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Mark Driscoll has recently finished preaching a series of sermons called 'Doctrine: What all Christians should believe'. It's very good, but nothing at all to do with this article. A few weeks ago a friend of mine posted a note on his Facebook profile, essentially saying 'I disagree with a lot of what Paul's letters say'. This concerned me, because in my mind being a Christian, yet boldly declaring 'I know better than the Bible' doesn't add up. I contacted my friend, and the messages we exchanged over the following week or so uncovered his beliefs, which differ from my own. Some of what he said I consider to be unimportant disagreements (although I still think I'm right!) but there was one thing in particular, which I think is incredibly important for us to get right as Christians.

In one of my messages to my friend I wrote about another friend of mine, whose life has been a topsy-turvy time; in and out of prison, on and off the streets. Recently, however (and this is how I met him - praise God!), he heard the gospel preached and has admitted his sin and that Jesus Christ is Lord; I therefore believe that he is headed toward heaven - my friend's response to this was:

'the 'comfortable' reasoning would be to say that his salvation is guaranteed, as that would make us feel comfortable knowing that if he can get in [to heaven], then so will we. However, it is not for us to judge, but it is for God to judge. I do not believe we have the right to say what the limits are and will be on the Day of Judgement. Nonetheless, we can be certain that with Jesus, we do have a much better probability of getting into Heaven.'

Now although his response at first appears very logical and humble, I believe that it is fundamentally incorrect - let's look at what the Bible says about each part of my friend's statement here.

This quote begins with my friend's perception of the gospel as a 'comfort' gospel - that in some way believing in the gospel of grace should be some kind of safety blanket to make us feel better. I have two problems with this idea - the first is taken from Romans 6:15 - 'Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!'. If this gospel is a gospel of comfort then surely it should carry with it a blank cheque to spend on as much sin as we want, knowing that regardless of what we say, do or think we can always get forgiveness because God is a loving, grace-filled God. The Bible says otherwise, so perhaps this gospel is not as comfortable as we might first think. My second problem is that I believe my friend's gospel is more comfortable than this - Ephesians 2:8 says that it is 'by grace you have been saved through faith.' This means that regardless of what you or I have done, we are guaranteed a place in Heaven providing we have faith in Jesus Christ...something about this doesn't make sense in our sin-stained minds, which need to always know someone is worse than us. By looking at the Christian who has lived their entire life in prison it is easy for us to think, 'it is up to God to judge, and I know He'll judge that guy worse than me, so surely I'll be ok'. According to the Bible, 'all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23) - our comfort should come from only one place: God. Without Him, we all fail.

My friend said he doesn't like the idea that salvation is guaranteed, because it is not for us to judge. He is, of course, correct in saying that God is the One who will judge, but as we have just seen we are all guilty, we have all fallen short of God's glorious standard and we therefore need some way of 'bypassing' the judgement and therefore punishment that we deserve. Romans 5:8 holds the answer to this, that 'God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' That word 'for' is taken from the Greek word huper, which literally means 'on behalf of', or 'in the place of'. The Bible teaches that even while we were still sinners and were racking up the punishment coming our way, Christ died in our place, taking our punishment - there is no surprise that hymns like 'Such Love', and 'Amazing Grace' are still sung in churches worldwide 2000 years after Jesus was born!

My friend closed this statement by declaring that, with Jesus, we stand a much better probability of getting into Heaven. Again, let's look at what the Bible says. Acts 2:21 says that 'all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved'. That Greek word there, 'all' is a complicated one, and means: 'all'. That is, 'all'! All! ALL who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved! Romans 10:9 says that 'if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.' I don't think I can increase the beauty of Scripture, so I'm going to leave it at that - the Bible clearly says that by being a Christian, we are guaranteed a place in Heaven. Does this mean we can become arrogant if we are Christians, because we're going to Heaven and unbelievers are not? In Paul's words I'll say 'By no means!' Our salvation is abaolutely nothing to do with us - it's all about Jesus, His love for us and what He did on the cross. If God let us into Heaven depending on how we live our lives, there would be no hope for any of us - glory to God for His mercy!

'Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see.'

"Word from Scotland" from Sandy Shaw

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