This year I will celebrate my 50th anniversary. In 2020, that’s a pretty big deal. There have been good times and bad times. There have been days when we weren’t thrilled with each other. At no time in those 50 years, did I consider ending my marriage. More importantly, at no time could have I conceived of my wife walking away. That has created the security that has cemented our relationship.
I’m not saying there is nothing one of us could have done to force the other to end it. Certainly, intentional harm to the other or one of our offspring or abandonment or infidelity might do it. Such things seem unthinkable. Yet even in such extremes, the thought of forgiveness isn’t out of the question.
Why do we think less of our relationship with Jesus? To talk of “once-saved-always-saved” is to invoke charges of heresy. My response is to ask that if there is something that can break my relationship with Him, exactly what is it? I’ve never gotten a satisfactory response. Maybe it’s like marriage and walking away from Him would do it. Why would I ever do that?
I find Father Richard Rohr a bit “out there” sometimes, but sometimes he’s right on:
“Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God. God leads people beyond the idea of a bilateral contract in which we must earn, deserve, and merit, to an experience of pure, unearned grace—an entirely unilateral “new covenant” initiated and maintained from God’s side. “
Most Christians say that they are “saved by grace” but also believe that once saved, the burden shifts to them to keep that salvation. They aren’t exactly clear just what will cause a divorce from God. I really need to know; otherwise, how can I have any security in my relationship? How can my relationship with my wife be more secure than the one with my Savior?
My previous discussion regarding Minimizing Grace has led me to this point. I can agree that, theoretically, I can decide to walk away from Jesus. I can stop “believing.” Is there something I can do or fail to do that will allow Jesus to walk away from me? If I can commit an offense so awful that He would be allowed to unsave me, I really need to know what that is. I need security in my relationship with Him. It can’t be just any sin because every Christian I know sins, including the one in the mirror. Could it be certain sins? My moralistic law-based brethren seem to think so. They differ somewhat on which sins. The only consistency is that it’s never sins that they personally struggle with.
Is it unconfessed sin? If that were the case, I would have to spend all of each day confessing. I would have no time for thanksgiving or praise or good works.
If I can be divorced from Christ, what happens? To begin this relationship, I became a new creature. Do I revert back to my old nature? I’m just asking. Usually the answer I get is that those kinds of folks were never really saved. That position shifts the insecurity from fear of losing my salvation to fear that I am not really saved. That seems contraindicated in a relationship with the one who said, “Fear not” so very many times. He promised never to leave and I choose to believe him.
I can’t believe that Jesus would want us so insecure. How can we enjoy him? How can we focus to serve him? How can we lead the kind of life that leads others to want Him?
If two frail humans can be secure in a relationship for 50 years, then the creator of the universe can make me secure in a relationship with Him. Sorry if that offends you. It secures me.
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