Growing up in the Southern Baptist Church there was a huge emphasis on getting "saved." (praying the sinner's prayer and walking the aisle to tell the pastor about it) While not un-biblical in its bases this approach always felt incomplete. And it was.
Despite the pastor urging the audience to "enter into a relationship with Jesus," the emphasis was largely placed on making the commitment to the relationship rather than carrying it forward. Once saved, always saved.....and so the attitude goes.
In Greg Boyd's new book "Benefit of the Doubt" he invokes the biblical analogy of marriage to Christ. He compares the phenomenon I experienced in the SBC to a spouse who always points back to the marriage certificate despite the quality of the relationship and the danger of it falling apart completely due to neglect.
Salvation was a one dimensional experience defined only by the moment a person said "I do" to Jesus.
However, in the Biblical metaphor of marriage the two partners enter into a covenant relationship. Where the "once saved, always saved" attitude always points back to a transaction that happened once before; a covenant attitude points forward to every interaction that will ever happen between the two parties.
In a covenant relationship the "I do" moment is no less important, but every moment in the relationship is met the "same commitment to act that was entered into when we first said, "I do.""
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