Are We Born "Saved" or "Lost?"

Furthermore, perhaps we should call into question whether these categories, saved and lost are even Biblical or helpful. When we let the whole Bible inform our understanding on this topic, we will discover that these conventional categories are imprecise and misleading. To ask whether we are saved or lost is to ask the wrong question.

In the west, a distinctive emphasis soon led to an all-encompassing emphasis upon salvation in the legal sense. The issues involved penalty and ransom, guilt and confession. But in the east a wholly different emphasis prevailed. In the east, the issues were over healing, the restoration of the image of God in man. The west focused on its understanding of the legal ramifications of sin, the east focused on the spiritual ramifications of sin. In the west, a legal solution to the sin problem was emphasized, in the east, a restoration solution. We could further define these emphases as upon imputation in the west, and upon impartation in the east. While we realize that these are generalizations, it helps us understand why neither solution is adequate. It helps us to understand that saved or lost in the sense that we are used to thinking of, comes from our ingrown, western Christian tradition.

Can we improve our understanding by reincorporating the eastern emphasis into our thinking? I think we can, and that we must. The eastern emphasis was reintroduced to western Christianity through the Protestant reformer John Wesley, resulting in the group known as the Methodists. Seventh-day Adventism is greatly indebted to the Methodists. We also have been granted the important insights through our rich understanding of the great controversy theme, the battle between good and evil and the role that it plays in the overall plan of redemption. We thus stand in a position where, through letting the whole Bible speak to us, we can propose two alternative categories: repair and ruination. Consider the representation below:
 

• To be born broken and in need of repair is not to be born a sinner. Willful choice makes one a sinner (1 John 3:4; Isaiah 59:2). A child has made no willful choice to be a sinner (Romans 9:11).
• To be born broken and in need of repair is not to be born lost. One's willful choice to affirm the fallen nature's sin orientation causes a person to be lost (John 5:38-40; Acts 7:51; John 9:39-41).

Those on the pathway of life (Romans 3:17) and repair experience deliverance from fear and bondage to sin; they come to greater and greater heights of righteousness, joy, and holiness. The journey changes them, and they become settled into this way of living, both, intellectually and spiritually. Those on the pathway of ruination and death (Romans 3:15, 16) experience the fear and bondage and sorrow that accompany the indulgence of sin. They sink deeper and deeper into ruin until finally their commitment to it is complete; they are settled into a moral stance of injustice, filthiness, uncleanness, and unholiness. They are ruined.

Many people try to straddle the line, with the idea that they will remain uncommitted long enough to enjoy the pleasures of a sinful life as long as they can (Hebrews 11:25) and then finally throw themselves across the line and "get saved" in the closing years of their life. But a life lived this way is a life lived apart from God and His life-changing power. They can never become right with God while they are disobeying Him and growing more and ever more confirmed on their pathway of ruination. Instead of cooperating with God in the process of repair, they are making matters worse, adding layer upon layer of damage to their already broken persons.

While life remains, and the decision is not final, there is still hope that one can submit one's life to Christ and come over onto the way of life and repair. But character is not formed in a moment. The Spirit woos man for long years, not because He is bored, but because every one of us is thoroughly broken and will require an extensive work of repair; one that cannot be wrought out in a moment. Mind you, God could change anyone in a moment if there were no issue of human freedom. But God will not change a person apart from their real consent. The thief on the cross did not give his heart to Jesus in a moment only, but the Spirit of God was striving with him for years and years. We are so glad that he came on across the line at the last moment. But for us to plan on the same thing is to play a deadly game of Russian roulette with one's opportunity for eternal life. No one can put one over on God. We are either truly on His side, or we are not.

We are assured that Jesus ended on the pathway of life. We are assured that He lived out a life of total obedience while during the probationary life sealing period (John 15:10). We are convinced that Jesus was born with a human nature identical to our own, as human as we are, or more precisely, as fallen as we are (Romans 8:3; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 2:9, 11, 14, 16-18; 4:15. That is, as broken and as fundamentally in need of repair as ours is (Isaiah 53:4). He started where we start. Yet he remained holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners (Hebrews 7:26). He never chose to sin (1 John 3:4).

But what about that crucial period after His human birth but before His physical organism matured enough that He became morally accountable? Here we enter upon a great mystery, and can only suggest a tentative answer to the problem. That answer is that during this period He was supernaturally guarded or protected by the Holy Spirit from indulging his broken nature. Although bearing a nature as broken as ours is when born, He never strengthened that nature through His actions. And when He passed into the period where He was morally accountable, He still always cleaved to the good, He always opposed His nature and its broken pull toward selfish fulfillment.

Choose life and Jesus Christ. You have no time to lose!