The Underground Scribe

What's the Relationship Between Eternal Security and Forgiveness? (Disparate Things #3, Questions #2, Part 2)

I enjoy drawing parallels between seemingly disparate things, and as a Bible college student I love when questions pop up in my studies that I never considered before. So here's a two-in-one: How are the Christian concepts of forgiveness and eternal security related?

In Part 1, I talked about my changing back and forth on the eternal security question (can one, or can one not, lose their salvation?) and suggested that an understanding of forgiveness both prompts the question and sheds light on it. Here is what I am learning and pondering about forgiveness at present:

Basically, forgiveness means letting go of (a) bitterness, and (b) the need to punish. The main reason the world says, "I can't forgive him/her" is they think "forgive" means "go back to the way things were," and/or they will not let go of the bitterness of being wronged. They think "forget" means "develop amnesia about it" (it doesn't; it means stop rehearsing it, stop ripping the Band-Aid off, stop living back there). The world system, for all its supposed and illusory freedom, consistently makes life harder and sadder than the kingdom makes it. It really does.

The book Total Forgiveness by RT Kendall delves at length into the implications of real forgiveness. Deep, meaningful forgiveness, it points out, involves not having to constantly tell others what so-and-so did to you (exceptions would be a counselor; the police, attorney, or court; or intimate family). Forgiveness also means not allowing a repentant person who wronged you, and may now dread your presence, to continue to fear you. It means hoping they will forgive themselves, praying for them, and wishing them well. It also means, in cases where the person has no idea they hurt you, or will likely deny they hurt you--all too common--that you forgive them without their even knowing you've done so. In other words, you surrender the need to announce "I forgive you," creating defensiveness or backlash (or perhaps self-righteousness on your part) by making sure they know how magnanimous you're being. And why do we do all this, besides to walk in freedom and grow character? We do it because "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." We do it because "if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:15b NIV). But...but...but, we think. We are personally forgiven when we receive Jesus' blood atonement for our sin. So what is this tit for tat we're reading about?

Let's look at the Lord's Prayer--forgive us as we forgive--and examine the context. To whom do we pray this prayer, and to whom did Jesus teach the prayer? The answers are (a) our Father, and (b) His disciples. Only people who are already saved (forgiven) can be disciples and call God Father (John 1:12). This prayer, then, is one for believers to pray to stay in fellowship with their Father. Keep that word "fellowship" in mind and consider--what if we don't forgive?

Do we lose our salvation? No. Why not? Because if so, then salvation is by works. If you gain salvation "by faith," but lose it by works, salvation is by works! Kendall makes several clarifying statements to sort all this out: Salvation is unconditional; fellowship with God is conditional. Justification before God is unconditional; the anointing of the Spirit is conditional. Membership in the family of God is unconditional; intimacy with Christ is conditional. Eternal destiny is fixed; rewards are conditional (Kendall, 2007). What these statements do is explain how the forgiveness we practice (releasing but not always continuing in relationship) does conform to the forgiveness God offers. God isn't constantly booting us out of the family and then taking us back, but He doesn't necessarily restore "everything back to the way it was" when we transgress. Unconfessed or pet sins can grieve the Holy Spirit; anointing can be lost (King Saul and Samson are examples), failure to actually pursue relationship with Jesus (by lacking a prayer life, for example) can hold you distant; and rewards are certainly conditional (1 Corinthians 3). So--if the forgiveness being taught to Christians today is the forgiveness God asks for and models, then it seems to me eternal security is at the heart of it, and I do believe a deeper understanding of some theological topics will shed light on others, because it's all going to hang together.

I hope I've been coherent; I'm still thinking about all this, and I love knowing that when we study God's living word we'll never get it perfect and never get it all. But here's where I am now: While pursuing the validity of how forgiveness is taught today, I believe it does reflect God's mode of forgiveness, and as an added treasure, speaks to the permanence of salvation in Christ.

What's the Relationship Between Eternal Security and Forgiveness? (Disparate Things #3, Questions #2, Part 1)

The thing is, all Christians will agree that forgiving and forgiveness are central to our faith, but not all agree that eternal security (the impossibility of losing salvation once gained) is correct theology, so some believers may feel the connection is obvious while others find it nonexistent. A wide difference of opinion and understanding indeed.

Transparency time: During my 47ish-year walk with the Lord, I have gone back and forth between the can you/can't you lose your salvation camps. I don't mean flip-flopping like a landed fish every few years; I mean I came to Christ in the "yes you can" community, eventually began to doubt the Scriptural certainty of this and adopted the "no you can't" position for a time, moved back to the "yes you can" thinking without really examining it that closely, and am currently perched on the precipice again even though I belong to a local body that believes you can. Part of the reason I'm reconsidering the question will be explained by my current in-depth study of forgiveness, and most of the rest of my argument is this:

First, when we are saved, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14). Though "sealed" seems to be the most-used translation, other words including "marked," "stamped," "signed," and "identified" are also used. Can we really break a Holy-Spirit seal, mark, stamp, signature, or ID? I would err on the side of saying we cannot, certainly not by anything less than conscious and permanent repudiation of Jesus. Too, there's a logic problem: having received salvation by faith, if we can lose it by something we do, then salvation is by works. It would seem, then, to lose salvation you would have to nullify faith. Finally, and I recognize this is not a biblical argument, when we are adopted as children of God (Ephesians 1:5), is He really going to let us go? Most human parents will not give up on or cut ties with their children no matter what the children have done. Does God do less? It just doesn't sit right. At this time, I'm prepared to state that if a believer in Jesus Christ can lose their salvation, it will have to be by a conscious, willful, for-all-time rejection of Jesus that will grieve the Holy Spirit enough to break that seal. In other words, if salvation can be lost, it's not nearly as easy as most "yes you can" believers assume--and fear. I submit that to the extent they're too set in this fear, their trust is in their own ability to be good rather than in Jesus. Again, the line of thinking tends to turn into a subtle salvation by works. But now let's look at my forgiveness study to trace how I even got to the eternal security question in the first place.

In recent years, by which I mean the last twenty or so, there's been an increase in the teaching that forgiveness doesn't require continuation of a relationship in order to be forgiveness. I don't disagree. An obvious example is the case of an unsafe individual such as an abuser. Do we need to forgive? Yes. Do we need to maintain relationship and thus stay in the abusive situation? Of course not. Yet, when God forgives, he takes us back into relationship, right? Therefore, I mused, are we forgiving on some lesser level than God does, and is that okay?

Spoiler: I believe we are not forgiving on a lesser level, and that the doctrine of eternal security may well be germane to arriving at this conclusion. But this post will get too long if I detail all of that here, so I'll continue in Part 2 on Wednesday, February 18.