A very interesting
question that can be asked from different points of views:
I think many of us might
have already been asked this question by some enthusiast Christian probably
after his/her new religious experience. It doesn’t matter to the poser of the
question whether you have been a follower of Christ all your life in a
different way or style than his/her. If you have been asked such a question,
you know that your enquirer is a Protestant of one kind or other. From a
Protestant of point of view the question simply means have you received
Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord? Or it can also mean are you born again? Or simply, "do you have a
born again experience?" From a Catholic point of view, it has an entirely different meaning
and it means: have you made it to heaven?
Though the experience of
being born again is very important, it does not consist being saved in a
definitive sense as one can jeopardize his or her salvation with mortal sin.
After accepting Jesus as one’s personal Savior and Lord, at a certain point, if
someone begins to live sinful life and die in that state without repentance,
where does that person’s salvation consist in? Thus salvation is not a once for
all experience; it is a continuous process. Accepting Jesus as the Lord of my
life is vital thing but that one-day decision should not be understood as the
final decision of my life; I have to prove the reality of my decision in my
daily walk with the Lord. Thus Catholics and Protestants have differences in
interpreting the question of salvation. What Protestants call their day of
salvation is basically what a Catholic may refer to as his or her conversion
experience or a new experience of rededicating his/her life to the Lord Jesus.
For a Catholic, his/her day of salvation is, the day of his/her death in the
state of grace. No doubt, the once for all and the objective, or the universal
salvation had already taken place when the Lord Jesus Christ has died for the
sins of the entire world. Yes objectively salvation has been obtained for us
through the vicarious death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Unless we as
individuals accept that salvation with our own free will and decision, the Lord
does not force it upon us. Here comes then, the importance of our acceptance of
what has already been offered freely to us. We call this subjective salvation,
the salvation of us as individual persons. That is the salvation of yours and
mine.
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As Catholics, when we
speak about salvation, we always remember the words of Jesus in the Gospels: "but he who stands
firm to the end will be saved." (Cf. Mk
13:13) One
may say, "I
have begun my salvation process" or "I am in the way of salvation" after his/her decision to follow
Christ or after his/her conversion experience. But how can one say "I am
saved" immediately
after that experience without even knowing that he/she may abandon the Lord in
a few days time? How can one affirm his/her salvation before concluding his/her
trip completely? It seems to be an affirmation of presumption. I don’t want to
accuse or blame most good Protestant Christians who use this phrase without any
vicious purposes. But unfortunately there are many Protestants who try to
confuse other Christians with the use of this misleading phrase. For many
Evangelicals, the phrase is like an acid test to know who is saved and who is
not. For them it simply needs a yes or no answer. I wish it were so simple, but
it is not. If salvation were as cheap as to be gained solely by my affirming
that I am saved without perseverance to the end, everybody would have been
saved just because he/she had said it once in his/her life being convinced of
what he/she is saying at the moment convincingly. If one’s salvation could be
secured because of one-day’s affirmation, why should people bother about their
daily walk with the Lord throughout their lives in the thick and thin? If it
were so easy, why isn’t everybody saved? It seems to me that Protestants see
salvation from the foot of a very high mountain while Catholics view it from
the top of the mountain. One can not say, "I have climbed the mountain"or "I have made it up to the top" until he/she has actually walked
all the way up to the mountain-top.
If I remember it well, one
of the greatest Greek Philosophers (probably Heraclitus) said, "the way up and the way down are the same thing".
Obviously, the difference results from your position in the way. The way is the
same but you can see it from different perspectives. 'Upward' and 'downward'
are relative to your positioning in the way according to this saying. But I am
not so sure if it can apply in our case here with the question of salvation. I
don’t think it applies here but if it could, definitely I would prefer to view
the way or the mountain from the top instead of from the foot. This may be because
I am a born Catholic or it can be probably because I am practical. Whatever it
is, I definitely prefer the upper part to the lower one. I want to say "I am
saved" at the end
of my journey instead of at the beginning of it. Through the precious grace of
my Lord Jesus Christ, I have walked so far; at times falling down and bouncing
up again. At the moment, the words of wisdom that remind me of my continuous
struggle to be faithful to the calling the Lord has given me come from St
Paul’s letter to the Philippian Christians of his
time: click here to continue
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"Continue
to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God Who works in you to will and to act according to His
purpose." (Phil 2:13)
There should not be any pride involved in the process of my salvation since it
is a free gift from my Lord. All glory should be given to Him. My salvation
should be worked out because it is a process and this must be done in fear and
trembling for I shouldn’t believe my capacity of perseverance. I should
entirely be dependent upon my Lord’s grace. I must be wise enough to remember
what had happened to some of God’s ‘saved people’ when they overestimated their
capacities of faithfulness and crumbled down under the sin of pride and
presumption. Thus I must co-operate with my loving Lord everyday of my life in
the process of my salvation. I don’t have any doubts as little as a iota as for the salvation that has been wrought for me by
my Lord on the Cross, but I have never trusted my own ability to be immune from
sin and consequently the possibility of being separated from Him eternally.
So what is my answer to
the simplistic question: "are you saved?" From what I have already said above, you may not expect a
simple 'yes' or 'no' form me. My answer to the question is, 'yes and no'. Let me make it easier for you to
understand. If you are asking me this question having in mind Christ’s salvific sacrifice, then my answer is "yes the Lord
has saved me on
Salvation is not simply a
moment’s experience but a lifetime experience and a constant process of growth
in the likeness of Christ which makes it uncertain until it is concluded in
attaining to our final destiny – heaven. Therefore, there is a possibility of
losing it all after having a wonderful born-again experience and conversion
unless it is kept alive in constant and daily surrender to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ in our lives. "Therefore, there is now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” writes
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The question here is, "at the moment,
are you in Christ? Are you living under His Lordship?" Or in other terms, "has He got
you?" If your
answer is 'yes' right now, you are not under
condemnation. But don’t fool yourself being complacent for it is in your power
to spill your salvation out of your cup any moment in your life thus losing it
all at once. That is why we should be very careful about our salvation which
has been wrought for us by the Lord for an incredibly high price – His Precious
Blood!
Have you given your life
to the Lord and experienced His wonderful love and mercy, and because of that,
have you foretasted the joy of heaven on earth? Praise the Lord! I give thanks
to the Lord for that with you. But remember that you have just begun the real
life in Christ; you have not finished your journey yet. Because of our baptism
we have become God’s children; and with many different religious experiences we
are coming to Him closer and closer, but the end has not yet arrived, or
rather, we have not come to the end of our journey. There is a lot to live for
and to protect from eternal damage.
The good news is that we
are children of God being saved by Him, but the fullness of our salvation will
be complete when we continue to be in that state until the end and receive our
eternal reward from Him. Until that moment, we are simply pilgrims towards the
heavenly
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