works will follow," salvationally speaking. If good behavior happens automatically out of love, then so be it. It's not something you have to know will happen. It's not something you have to worry about to stay saved. And it's not something that has to happen, ever, for your salvation, even though it is very likely to happen. When it comes to salvation, your part is simple. Just say yes. And believe it's real because you trust the giver.

Salvation is so easy, so uncomplicated, that one could technically title this piece "How to be Saved and Do Anything You Want." (Not to imply doing anything we want is a good thing!) Such an alarming title would contain more truth than error, partly because what we want to do changes under God's love and grace. But since that part is God's responsibility, the glorious fact is that we don't become "unsaved" if those changes don't occur today or tomorrow or even next year. Salvation simply is not conditional on those changes.

This should sound amazing to many gay people who drove themselves to the brink of suicide over natural, loving behavior we thought was wrong (according to our upbringing) without understanding why or how it could be wrong. We thought we were lost when we weren't—not even for a moment. Whether that behavior was right or wrong was beside the point for salvation. For even as we begged to be made worthy, God was standing there all along, reaching out, waiting for us to see an out-stretched arm through our tears. We fretted for nothing. The earthly consequences of our behaviors may be hellish or heavenly, but the one thing we don't have to worry about is the fact of our ultimate salvation—for as long as we choose it.

Only when we comprehend the simple yet amazing nature of our salvation can we begin to know the awesome joy and wonder that has inspired poets and musicians throughout the ages; their attempts to describe it are seen in our grandest hymns, prose and classical scores. It was not a fragile, conditional salvation that amazed them! It was not a salvation attainable only by the strong, the righteous, the iron-willed or the in-the-know. It was and is the grandest serendipity ever realized by humanity. It was and is amazing grace.

Salvation is not like a monetary loan that must be paid back within a reasonable period of time. Never having to pay it back is what makes it a gift. A sincere gift-giver does not take back a gift when your behavior becomes unsuitable, otherwise it would not be a gift. The giver of a true gift will take it back only if you send it back. Think about it: Who requires us to become perfect the instant we accept Christ, or within a certain period of time thereafter? No one. Unless, perhaps, ourselves—we who find it difficult to trust in such an incredibly generous giver of such an unbelievable gift.

Behavior as indicator

Does this mean we behave willy-nilly, or deliberately flaunt evil? Of course not. Good behavior is important for many good reasons other than salvation. Indeed, in countless biblical texts God demands good behavior! And why not? Striving toward righteousness in how we treat ourselves and others is the only decent way to live! But good behavior is never demanded as a condition for God's love and saving grace. In that sense, God is indeed like a parent. God doesn't threaten to take away our salvation when we have trouble behaving any more than parents make their love conditional or threaten to abandon their children for disobedience. An unruly child may have to worry about some consequences, but not abandonment.

Put another way, the battle over sin is not a battle for salvation! They are separate issues. Sin has been defined as a separation or estrangement from God. It's a miserable state, just as being estranged from a friend or parent is a miserable state. But in estrangement, it is not the friendship or the parental tie or the salvation that is at stake. Estrangement is not abandonment.

When it comes to salvation versus being lost, each is a state of mind. Neither can be accurately determined by observation of behavior. One can sin in the mind (without "doing" anything), and that is precisely where one is saved—in the mind. If good behavior cannot save you, bad behavior cannot damn you! We know our righteousness is like filthy rags; we are often reminded of that from the pulpit. But we are seldom reminded that our unrighteousness (bad behavior) is of equal insignificance, as it pertains to salvation. Being good doesn't count. Neither does being bad. And this is precisely what makes God's grace amazing—we are loved unconditionally.

...Even if we say yes to God but then deliberately do anything we want? I’ve actually heard people express a fear that people might do just that: gleefully claim the holy gift while choosing deliberately to bully their ways through life doing whatever evil they please. But I’ve never personally seen a case like that. The more usual problem is having good intentions when saying yes to God, but having great difficulty changing our behaviors, or simply not trying hard enough to behave righteously, or just not caring enough. Paul himself colorfully describes his own difficulty with behavior in spite of his best intentions. But whatever the case, the answer is yes—we are saved, just for the asking. This difficulty we have with the "doing" is simply our daily battle with sin, a separate issue from salvation.

