Salvation Summaries

In my last blog entry, 1 Timothy – Part 1 of 2, I answered the questions of, “Does God want all people to be saved?” “Why did Jesus come to earth anyway?” And, “Can you tell if someone is a new Christian?”  In this blog entry, I’ll answer two final questions about salvation.

Can your salvation save others?

• 1 Timothy 4:16  Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

Before answering this question, I think it would be good to reflect on what we already know about salvation from reviewing Titus and part of 1 Timothy.  We know that God saves a person; we cannot save ourselves.  If we cannot save ourselves, we cannot save others.  Also, we know that salvation is not a reward for how nice or good you are; it is an act of God’s kindness, mercy and love to those who have faith in Him. Further, faith is a personal thing.  I  can’t transfer my faith to someone else.  I can’t share my faith, in the sense that I give someone 50% of my faith and I keep the other 50%. However, I can certainly influence others by my faith.

Also, I think it’s helpful to review some of the verses prior to 4:16 to get a better sense for the context of what Paul is telling Timothy in 4:16. From reading 4:11, “Prescribe and teach these things…”, 4:12, “…show yourself an example of those who believe” and 4:15, “Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all”, we see that Paul is urging Timothy to be a good example of what a Christian is supposed to be.  Paul also wants Timothy’s growth in his own spiritual maturity to be clearly apparent to others.

With the above groundwork laid, I think we’re in a better position to answer the question at hand.  Can Timothy’s, or your, salvation, save someone else?

Let me answer it this way. As we will learn from the book of Acts, the apostle Paul was a missionary who went from town to town to preach to the Jews, to reason with them and to educate them that Christ was the Messiah.  For what purpose?  To save others.  Paul said “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  Faith is required for salvation, and we will learn from other books in the Bible that faith comes by hearing the Good News (about Christ). While Paul could not transfer his faith to others, he could be the tool that God used in order for God to save others. In a similar way, if Timothy is to ensure the salvation of others, he needs to not only tell them the Good News (and other teachings from the Bible), but also be a good example of what it means to be a believer, for a person can learn just as much, if not more, from how one behaves rather than from what a person says.

As a result, this verse does not mean that I can “carry” a non-Christian to heaven on account of me being a Christian.  It means that the best possible chance for another person to get to heaven is for me to tell them what the Bible has to say about Christ, and to live in such a way that they want to live like that too.

Can you lose your faith?

There are two sets of verses in 1 Timothy that, on the surface, seem to support the view that you can lose your faith.  The first is 1:18-20, and the second is 4:1-2.

• 1 Timothy 1:18-20  18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight,  19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.  20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.  (NAS)

• 1 Timothy 4:1-2  But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,  2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron… (NAS)

I see three possible answers to the question of whether the people mentioned in the verses above lost their faith:

1) They had faith, and lost it.

2) They thought they had faith, but really didn’t have it, and lost what they thought they had.

3) They had faith, and their faith was damaged in some way, but not lost.

We don’t have enough information from 1 Timothy and Titus, the books we’ve reviewed thus far, to effectively determine which outcome is correct.  However,  2 Timothy contains a little more information about Hymenaeus, and I’ve copied the relevant verses below.

• 2 Timothy 2:15-21   15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.  16 But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness,  17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,  18 men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and thus they upset the faith of some.  19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness.”  20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.  21 Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. (NAS)

These verses clearly contrast Timothy, a believer, with Hymenaues, one who has rejected the faith:

• Timothy had not strayed or wandered from the faith; Hymenaeus did.
• Timothy was not involved in worldy and empty chatter; Hymenaeus was
• Timothy was godly, Hymenaeus was ungodly
• The Lord knows who are His (this would include Timothy); everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness (this would refer to Hymenaeus)
• There are gold and silver vessels which are used to honor the Lord (this refers to Timothy); there are wood and earthenware vessels that dishonor the Lord (this would refer to Hymenaeus).

However, this added information does not tell us if Hymenaeus was formerly a believer who lost his faith, if he thought he was a believer but never really was, or if he was a formerly believer and has destroyed his faith but not lost it.

Also, in 1 Timothy 1:19, I am not clear on what “shipwreck” means with regard to one’s faith, as these two words are not typically paired together.  Does it mean a broken and damaged faith?  A useless faith?  No faith?  Or does faith, in this sense, refer to the elemental teachings of Christianity? I don’t know.

I have been taught, and currently believe, that once a person is saved, that person is always saved.  Why?  If a person is saved, that is something God does, for a person cannot save himself (you can’t forgive your own sins, you can’t receive the Holy Spirit on your own).  For a person to be unsaved, God would have to do this.  He would have to say your sins are no longer forgiven, and He would also have to remove the Holy Spirit from you (which you are sealed with when you become a Christian).  If God unsaved a person after saving them, wouldn’t that imply that God made a mistake? If God makes mistakes, then He’s not really God.  If God doesn’t make mistakes, and if He chooses to save someone, it would appear that He wouldn’t unsave them.

But “what if”, you ask, “that person acted really bad after becoming saved?”   I have two responses to that.  First, that shouldn’t matter, for God does not save a person based upon how good they are.  Second, if a person is truly saved, this should be reflected in their behavior and deeds.

Even if my personal view, at this point, is that once you are saved, you are always saved, I don’t want that to be the answer to the question, as the purpose of this blog is to systematically go through a number of books in the Bible to learn what they say about salvation, and not rely upon others – or even what we may have been taught – to determine our understanding of salvation.

I think it’s important to make one other point regarding 1 Timothy 1:18-20.  These verses are a good example of the problem that can take place when one forms a view using incomplete information.  Put another way, I would not want to “pound the table” that a person can or cannot lose their faith on these verses, for they simply are not clear enough, and there is not enough information for us to really know.

CONCLUSION

We learned that one person’s salvation can’t count for another person’s salvation; you can’t “carry” a non-saved person to heaven on account of you being saved. However, to help ensure that others become and are saved, it is important that we tell them what the Bible has to say about Christ, and live in a godly way that makes them want to live in the same way.

There are two sets of verses in 1 Timothy that appear to indicate that people can lose their faith; however, we do not have enough information in 1 Timothy and Titus to know.

The next book I will review is 2 Timothy.