For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own
doing, it is a gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:17
Many Christian denominations ask the question “are you saved?” Or they encourage people to “get saved.” Perhaps you’ve even been asked this question, and wondered about it for yourself. I’ve actually been challenged with the question, “Do you know that you are going to heaven?” and when I answer “no,” I’m even challenged with “What kind of priest are you, if you don’t know where you are going?”
The Orthodox approach to salvation is that it doesn’t happen in one finite moment. I can’t point to a specific day and say “On May 20, 2007, I was saved.” I can’t actually even say that “I gave my life to Christ” on a particular day. Because I may give my life to Christ today, but if I sin later today, in that moment, I’m taking my life away from Christ, I’m turning my back on Him. Rather, the journey to salvation is a process. In this process is repentance, because in our sinful nature, we continually fall away from Christ and through repentance, we hopefully continually turn back towards Him. If I say “I know I’m going to heaven,” then I’ve put myself on the judgment seat in the place of God. In the same way, if we say that “there’s no way that ____ is going to heaven,” we’ve also placed ourselves on the judgment seat in place of God. The judgment is His alone. Thus, there is no way to say “I’m saved” or “I’m condemned.” Because the Lord will do the saving and condemning at the judgment seat, and this is supported by the account of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46. The Lord will do the separating. That’s His prerogative exclusively.
The question to ask ourselves, and one another if we must ask a question, is “are you prepared,” or perhaps better said, “are you preparing?” Preparing in this case, refers to preparing to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats based on the following metrics-feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, and ministering to those in prison. And expanding on these six metrics, feeding the hungry includes not only those who are hungry for food, but hungry for attention, friendship, sympathy, mercy, understanding and help. A stranger is not just the new person in town, but the person who is lonely. It is also the person who is a stranger to you, someone you don’t know, like the people who help us in the grocery store, or for the person who works behind a counter, your customer, patient, client. Prisons aren’t just buildings with bars but circumstances that hold us captive. A learning disability, a physical handicap, poverty, lack of dedicated parents, etc. are circumstances that trap us. How do we minister to people we meet who are sentenced to long terms in these kinds of “prisons?” How do we behave when we find ourselves “imprisoned” by some circumstance? If we think about these things critically, we realize that we are presented with these kinds of circumstances every day. If you are reading this message in the morning, you will have a chance to minister to someone before the day is over. Will you recognize this opportunity and fulfill your call? And if you are reading this message at night, more than likely you had an opportunity today. Did you recognize the opportunity and did you fulfill your call?
In my humble opinion, the idea of “being saved” is like clinching a playoff spot on a sports team, i.e. you are guaranteed in even if you lose every game for the rest of the season. I don’t think salvation works this way. I don’t think there is a “clinching” of either salvation or condemnation. A repentant thief on the cross next to Jesus found salvation in his dying breath. And there are plenty of people who have lived “righteous” lives only to fall away from the Christian faith later in life. It’s never too late to find salvation. And we can’t “claim salvation” for ourselves, because it is the Lord’s to give to whomever He wishes based on His standards, not ours.
Three more appropriate questions come to mind: Are you prepared for your judgment, should the Lord come for your soul tonight? Many of us shudder at that thought. The second question is more comforting: Are you preparing for your judgment? Hopefully the answer is yes for each of us. Hopefully we are living a life where we are serving according to those six metrics in Matthew 25: 31-46, using the talents we’ve been given (Matthew 25:14-30). And the third question is also comforting: Can you be prepared? The answer is yes. We can all prepare for the judgment. We all should be preparing for it. That’s why that petition for a Christian end to our lives is part of our services, so that we are constantly reminded of not only where we are going, but are encouraged to prepare for it on a continual basis.
Lord, thank You for the gift of this day, and each day. May I see each day both as a blessing, for which I am grateful, and an opportunity, to prepare for the moment I will stand before You when my days on this earth are over. Please open my heart to have a desire to serve, and open my eyes to see the opportunities that present themselves every day. Help me to have a consciousness of preparation for the moment I will stand at Your awesome judgment seat, and at that moment, have mercy on my soul, and remember it in Your heavenly Kingdom. Amen.
When someone asks me “are you saved?” I always answer “I’m working on it, and I hope by God’s grace I will be saved.” I’ve never asked anyone if they are saved. We are continuously praying for the salvation of all.
