I am a hospice chaplain. This position provides me with the privilege of visiting with men and women during the last days of their lives. I pray for the opportunity to share the gospel with them and their family members. I try to be faithful to tell the lost that their only hope for salvation is to trust in Christ alone. I rejoice with those who are Christians and are trusting in Christ as their Savior and Hope.
Leaving the hospital I couldn't help but be saddened by the fact that this Christian couple had no real hope. They espouse the idea of "conditional security". Conditional security means that in order to stay saved a person must stay faithful to the end. Usually there are certain sins that will cause a believer to lose his salvation. This couple's church teaches that the saved can be lost again. To them Jesus may be the Author but He ultimately is not the Perfecter of their faith (Hebrews 12:2). They must depend upon themselves to be ready to meet the Lord. Herein lies the error of conditional security. It takes the glory away from God in the salvation of man. If God begins salvation in the life of an individual but leaves the culmination of that salvation up to the individual then God's glory is diminished and man's ability is magnified. But God is a jealous God. He will not share His glory. It would be dishonest to do so.
No Christian should ever have to worry that at the end of his life he may just not be good enough after all. If anyone ever ends up in heaven, it will be by God's unmerited mercy and the righteousness of Christ imputed to all who have faith in Him.
Unfortunately, not everyone who claims to be a Christian has hope. Not everyone who claims to trust Christ as their Redeemer has confidence of eternal life. I recall visiting a patient in the hospital. He was there because he had a fall that caused a massive brain bleed. As the patient lay comatose, I visited at his bedside with his wife. I knew this family from previous visits in their home. They were from a Christian denomination that believes that a person is not saved unless he has been "filled with the Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues". The husband had made it a point during a past visit to try to convince me that I am not saved because I've never spoken in tongues. In addition, my baptism was not valid because I had been baptized "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" instead of in Jesus' name only.
Now he lay in a hospital bed, unable to respond. His wife stood beside his bed as I entered the room. She told me of his accident and of their wishes concerning resuscitation should he start to pass away. In tears, she said, "I just hope he is ready to meet the Lord." I related to her how that her husband seemed to have a belief in God and asked her if she thought that he was ready. She said she hoped so but didn't know for sure. I shared that Jesus said that He is the way, and the truth, and the life and that no one can come to the Father except through Him. Furthermore, Jesus said that whoever trusts in Him as their Savior has eternal life. At this point, the wife said to me, "We don't believe like you do. We don't believe once saved always saved. I mean, I can't go out with another man and commit adultery and keep my salvation. I wouldn't go to heaven." A hospital chaplain interrupted our conversation at this point and joined us in the room and we held hands around the bed and prayed. Among other things, I prayed that the patient's faith and trust would be in Jesus.
"I am Yahweh, that is my name; I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols" - Isaiah 42:8 (HCSB)All forms of conditional security stem from a wrong idea of human ability. Some would go so far as to say that salvation is a cooperative effort between God and man, leaving God helpless to do what He wants to do in the salvation of His elect because He is at the mercy of the free-will of man. Scripture indicates otherwise. Consider the following:
"What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! For He tells Moses: 'I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion'. So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy... So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden." - Romans 9:14-16,18 (HCSB)
"Now to the one who works, pay is not considered as a gift, but as something owed. But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited righteousness." - Romans 4:4-5 (HCSB)
"Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen." - Romans 11:35-36 (HCSB)The above verses show that our salvation does not depend upon us. It depends on God's mercy, His grace, and His imputed righteousness. None of which God is in anyway obligated to give to any human being. That any sinner is ever justified and ends up in heaven is dependent solely upon God's work for and in that individual. Therefore, God alone deserves the glory in saving sinners.
No Christian should ever have to worry that at the end of his life he may just not be good enough after all. If anyone ever ends up in heaven, it will be by God's unmerited mercy and the righteousness of Christ imputed to all who have faith in Him.
"...and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ - the righteousness from God based on faith." - Philippians 3:9 (HCSB)
"Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever. Amen. - Jude 24-25 (HCSB)Conditional security is no security at all! For further thoughts on conditional security, see this article: "What is Conditional Security?".