With a Subtitle: Questions asked by a reader seeking God's Truth from His Word.

A brief Excerpt: Questions and answers regarding salvation, which is a gift from God received through faith in Jesus Christ, not earned by good deeds.

The Author is: Jeff Hilles

These are the questions of a Christian seeker in the Lord. Questions 1-5 below came from our first correspondence, and questions 6-10 came from our follow-up conversation. When one gets past the resistance of our sin nature to the gospel message and a rejection of the Bible as a basis for Christian theology, these are some of the typical questions folks struggle with.

Question/Answer #1: “I wanted to ask about the ‘heaven‘ section of the website, copied below:”

Answer: Yes, unlike other false religions, God is not weighing our good deeds against our bad. He provided a way to Heaven by sacrificing His Son for our sins. Salvation by trusting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior does result in a changed life and changed behaviors … but these changes come after salvation rather than being the basis of salvation. 

Question/Answer #2: “What does it mean that ‘We must profess our faith by openly acknowledging Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord. Further, we need to believe in our heart (not just our head) that He died and rose again as a payment for our past, present, and future sins, and turn from them’?”

Answer: Salvation is a heart change, not just a head change. In 1989, I reached a point in my study of the Bible and speaking with Christians that, intellectually, I knew God was real and Jesus was the answer to salvation and eternity in Heaven. However, I still resisted accepting Him as my Lord, even though I acknowledged that He was a Savior. That resistance lasted nearly three months until one day I bowed my head and prayed, asking Him to forgive me of my sins and save my soul (the Sinner’s Prayer). It was at that point I was saved, by a heart change, not a head or intellectual acknowledgement of who He was. Consider the verse …

James 2:19 says, "Even the demons believed and trembled in terror.” They intellectually knew God/Christ but refused to accept Him. 

Question/Answer #3: “What does it mean to ‘approach God with faith that He will give you the strength to repent or turn from your sins and receive eternal forgiveness (Acts 3:19)’?”

Answer: Faith is a challenging thing. We come to Him by faith, not by facts. We accept Him by faith in our hearts, even if we have decided in our minds that the facts strongly suggest there is a Creator and we are the created. Again, it is a heart, not head, change.

Question/Answer #4: “Humbly, I am confused… Does salvation come through God’s grace alone? Or, His grace plus confession?”

Answer: His grace and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross provided a path, and our confession walks us down that path. 

His Grace - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

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. - Romans 10:9 

Question/Answer #5: “Plus making Him Lord (does this mean doing good things?) Plus my turning from sin? Why must I turn from sin if His grace blots out my sin per Acts 3:19?”

Answer: If we love someone (God, for example), we desire to please them. So what follows salvation (which is an event in the life of the believer) is a process of growing in understanding of who God is and what He desires for our life (prayer, Bible study, a good church, etc.). This process is referred to as sanctification, which we do for a lifetime after salvation. A large part of that process is that God calls us to love Him and love our neighbor (Matthew 12:30-31). This love of our neighbor is “doing good things” for others and “turning from sin” (repentance). 

As to your valid point that He does blot out all our sin, as far as east is from west (Psalm 103:12), the fact remains that the Lord does not want us to keep on sinning because that grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30). Paul makes the following point that is directed at your question…

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? - Romans 6:1-2

From our second conversation:

“Thank you so much for your reply. I have been thinking over your words and reading about Heaven and looking at Bible verses. I feel I still must be getting things mixed up.”

From your response: “Yes, unlike other false religions, God is not weighing our good deeds against our bad. He provided a way to Heaven by sacrificing His Son for our sins. Salvation by trusting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior does result in a changed life and changed behaviors… but these changes come after salvation rather than being the basis of salvation.” 

Question/Answer #6: “If the changes come after salvation, why include ‘turning from sin’ as a requirement for how to get to heaven? Also confusing is if Jesus’ death was a payment for my past, present, and future sins. How can my sins be forgiven but also still be a barrier between me and salvation if I don’t turn from them?

Answer: You are somewhat correct… Salvation is not directly dependent on a “turning from sin,” as that would suggest mankind has a part in his redemption (ie. works). However, this act of repentance (turning away) demonstrates an underlying knowledge of our sin nature which is necessary to be saved. Repentance is an outcome of desiring to follow Christ rather than our sin nature. If you think about it … in order to “openly acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord,” we need to know something about Him and His Word, the Bible. One of the primary objectives of Scripture is to encourage us to turn from our sin (Acts 3:19). In fact, it is that change that is the basis for why so many are resistant to accepting God, as they don’t want to change. So, you are correct in terms of a no-works salvation, but if one’s life does not show a change (2 Corinthians 5:17), as the Holy Spirit enters the believer, there is concern that the change was just a head, not a heart, conversion (James 2:17, 26).

Question/Answer #7: “Jesus said the greatest commandment is to ‘Love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and with all of your strength” Mark 12:29. I utterly fail at meeting this commandment every moment of every day. That means I am perpetually sinning all day every day. How can I ever be assured of salvation if I lack even a single moment of ‘turning from sin’ across my whole life?”

Answer: We all “utterly fail” at that objective, which is why repentance is not a one-time thing but represents a desire to follow Christ, not be Christ, which is impossible. Only Jesus, as fully God and fully man, led a sinless life. Part of the hypocrisy that hurts the testimony of believers is that unbelievers see our continuing sinful nature every day. The process of sanctification involves following our newfound desire to be good while understanding that we will never fully achieve that desired result in this life. One of the greatest Christians in history, Paul, put it best …

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? - Romans 7:22-24

Question/Answer #8: “Will I lose my salvation if I don’t stop sinning?”

Answer: If your salvation was from the heart as a sincere admission of your sin nature and desire to follow Christ as both Savior AND Lord, and you subsequently have a desire to draw close to Him in prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other believers, then, in my opinion (others differ), I rely on verses such as those below that offer confidence that … once saved, always saved. 

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” — John 10:27–28

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” — Philippians 1:6

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 8:1

“For I am sure that neither death nor life… nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:38–39

“In him you also… were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” — Ephesians 1:13–14

“Who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” — 1 Peter 1:5

Question/Answer #9: “How can I know when I cross the line of sinning too much?”

In my view (others disagree), if you are truly saved, from the verses above, there is no “sinning too much.” Salvation through the work of Christ on the cross separates our sin “as far as east is from west” (Psalms 103:12). So, there is only one “unforgivable sin” and that is to reject the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28-29, Matthew 12:32), which means to reject God and Christ as well. However … having the faith and trust that Jesus paid the penalty for not only our past sins but future sins as well, does not give us license to sin without remorse and consequences (Romans 6:1-2). The Lord disciplines the ones He loves (Hebrews 12:6).

Question/Answer #10: “If I am never once able to obey the greatest commandment (love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength …), there seems to be no real hope here …”

Answer: First, be reminded that no one is perfect or without sin. Our sin nature is why Jesus made the sacrifiec that He did, dying on the cross to pay the price for our bad behavior. By His help, we strive to become more like Him.

As we move through the sanctification process following salvation, the foundation of our lives becomes faith and trust that God will do what He says He will do, and that forms a confidence in hope of eternal life in Heaven. However, that does not imply an easy life on this earth. In fact, one needs to expect just the opposite (Matthew 5:10-12). However, this “hope” differs from the secular use of the term, which assumes mankind lacks control over what is hoped for. It is based on the confidence we have in an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent Creator of the universe. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” — 1 Peter 1:3

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” — Romans 15:13

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” — Colossians 1:27

To close… Consider reading the Gospel of John as the next step in your journey.