Tag: sin

  • What is a ‘salvation issue’?

    What is a ‘salvation issue’?

    Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a few people talking about the question of what is and is not a “salvation issue”. The presenting issue is sexuality and marriage (yes, again). Jayne Ozanne, who is a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage within the church, wrote an article in Premier Christianity arguing that sex outside marriage is not a “salvation issue”. In that piece, she maintains that repentance is not necessary for salvation:

    Of course, repentance is important. It is something we do when we are so overwhelmed by love that we want to change, in order to become more like the source of that love. It is not, however, the condition on which our salvation hinges. We see that in Jesus’ act of abundant grace while he was dying on the cross. We know it from his proclamation in John 3:15: “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life”. No caveats. It is simply what God does for us.

    I think she makes an important point here. Salvation is ultimately about God’s love for us: it is a gift from first to last. The question from our perspective is how we respond to that love. Jayne rightly points out that God’s love brings about real change in us – repentance. However, I would disagree with her about the necessity of repentance in the Christian life.

    What I want to do in this post is to think through this issue from the Bible. I believe the way people tend to think about salvation issues is misconceived, and I’d like to suggest a more helpful way of framing the issue.

    What is a salvation issue?

    A salvation issue is an issue which is so important that it is critical to believe in order to be saved. Traditionally this has included belief in the Trinity. Take the Athanasian Creed, for example. This creed is one of the three creeds which are officially recognised by the Church of England. You can still find it in the Book of Common Prayer, even if it is rarely used these days. This is how it begins:

    Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith.
    Which Faith except everyone one do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

    Book of Common Prayer

    In a nutshell, this is saying that you are not saved unless you hold to the whole of the Christian faith, including the doctrine of the Trinity (as explained in the rest of the Athanasian Creed). In my opinion, this is not far from how a lot of people think about salvation issues: you must subscribe to a certain set of beliefs, otherwise you are out.

    The problem with this approach it that it seems almost arbitrary. If understanding the finer points of the Trinity (for example, hypostatic union) is necessary for salvation, then many people are not going to be saved. I didn’t study the Trinity until I was at theological college – many churches simply don’t go near anything theological (sadly – it’s so important!)

    And, let’s be honest – how many people understand everything they need to understand about Christianity when they become a Christian? We don’t start out with our theology fully formed. For all of us, Christianity is a lifelong journey of learning.

    I appreciate that a subject like the Trinity might seem academic – for a lot of Christians, it’s something that you just have to believe even if you don’t understand it all. (They obviously haven’t come across my series on the Apostle’s Creed yet!) But clearly Christianity is not simply a matter of belief but behaviour. At the end of the day, our beliefs are demonstrated by the way that we live. Let’s home in on those moral issues.

    How moral issues matter

    All Christians agree that some behaviour is right and some is wrong. Jesus’ summary of the gospel message, according to Luke, is “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47). We know that we need to be forgiven and that we need to repent of our sins. But the question is, where are the red lines? And are all red lines equal? For example, someone who steals something trivial from their friend has done something wrong, but that’s clearly not as wrong as murdering them. Is stealing a salvation issue? Is murder a salvation issue? The second is clearly more serious, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for us to become burglars.

    We also know that everyone falls short of what God requires – as Paul puts it, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Everyone needs forgiveness. So, someone could steal or even murder, then be genuinely repentant and find forgiveness. There are examples of both in the Bible – Moses and David, for example, were guilty of murder and adultery respectively. In fact, almost everyone God used in the Bible was guilty of some egregious sin at some point.

    So, how do we know which moral issues are the key ones? And how do we know how far past the red line we’re allowed to go before we’re out? These are both good questions – but both of them stem from a misunderstanding. Let’s think about morality in general.

    Which moral issues are salvation issues?

    Perhaps the biggest reason why people have a problem with moral issues being salvation issues is that it seems so arbitrary. People imagine that there are two lists, “salvation issues” and “non-salvation issues” – and they have been distributed almost at random. So, someone who crosses one boundary is safe, whereas someone who crosses another is condemned to judgement. If this was how it worked, I agree this would be grossly unfair.