Being good or bad does matter, of course, in areas other than salvation. And behavior can be a valuable indicator for us humans, helping us make good decisions when hiring employees, choosing a mate or expelling students from school. Indeed we humans must expect to be held accountable to one another. Our behaviors must have consequences. But when it comes to judging the heart, behavior is only an indicator—a fairly reasonable but not infallible indication of what's really inside. In earthly society, these indicators are all we have to rely on. But not so with God, who already knows our hearts well enough to make wise decisions about our eternal fate.

I'm glad to know that, because my own behavior, to my dismay, often does not reflect the attitude of my heart. Like Paul, "my own behavior baffles me. For I find myself not doing what I really want to do but doing what I really loathe." (Romans 7:15, Phillips) Mercifully for us, our God is far from human!

Saved when we think we're not

It's easy to be confused. A preacher may sermonize that God's behavioral requirements aren't conditions for salvation, and then in the next breath admonish us to change our ways. No wonder we get the impression that in the end we won't really be saved if we aren't good over the long haul. This sets us up for a lifetime of anxious wondering: how good is good enough?

I knew a man who died believing he was lost because of his smoking addiction. While dying of cancer at age 42, his Christian family—bless their good intentions—pleaded with him to give up smoking so that he could be saved before he died. Imagine his anguish in wanting to die a saved man but believing he was dying without hope because of a weakness of the flesh. What torment he endured! What a surprise awaits him!

That kind of "conditional" concept of salvation is cruel, causing us needless pain while robbing us of ecstatic joy. Yet given the low self-esteem that results from our sinful natures, it is easy for us to drift into that faulty concept of salvation. We wonder what kind of God could even consider saving us under any conditions, to say nothing of "no strings attached." While we concede the dying man can be saved for the asking, we figure more is expected of the rest of us who still have time to prove ourselves—before salvation can be granted, or before we can confidently rely on it to stick. It seems we can't let salvation be too easy. Or is it that we don’t think we can get people to behave without the threat of damnation?

Traditional Adventist preaching has tended to fault other denominations for over-emphasizing God's love and under-emphasizing works. "Faith without works is dead," we are reminded. No doubt. But it doesn't say salvation without works is dead. Doesn’t the slogan make more sense, on the face of it, to mean that if you don’t live a decent life, your Christian zeal is like a wet dish rag? How can one possibly interpret it to mean a little bit of works is required to have salvation? There is no biblical concept of “balancing” faith and works for salvation. All-out faith is required for salvation and all-out works is required for living decently. The former will save you, the latter cannot; it can only make your life wonderfully fulfilled on your way to the ceremony to pick up your gift.

A better cartoon

You can hang on to that old cartoon of a row boat, with one oar labeled “Works” and the other labeled “Faith,” but only if you’ve labeled the harbor “A Decent, Fulfilled Life.” If, however, you are going to label the harbor “Salvation,” then both your oars must be labeled “Faith.” Your behavior (good works) can get you a better life. But only faith can get you salvation.

Fortunately, we are beginning to learn that the God we once thought craftily waited to zap us if we died before confessing our last misdeed is actually a God who loves us and wants to hug us, not disown us. What a difference! The depth of God's love is so far beyond human conception that many never "get it" and those who do find it incredible. No wonder we proffer our feeble attempts at good works in appreciation to God! And that's fine; doing so is quite appropriate—as long as we don't imagine it is buying God or somehow earning the gift. To treat the gift as a subtle bribe or to assume we could earn it if we tried is nothing but a presumptuous insult to the giver.

If you are discouraged because you have as much difficulty with your own behavior as Paul did with his, follow his example and throw away those nagging feelings of uncertainty. Paul was sure of his own salvation because he knew it was not based on the behavior he had so much trouble with. This isn't "cheap" grace, for something cheap can be bought. It is priceless grace. But unlike the high cost of discipleship, salvation is free.

If you think salvation this easy is too good to be true, I challenge you to climb out of the rut of frustration over believing salvation depends on how much distance you've been able to put between now and the last time you were bad. End your anxiety over salvation because of the sins that perpetually haunt you. Stop worrying over the status of behaviors you haven’t quite figured out yet. Concern over sin should not mean anxiety over salvation. Remember, they are not the same! It is your connection with the Gift-giver that is important. If you believe the gift is real and accept it, it is yours. Live worry-free and sleep well as you work on your behavior and wage your battle over sin. Because the gift of salvation is more than adequate. It's amazing.

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For further reading on behavior and salvation, see Salvation by Faith and

Your Will, by Morris Venden, available at your Adventist Book Center.