On February 11, I taught the Ludwick Bible study, and this was one of the questions we considered. I think it is a super question.
In this question, salvation means regeneration, being born again. While the NT most often uses salvation to refer to deliverance from temporal difficulties, it does refer to regeneration about thirty percent of the time.
There are four reasons that this is a vital distinction.
First, you can’t be born again unless you recognize this distinction. If you believe that your eternal destiny depends on your following Christ, then you do not believe John 3:16 and the promise of everlasting life that cannot be lost.
Second, you cannot evangelize clearly without understanding this distinction. You can’t lead your children, parents, siblings, or friends to faith in Christ unless you grasp this distinction. Worse yet, you will be confusing them. In a sense, you will make it harder for them to believe the promise of life.
Third, the person who proclaims a false gospel is under an anathema, that is, a curse (Gal 1:8-9). While this is not eternal condemnation,i it is bad. The believer who is proclaiming a false gospel experiences God’s wrath, not His good pleasure.
Fourth, sanctification will elude you if you fail to recognize this distinction. See the book of Galatians. Paul called a faith-plus-works message a false gospel (Gal 1:6-9). He said that if a born-again person was duped into believing that false gospel, then he would fall from his experience of God’s grace (Gal 5:4). While his salvation would remain secure because he had believed in Christ for everlasting life (Gal 2:16), he would no longer be pleasing God.
Keep grace in focus and you will remember the vital distinction between salvation and discipleship.
i Sadly, some translations say that Paul was warning of eternal condemnation. Two major translations, NET and HCSB, translate anathema in Gal 1:8, 9 as “condemned to hell.” So do two lesser-known translations (GW, NOG). VOICE renders it as “eternally cursed.” AMPC has “doomed to eternal punishment.”
