Christians should not give anyone false hope about salvation, the world does that already. Those who believe the Bible know all paths do not lead to God, hell is not just for murderers, and no one gets to heaven by their good deeds outweighing the bad. But sometimes I wonder if, through a misunderstanding of the nature of salvation, we give ourselves and each other false despair. Only God knows whether an individual's faith in Christ was genuine or contrived, if their response was heart felt or pretense. And producing spiritual fruit that displays our new life in Christ is not optional, anyone who claims to belong to Jesus yet is content living in habitual sin, invites God's judgment. From our human standpoint trusting Jesus is a decision that can be made or unmade, but from God's perspective salvation is not some transient religious experience. The reason God's gift of eternal life cannot be returned is that it does not depend on us, it rests on RIBS.
We have been learning about the Holy Spirit in our Sunday morning services and I think knowing the Spirit's role in salvation could be a great comfort for those watching prodigals drift away, and especially for those whose prodigals have died. RIBS is an acronym for the Holy Spirit's work in our permanent, positional relationship with God. Our ability to live out the practical realities of these spiritual truths requires our cooperation with God's Spirit, but in the RIBS of the Spirit, we play a passive role. The only condition required is that we have put our faith in Jesus. "R" stands for regeneration. All of us are born spiritually dead, regeneration is the unchangeable act of God by which we are made spiritually alive. "I" is for indwelling. At salvation the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, permanently. Our disobedience can make our life an unpleasant place for Him to dwell, but we cannot evict Him, even if we are foolish enough to want to. "B" is for baptism. This is not water baptism, but the one and done work in which the Spirit places us within the body of Christ. "S" stands for sealing, the Holy Spirit marks us as belonging to God and offers Himself as the down payment guaranteeing our complete redemption. RIBS--not just for dinner, for always.
Now back to prodigals--if we are praying for a prodigal to repent, when what they really need is salvation, or vice versa, we can trust the Holy Spirit to sort that out. But what about the prodigal who dies, apparently unrepentant, and sometimes unreconciled with family? If the grieving family doesn't voluntarily share when their loved one came to know Christ, I will ask them about it. When they set their hope in their loved one's previous acceptance of Christ as Savior, despite the later years of doubt and wandering, it is not false hope. Although repentance is necessary in order to be saved, or we would not see our need for a Savior, the permanence of our salvation does not rest on our repentance, but on the reality of the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration, indwelling, baptism and sealing--RIBS.
Some Christians are so afraid of holding out false hope, they go to the opposite extreme. They tell me how their loved one came to know Jesus, but then dismiss it because their assurance of salvation is focused on the strength of their loved one's hold on the Lord, not the power of God's grasp on them. At a time when believers most need the Holy Spirit's peace, comfort, and the strength of the unseen reality of His RIBS, they may instead focus on false despair. I offer parents of prodigals the same verse God gave me when I needed assurance about my son, John 6:37 "All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." That is our true hope.