    Fortunately, this is not at all how it works – God doesn’t have two separate lists. The whole law (i.e. the Ten Commandments) is actually an integrated whole. Jesus sums up the law in two commandments: firstly, to love the Lord with our heart, soul, mind and strength; secondly, to love our neighbour as ourselves. As he says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). This is repeated elsewhere in the New Testament: Paul says twice that love is the fulfilment of the Law (Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14).

    If you want more about the Law and how it is fulfilled by love, check out my book: Confused by Grace!

    The problem people have is that they see the commandments as being ‘standalone’, a simple list of arbitrary rules that God has made. However, this is the opposite of the truth. The commandments simply express God’s will for us – to love him and one another – in ways we can understand. But, as Jesus made clear in the Sermon on the Mount, they are not the sum total of what God requires of us! All of us fall short all the time of the love that God requires of us. It’s not the case that there are some issues that God puts in the “salvation issue” box, and others that God doesn’t. There is only one issue in the “salvation issue” box, and that’s love.

    Is sexual sin a special case?

    As we have seen, in a sense all sins are equal – because all sin comes from a lack of love. Some people argue that sexual sin is just like any other sin, and it’s not something to get worked up about – any more than, say, gossip or slander. However, I believe this is not paying enough attention to the Scriptures. Sexual sin does seem to be given particular attention in the New Testament. For example, Paul says:

    Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.

    1 Corinthians 6:18

    Paul says that sexual immorality is a sin against our own bodies. This is in line with the rest of the New Testament teaching – let me quote a few other examples:

    It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.

    1 Thessalonians 4:3-6

    Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

    Hebrews 13:4

    Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

    Revelation 2:20-22

    Many sins are condemned in the New Testament, but it does seem that the NT writers seem to give particular attention to sexual sin and often make reference to punishment about it (something which they don’t tend to do for other sins). Why should this be the case? Two reasons: (1) sex is a hugely powerful thing; (2) God intended sex to be all about love.

    No-one doubts that sex is a powerful thing, it’s simply not the same as any other human activity. This is a point that many feminists such as Louise Perry have made repeatedly – e.g. ‘sex work’ is not the same as any other kind of work. Why is sex so special? Because sex is supposed to be the high point of love – it’s the most love you can give to someone with your body. In fact, we used to use the term “making love” – which seems quaintly old-fashioned these days.

    When sex and love go together, it’s a beautiful thing. However, when sex is divorced from love, it becomes hugely destructive. When sex becomes about lust – that is, wanting to use someone for our own gratification – it can cause deep damage and trauma. This is why it’s given such a prominence in the Bible. Treating someone badly sexually is on a deeper level than, say, stealing from them – even though both are wrong.

    So, sin is a big deal – but, as we have already said, all of us are guilty of it. We know that we need to repent of our sin, but how do we know when we’ve repented enough?

    How much repentance is enough?

    We started out this post by quoting Jayne Ozanne, who argued that repentance was not necessary for salvation. I have already quoted Jesus’ summary of the Christian life, which – by contrast – says that repentance is fundamental to the Christian life. Take her example of the thief on the cross: he recognised Jesus as Lord, and then his life began to change – he rebuked the other criminal. Although his life didn’t last long enough for him to change much, it’s clear that from that point onwards, he wasn’t the boss any more – Jesus was. This is absolutely crucial.

    Someone who has lived a very immoral life might find their life changes overnight when they become a Christian. Many people have testified that their lives changed almost instantly when coming to Christ. But the truth is, for most people that’s not the case: for most of us, life is a long journey of slow transformation. As we worship, pray, read the Bible, and ask God for his help, we gradually come to understand the sin in our lives and recognise where we need to repent. Maybe there are things which God wants to get out of the way immediately (e.g. if you’re a bank robber or prostitute!), but maybe there are other things which can wait. The point is not whether we have repented enough, but rather – who’s the boss?

    Jesus said:

    Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.

