MODERN CHRISTIAN: Well, that last conversation on Baptism was interesting.  You have a very different view than us modern Christians.  I am interested in what you believe about salvation.  Clearly the point at which you are saved is faith, but you believe it is Baptism…

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Wait!  Don’t rush to conclusions!

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Now, it is very clear you do not believe that the moment at which we are saved is faith but Baptism.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: I never said that.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You said it is essential to salvation.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: That’s right.  It is essential to salvation.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: How then do you not believe it is the moment at which you are saved?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Because salvation is not simply achieved in a moment.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You mean you do not believe that once saved, you are always saved?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No, I don’t.  Neither have I known any Christian from my time in the ancient world to believe in such a view.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: You do know that view contradicts the Scriptures.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No it does not.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: How does it not contradict the Scriptures?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Let me explain.  Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).  I want to focus on “the Way.”  The earliest Christians were also known as “the Way.”  They are called “the Way” six times in the Book of Acts; the term “Christian” is only used three times in the Book of Acts and only once where a Christian is actually using it to describe the followers of Christ.

Image © Suzukii Xingfu 2016

This word “Way” in Greek means “road” or “journey.”  This implies salvation is not a point in time, but a process.  We do not simply step on a road and say we have reached our destination (your view that once saved, you are always saved).  Sometimes, the road is long.  Sometimes it is hard.  We still have to go through the road to reach our destination.  If our Savior is the Way, then it implies we have a journey to go through, a process.  Salvation is then a process.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: But in Ephesians 2:8-9, it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  “Saved” is in the past tense.  It is something that has already happened.  Therefore once saved, you are always saved like the Ephesians Paul wrote to.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: There were people who were saved and they left the faith, so it cannot be once saved, always saved.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Who was saved and then left the faith?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Judas Iscariot is one.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: He was not saved.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: What do you mean?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Because once saved, you are always saved.  He fell, so he was never really saved.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Would you say a good definition of salvation is having communion with our Lord Jesus?  To walk with Him, to speak with Him, and to live with Him?

MODERN CHRISTIAN: Absolutely!  That is the definition of salvation.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Judas was in fellowship with our Lord Jesus; he walked with Him for 3 ½ years; he spoke with Him; and he lived with Him.  He heard His teaching and saw His miracles.  Not only that, he even preached Christ and performed miracles in His name.  That is salvation.  He chose to walk off the road of salvation because he loved money more than he loved our Lord Jesus.  He stood away.  You know those words “stood away” in Greek is apostasis from which we get the word apostasy in English to describe someone who has left the faith.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: That is the only example, and he was destined for that, so it does not count.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: That is not the only example.  There is another: Nicolas the Deacon from Acts 6.  He became the founder of the heretical group called the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2.  Nicolas is peculiarly mentioned last in the list of deacons just like Judas Iscariot is in the lists of the Apostles.  There is a text that was written less than 100 years after the Revelation called Against Heresies by Irenaeus of Lyons.  He explained that the Nicolaitans mentioned in Revelation were the followers of Nicolas after he left the Christian faith and began teaching heresy.  He taught that a person should sin in order to receive the grace of God.  He stood away from the road, from the Way, even though he had walked in it.  It is not once saved, always saved.  Someone who has entered the road and has begun in the way of salvation can choose to leave that way.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: So you are saying that the grace of Jesus is not powerful enough to save us.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No I am not!  God created us with a freewill, and if that freewill ceases to function after we enter the Way, then we no longer have a freewill.  We have lost part of our humanity which our Lord Jesus came to save.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: What’s wrong with God taking over our freewill?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: If we do not have a freewill, then we cannot love God.  God wants us to love Him; if we have no freewill, then we are not capable of doing that.  We love the people we have chosen to love.  There is no such thing as being forced to love someone.  God wants us to love Him by our own freewill as a response to His love.  Only by having freewill can we choose to enter the road and continue until we reach our destination.  By stepping away from the road, it does not mean the grace of God is not powerful enough to save people; all it means is that person did not have the faith, hope, and love to continue.  That person out of their own freewill chose to stop loving God in the same way a child may stop loving his parent or a wife may stop loving her husband.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: But then, salvation is no longer a gift.  It is now of a person’s freewill.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No, it is still a gift.  If you give me a gift, I have to the choice to accept it or not.  In the end a person chooses to accept a gift.  That does not stop the gift from being a gift.  Salvation is a gift.  The way of Christ is a gift, but I must accept that gift.

You see salvation is like a road, a journey.  The Greek word is odos, which is translated “Way” in your English Bibles, but specifically it means the road on which you take a journey.  Our Lord Jesus Christ applied that word to Himself in John 14:6.  Our Lord Jesus invites us on that journey, but we must respond to that invitation.

Whenever we take a journey we must have two virtues: faith and hope.  In Greek, faith is pistis; hope is elpis.  Did you notice both end in –is.  This ending indicates continuity of action.  So far, salvation is a journey, a continual process.  It is a journey that requires the continuous actions of faith and hope.

We must have faith and hope in order to begin, continue, and complete a journey.  We must have hope, (which actually means “expectation,” in Greek) that we will get to our destination, and faith, which propels us until we get to our destination.

Faith and hope cannot simply be one time actions; they must continue your whole life, and it is even clear in the meaning of the words in their Greek form.  The Bible would not tell us to have faith and hope and command us to pray for stronger faith and hope if our journey was complete here, if once saved, we are always saved.

Salvation is not a moment in time but a process.  Your own English word salvation has the suffix –ation which means “process of.”  Salvation is therefore the process of being saved.

MODERN CHRISTIAN: What is that process?

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: Salvation begins with faith.  Faith shows you where the road is that you must enter.  It reveals the invitation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Afterward, we are baptized.  This is our rebirth.  It places us on the road.  Then, we must have hope, an expectation that if we continue on the road, we will reach our destination.  We must also carry our crosses on that road daily, to live in the way our Lord Jesus Christ showed and taught.  Then, we cannot go on any journey whether short or long unless we have faith and expect to reach our destination.  The same is true for our salvation.  We must believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Way, and we must expect to reach our destination where He is waiting for us in His Kingdom.  The Scriptures with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles and Prophets are the guide to help us finish our journey successfully.  If a person does not have faith, hope, or understanding of the Scriptures, then that person will step away from the road, that is he or she will become an apostate.  Such a word would not exist in the Scriptures if salvation was in a moment, or “once saved, always saved.”

MODERN CHRISTIAN: That’s only the example of the road.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN: No, there are several other examples of salvation being a process in the New Testament.  For example…

For Part II, click here.

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