Salvation Timing

 

For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is Gods approach present, not of works, lest anyone should be boasting.

Paul to the Ephesians 2: 8-9, Concordant New Testament 

In the days before my mother passed, I struggled with the thought that she would not spend her eternity with the Lord.  Yes, I knew that that knew and loved the Lord, but several years in assisted care had changed her.  Her moods, and often her words, were now governed by the medications she was receiving.  The way I saw it, I was in a race against time to get my mother to affirm her faith in the Lord.  I read her passages from the scripture.  I invited her friends from her former church to visit her.  All of this, I was certain, would convince God that she knew Him.  I wanted my eternity to include her as well.  Still living under the paradigm of the mainstream church, I believed that sin was still a glaring issue I needed to deal with.  Since God had no tolerance for sinners, I desperately tried to work my mother into His eternity.  I had heard the stories of the death bed confessions of those who had come to Jesus in the final hours of their lives.  I knew that my mothers health was failing, and I knew that I was in a race against time to get her saved.  I never once gave thought to the truth that God has never given us a timer for our salvation, only a route which we need to take.  Jesus has proclaimed that He is the route to the Father {Johns Account 14:6}.  But the finality of death seems to start the clock ticking in our human conscious.  After all, can we come to Jesus after we're dead?  The very idea seems outlandish enough to get any Christian booted from their church for speaking blasphemies.  But ask yourself one important question, is God ABLE to save one who did not know Him in life?  I would say that our loving Father is certainly capable of that.  Next question, would you think that the God would DESIRE that one who did not know Him in life be saved?  Again, I would answer in the affirmative.  The apostle John tells us that Jesus was dispatched to the world not to condemn, but that the world would be saved through Him {Johns Account 3:16-17}.  Am I to understand that the same God that loved me first {First Epistle of John 4:10} and created me in His image would suddenly lose His love and affection for me?  I don't believe that for a minute.  If anything, I think we've been sold a false narrative.  

For the Son of mankind came to seek and to save the lost 

Lukes Account 19: 10, Concordant New Testament 

There is a finality with the teaching of the mainstream institutional church.  That is the moment of our passing from this world unto the next.  Everything we do leads up to this point in time.  There are things we definitely need to accomplish before that happens.  The mending of relationships and making ourselves "Right" with Jesus.  People spend a good deal of time in pursuit of these goals.  Yet, since nobody knows the day and the hour of their passing, we often struggle with the idea that we need to be "Good enough" for the Lord to accept into heaven.  In my mothers case, I struggled with the idea that my behaviors would somehow have an impact on her eternity with Him.  Not only did I need to convince her of the Lords love, but I needed to mind my own house as well.  That's a lot of pressure to put upon anyone.  And it's totally unnecessary.  It has never been up to me who does and does not join God in heaven.  In fact, the very issue of our salvation is determined by God Himself.  It is by His grace that we are forgiven {Titus 3:5}.  Everything that I am is because of the Father.  He created me {Genesis 1:27}.  He made me a living soul {Genesis 2:7}.  He dispatched His Son to become to take my place on the cross {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}.  All which the Father has done is to give me life and not death.  Our passing from this world is not the end of our story, but the beginning.  The night before my mother passed I sat with her as she slept.  I remembered how she used to love the old Promise Keepers men's choir.  As I softly sang the beginning chorus of Amazing Grace, I felt her squeezing my hand.  I knew in my heart that God was welcoming his daughter home.  

~Scott~