    Mark 3:28-29

    What is “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”? Jesus means to attribute the work of God to the work of Satan instead. This is clear from the context: he spoke while people were saying that he was driving out demons by the power of Satan. But his words show us more broadly how we can be guilty of this sin.

    The Holy Spirit makes God and the gospel ‘real’ to us – he helps us to do more than simply know information about God, but to really know God. One of the things he does is to convict people of sin (John 16:8-9). If we start to feel guilty about something, it is probably the Holy Spirit. Of course, Satan can also make us feel guilt – there is such a thing as false guilt. This is why we need the Bible to guide us as to whether something is wrong or not. But the Spirit helps us to repent day-by-day, to lead us to grow in the ways that God wants us to.

    Sanctification – the process of growing in holiness – is a work of the Holy Spirit. The love we need is the fruit of the Spirit working in us. We need to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25) every day, and allow him to shape us and mould us according to God’s will for our lives.

    Therefore, to resist this process is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is persistently warning you about a particular sin, calling you to repent of it, then to ignore that warning and continue to sin is ultimately to blaspheme against God. This is why passages like this one from Hebrews 10 sound such a stark warning:

    If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

    Hebrews 10:26-27

    If we deliberately keep on sinning, we show that we love our sins more than we love God. We show that we are not willing to let Jesus be Lord of our lives, and we show that ultimately we fall foul of the first greatest commandment.

    Conclusion

    A few years ago, I attended a training event by Living Out. Sam Allberry – who is himself same-sex attracted, and seeking to live by the traditional teaching of the Scriptures – recounted working with a young man who was struggling with these issues. He said that they met every week for about six months, until it got the point where Sam had to say: “if I could convince you from the Bible that marriage is between a man and a woman, and sex is for marriage, would you believe it?” For this young man, it was too much – ultimately he loved his own sin more than he loved God.

    Jesus said:

    Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

    Matthew 10:37-39

    Being a Christian is not an easy path – Jesus never promised it would be. We need to love him and listen to him more than anything or anyone. If Jesus calls us to a difficult life (which is all of us, by the way) – then we need to embrace it, whatever that means for us. The point is, Jesus is the King of my life, not me. If anyone doesn’t submit to him about what he tells them to do, they demonstrate that they are not living with him as the King. Therefore – not Christian.

    It’s not about having a list of moral issues which are on the “salvation issues” list, and if you’re unlucky enough to do one of them you get sent to hell. Rather, through our daily moral choices – under the guidance of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit – we demonstrate who is really Lord of our lives.

    Postscript: Are lockdowns and safeguarding salvation issues?

    Over the last few years, I’ve disagreed with many established churches and church leaders about various issues, in particular lockdowns and safeguarding (these are topics I talk about on Sacred Musings a lot). Could these issues be salvation issues as well? I believe so.

    Take lockdowns, for example. At the start of the first lockdown, most of us were caught napping. Most of us didn’t have a thought-through theology of government, or of what churches should do when the government asked them to close. That’s fair enough. But more than three years have passed since then. Churches and church leaders have had ample opportunity to think through these issues. Is there any sign of thinking through the role of government, and how Christians should relate to a secular world? Is there any sign of genuine sorrow for the way that they acted, and repentance?

    As I said earlier, how we respond to these things shows who we really believe is the Lord. Have churches shown that the State and the secular establishment is really Lord? Have they sided with the chief priests, who in one of the most shocking moments in John’s Gospel shout out: “We have no king but Caesar!”

    I leave that to your judgement to decide.

  • Building a Christian Worldview – #3: The Fall (Origins of Evil)

    Building a Christian Worldview – #3: The Fall (Origins of Evil)

    This is the third part of the Building a Christian Worldview series, looking at the Fall – where evil comes from. We also think about some of the news this week, and look at Romans 1 to see what happens when a society departs from God.

