Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / How Much Error Can I Believe and Still Be Saved?

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How Much Error Can I Believe and Still Be Saved? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Well, what must I believe to be saved? And what truth if I
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  deny, will prove that I'm unsaved. Theology and personal salvation is a hot
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  topic in the inbox based on your questions to us over the years, and
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  it's a broad category two that encompasses a lot of related questions, as we
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  will see today. This time, the email comes from a twenty year old
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  woman who writes this, Pastor John, Hello, I have been to many
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  funerals in my young life, far too many actually. The running theme of
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  them all is that the person in the casket was nice and therefore is now
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  in a better place. It's all very thin cliche. Such a setting confronts
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  me again and again with a massive question, and I think I know the
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  answer intuitively, but I would like for you to put words to this.
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  What role do personal theological convictions play in personal salvation? That's what I never
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  hear in these funerals. A text like Romans Chapter ten, Versus nine and
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  ten has always come to my mind. What are some others? And how
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  would you suggest a normal person like me, who doesn't preach or write books,
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  document my own theological heart convictions the confessions of my mouth in a way
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  that can be recalled and remembered at my funeral when this poor lisping, stammering
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  tongue lies silent, Pastor John wo would you say? This is a multi
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  layered question, and every one of the layers I see three, at least
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  every one of these layers is very important. And here they are as I
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  hear them, in the order that moves from the least to the most important,
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  even though they're all important. Number one, it relates the first layer
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  relates to the kind of things that get said at a funeral that seems so
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  disconnected from what really matters in a person's life, especially in regard to the
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  theological convictions that a person had. Number two, another layer is how to
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  live your life in such a way that you document your heart convictions so that
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  they can be recalled at your funeral. And the third layer of the question,
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  to use her very words, quote, what role do personal theological convictions
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  play in personal salvation? That's really big. So let me take these one
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  at a time. I think they are moving increasingly important. In order,
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  two things have to happen if you want the truth to be told about your
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  spiritual life and your heart convictions. At your own funeral. One is that
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  you live that life the most important and that you hold those convictions. The
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  other is that spiritually discerning people need to speak at your funeral, because if
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  they're not spiritually deserning, you know what they're going to say. She had
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  a nice sense of humor, She made really good desserts, She made people
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  really feel home. Now those are good things, right, It's good to
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  be remembered for those things. But honestly, when we're standing on the brink
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  of eternity at a funeral, looking over the edge into heaven and hell,
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  and a person who has lived a life of devotion to Jesus and obedience to
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  his word and worship of his glory and advancement of his mission, that person
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  ought to have somebody who is able to articulate what they believed and how they
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  lived it out, delicious desserts and all all of it. Second, she
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  asks, how do I live my life in such a way that I document
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  my heart conviction so that they can be recalled at my funeral? And I
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  think the answer is be active in your obedience to Jesus and be verbal about
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  your foundational biblical convictions. The Bible teaches both of these active in your obedience,
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  verbal in articulating what you believe biblically. Jesus said in Matthew five that
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  we should let our lights so shine that men may see our good deeds and
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  give glory to our Father in heaven, which is what you'd like people to
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  do at your funeral. Give glory to God because of your good deeds.
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  And in Peter's First Epistle he said that we Christians have been shown mercy so
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  that we might declare the excellencies of the one who called us out of darkness
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  into his marvelous light. So our lives are supposed to be visible in their
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  good deeds and audible as we declare the truth of our biblical convictions about God,
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  which are the foundation of those visible good deeds. Lots of people think
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  that all Christians need to do is live a life of good deeds and that
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  will be sufficient for blessing the world. That's absolutely not true. It's not
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  sufficient. Nobody, nobody can read a saving message from our good deeds alone.
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  A life of loving good deeds is essential, but is not sufficient to
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  lead anyone to saving faith in Jesus. There must be a verbal message about
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  the truth of God and Christ and the way of salvation. Paul said in
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  Romance Tend that saving faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word the word.
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  The word the word means statements propositions that carry clear meaning about the reality
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  of God and his work in the world is work in Christ and the necessity
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  of faith, which brings me now to the third and hardest question, what
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  role do personal theological convictions play in personal salvation? There are two I think
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  crucial things to say in answer to that question. First, there are true
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  statements about God's saving work, which if a person denies, shows by that
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  denial that they're not a Christian. Second thing to say that the Bible teaches
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  that believe that those statements are true in the Bible is not sufficient to show
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  that you are a Christian. The biblical support for the first statement is first
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  John four two. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit
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  that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. Every
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  spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. In other words,
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  there are doctrines like the incarnation Christ come in the flesh, which are essential.
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  If a person denies that the Son of God has become a human,
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  he cannot be a Christian. The biblical support for the second statement is James
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  Chapter two. Faith without works is dead. Demons have faith in that sense
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  that things are true. We believe things are true. So it's not enough
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  if you want to be saved just to believe that things about God are true.
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  There are some doctrinal statements which are necessary to affirm by a Christian,
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  but that affirmation is not sufficient to prove that saving faith in Jesus is genuine.
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  There needs to be a heart embrace of Jesus and a life of love
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  that confirms the reality of our faith. There's one other related issue we just
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  might have time to say a word about. People will ask at this point
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  how much biblical truth do you need to believe to be a Christian? And
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  how much error can you believe until you're not a Christian. Now I have
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  two responses to those two questions. First, let's not focus on minimums,
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  but on maximums. In other words, let's take as many people into as
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  much biblical truth as we possibly can, rather than dwelling on the question how
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  little can people believe and still be saved? And my second response is.
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  I think only God can answer the question how much error can you believe until
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  it shows you're not saved? Now, I'm not contradicting one John four to
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  two when I say that that there are some doctrines so essential that to deny
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  them is not to be a Christian. What I'm saying is that there are
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  hundreds hundreds of statements and commands in the Bible, ethical, theological, historical,
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  hundreds of statements and commands in the Bible, and they are more or
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  less essential for preserving the saving Gospel. How many of those can a person
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  deny until they show that their heart's not right with God, it's in rebellion.
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  I think only God in the end can answer that question. We have
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  to make decisions, yes we do. It's practically speaking, we all have
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  to make decisions on how we will define doctrinally our church membership, belonging to
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  our organization or ministry. But when it comes to final salvation and the judgment,
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  who's finally saved and who's not? After we have taken First John four
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  into account, I think we better leave to God the call as to how
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  much denial of biblical truth a person can make until it shows that their heart
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  is really in rebellion against God, so good think of best for John,
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  living a life of purpose came up here and Romans Versus nine to ten is
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  a great text to meditate too on this topic, a text that was mentioned
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  in the question today and speaking of a life purpose in Romans ten versus nine
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  to ten. It's a text that comes up whenever Pastor John addresses the topic
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  of purpose and productivity. What is my purpose on this planet? And how
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  can I be productive towards that end in my daily life? And even want
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  to explore more on what Pastor John has said on the podcast over the years
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  about purpose and productivity. See my digest of several episodes in the new APJ
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  book on pages eighty five to ninety four. I hope it helps you navigate
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  the archive the New APJ Book, pages eighty five to ninety four if you
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  have a copy handy. Speaking of Romans were seven chapters into Romans in our
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  Bible reading now And as you can imagine, Pastor John has been asked tens
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  of thousands of Bible questions over the course of his lifetime, but at least
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  on this podcast, no verse has been more asked about more often in our
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  inbox. No verse in the whole Bible. More often than Romans nine to
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  twenty two, you are most asked about Bible verse that's up next, Tim,
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  Tony Ranky, See you on Thursday.