Is Salvation a Journey or An Arrival?

Is Salvation a Journey or An Arrival? Many of us are conversant with the false Gospel propagated by adherents of “Progressive Christianity.” The most blasphemous of its claims is that everyone who “accepts Jesus as Lord” receives automatic salvation; therefore, nothing the person does can affect his or her salvation.

These “Christians” peddle their false assurance of salvation under the umbrella of “Once saved, always saved.” To them, salvation is not a journey where the Holy Spirit purges a person’s soul to make him or her a new creation in Christ; but a one-time event. There is no Scripture in the Holy Bible that validates this claim of “Once saved always saved.”

Romans 10:9, which spells out God’s requirements for salvation states: “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.” Notice that the Scripture did not say “you are saved.” The same theme is reflected in Acts 2:47, “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

Again, the operative phrase is “such as should be saved,” not “such as are saved.” If merely saying the ‘Sinners’ prayer or “accepting Jesus as Lord” gives people automatic salvation, why does James charge believers to feed on the “engrafted word, which is able to save your souls? (James 1:21). Peter gave a similar admonition in 1 Peter 2:1-2: “Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. Like new-born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”

            If salvation is automatic or “an arrival,” why does Paul admonish believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling?” (Philippians 2:12). In the same vein, why should we “present our bodies as living sacrifice to the Lord as our reasonable service? (Romans 12:2). Let us take the example of Timothy in the New Testament. Paul said to him in 1 Timothy 4:15, “Meditate on these things.

Give yourself completely to them, that your progress may be known to everyone. Take heed to yourself and to the teaching. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” Does this sound like Timothy received automatic salvation?

1 Peter 1:22-23 underscore the importance of the word of God as the instrument for purging the human soul. The Scripture says, “Since your souls have been purified by obedience to the truth through the Spirit unto a genuine brotherly love, love one another deeply with a pure heart, for you have been born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides for ever.” The Lord Himself emphasized the prominence of the word of God in the salvation process. In His Priestly prayer recorded in John 17:17, He said to the Father, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

In fact, three of the Parables given by the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel texts invalidate the “once saved always saved” error. The Parables of the Sower, the Parable of the Weeds, the Parable of the Net (Matthew 13:18-50) address the issue of lack of commitment in the Christian journey and the reasons people backslide from the faith. In particular, the Parable of the Sower makes us to understand that people can receive the good news or the word of God with joy, but might not go on to achieve spiritual maturity.

Factors that could affect their fruitfulness and commitment to their faith include their not appreciating the value of the word, thus allowing satan to steal it from their hearts; not having a good heart on which the word can grow; and the word in their hearts being choked by the cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches.

According to Romans 8:29, salvation has five components: 1. God’s foreknowledge of those that would be saved. 2. God orchestrating the circumstances of their lives to bring them to the foot of the cross (predestination). 3.  God calling or drawing them into the Kingdom through the Holy Spirit. 4. God justifying them through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. 5. God glorifying them at the end of their spiritual journey. In practical terms, these components align with three stages of salvation: Regeneration, Sanctification and Glorification. Regeneration is salvation from the penalty of sin. Sanctification is salvation from the power of sin and Glorification is salvation from the presence of sin (https://slideplayer.com/slide/4269837).

          If we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and reject the Holy Spirit, whose responsibility it is to sanctify us with the word of God, what is the basis of our salvation? Romans 8:14 declares that only those led by the Holy Spirit belong to God. Therefore, salvation is only possible when we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit and are transformed into a new creation by the grace of God. Salvation is a process requiring total submission to God and His will. No one who is still the lord of his or life is saved regardless of how many times the person says the sinners’ prayer, or engages in church activities.