    Links

  • Hymnology: And can it be – ‘My chains fell off…’

    Last weekend I travelled down to High Leigh for a residential weekend with my fellow curates in the Chelmsford Diocese. On Friday evening we sang ‘And can it be’, one of my favourite hymns and one of Charles Wesley’s finest (in my opinion). The hymn tells the story of salvation from a first person perspective – it’s written in a very personal style.

    Like In Christ alone you could spend hours dissecting every verse of the song, but let’s focus on one for now:

    Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
    Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
    Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
    I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
    My chains fell off, my heart was free,
    I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

    Long my imprisoned spirit lay

    What do those first two lines mean – “Long my imprisoned spirit lay / Fast bound in sin and nature’s night”? The answer that the Bible gives us that we are held captive by sin. This is what Paul is at pains to demonstrate in his letter to the Romans, throughout the first part of the letter. As he says in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. But it’s even more than that: some people say that sin is simply a bad example – we sin because we see other people sin. In other words, there is nothing intrinsically sinful about us – we can choose to do good or evil, and sometimes we choose what is wrong, but basically human beings start out from a neutral perspective.

    But the Bible goes further in describing our fallen condition: we don’t start out from a neutral place. There is something inherently sinful about our very nature. This is what Paul says a bit further on in the letter, Romans 6:16-18:

    Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

    We don’t start out from neutral: we are either slaves to sin, or slaves to righteousness. There is no middle ground. Paul is not the only one to use this language – Jesus says in John 8:34, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” John says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). The point is, we are all held captive by sin: there is no way out by ourselves. All of us are, by nature, “fast bound” in sin.

    Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray

    And that’s why we need God to step in, as the next line of the hymn goes: “Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray”. Quickening is a word we don’t use very much these days, but in this sense it means “to give or restore life to”. Although we couldn’t escape slavery to sin by ourselves, nonetheless God stepped in to our situation and made us alive. Paul puts it like this:

    As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 

    All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. 

    Ephesians 2:1-5

    Paul describes the state of slavery to sin here as being ‘dead’. Those who are without Christ are “dead in transgressions and sins”. I’m not a doctor, but I do know that one thing dead bodies do not do is come back to life again by themselves! A dead body cannot raise itself. As with our physical bodies, so we who are spiritually dead cannot raise ourselves: but God “who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions“. Salvation is not of our own doing, but from God. He is the one who looks upon our helpless state, and makes us alive – even when we were still dead.

    We didn’t make the first move towards God. Because of our sin, we would never make the first move to God – we are so sinful that we would never have chosen Him. Paul is clear that the one who makes the first move is not us, but God: “For he chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” John puts it like this: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

    Without God making the first move towards us, without him sending that “quick’ning ray”, we are dead in our transgressions and sins. But God, who is rich in mercy, makes the first move towards us, he brings us from death to life by his sovereign choice and power.

    As I am an Anglican, I think it’s always helpful to look to the 39 Articles to see how Cranmer and our reformation forebears put it. This is what Article X “Of free-will” says:

    THE condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.

    This is standard reformation theology, following Augustine. It is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6).

    My chains fell off

    And so we come to the end of the verse: “My chains fell off, my heart was free / I rose, went forth, and followed Thee”. This describes the response to God, once He has made that first move and stepped in. To continue the quote from Jesus I mentioned earlier, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Once God has set us free, we take up our cross and follow Christ – putting to death our flesh with its passions and desires, and seeking to love God and love our neighbour as we walk in step with the Spirit.

    Christians have been set free from slavery to sin. That does not mean that Christians do not sin, of course – but that the curse has been lifted. It is no longer our master. Jesus is our master, and his righteousness. And one day we know that the work which God has begun in us will be completed – we will be completely free from sin! This is a great promise for those who are struggling.

    May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24


    A brief note on free will and predestination…

    I appreciate that I haven’t really touched on the thorny subject of predestination in this post. My aim is to return to it in a future post, as it’s a huge topic of which this is only a small part.

    However, I think it’s worth reflecting on the words of the 39 Articles here, and with this I will close. Article XVII, Of predestination and election:

    As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God … we must receive God’s promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God.


    This is part of my “Hymnology” blog series.