Questions About Salvation

HELLO WORLD!

My name is Jason Harris. I'm an LCMS pastor in Northern Indiana. I grew up influenced by a variety of Protestant sects, including Charismatic, Fundamental Baptist and five-point Calvinist. It wasn't until about halfway through seminary that I became a plain old boring Lutheran. I was pleased and honored to receive a request by my friend Andrew Taylor to make some contributions to this blog. I'll try to fill in bits and pieces about my journey from Methbapticostal land to Wittenberg as I go along. Following is a letter I wrote to answer a question when I was volunteering as a Lutheran expert at AllExperts.com:

"hello. i confessed with my mouth that jesus is lord and was baptised about nine months ago but Im worried about not being saved and that I may eventually lose my salvation. Any help? -Kitty"

Greetings Kitty,

This is a very common issue that many Christians have dealt with in all times and places. It is especially problematic in modern America with many churches wrongly teaching that salvation is a matter of personal decisions, obedience, and symbolic actions.

This will always lead the Christian to gaze into his or her heart wondering:
      "Did I really mean it when I asked Jesus into my heart?"
      "Have I really turned my life around and become morally better?"
      "Did I follow all the right rules and jump through the right hoops to be saved?"

It is in these situations in which I always direct the person outside of themselves and onto Christ. You were not saved nine months ago. You were saved two-thousand years ago when Jesus took your sins and nailed them to his own flesh on the cross. Your baptism was not a personal action of obedience or symbolic gesture, it is a washing of rebirth and renewal in which Jesus came to you and washed your sins away. The Christian confesses not "I was baptized" but "I am baptized!" Your faith in Christ crucified and risen did not come from your own choice or reasoning ability, it was worked in you by God Himself the Holy Spirit working through Word and Sacrament.

You, like all humans, are sinful and weak. You can't saved yourself nor are you yourself able to remain in God's salvation. But fear not! Your salvation rests entirely on who Jesus is and what He has done. When you have doubts and your conscience is troubled, look to Christ! Read his precious Gospel promises. Receive his Holy Sacraments. Hear his Holy Absolution. Through these things the Holy Spirit with strengthen and renew your trust in these promises. You are Jesus' little lamb. He holds you in the palm of his hand. In Christ, you are the apple of His eye. Nothing in this entire world, not even Satan himself, can wrest you out of the loving arms of your Bridegroom who has promised to be with you always, even to the end of the age.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor Harris