Salvation Is Not a Destination

Salvation is not a destination.

Some might say, “If I’m saved, I get to go to Heaven…I want to be saved, then!” Heaven is a place where believers go, but that is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Believers congregate in Heaven after death (or the rapture of the Church) because that’s the way God designed it. Technically, He could say to those entering Heaven, “I’ve saved you, now go sit on that bump on the log over there next to my other children.” I’m being silly, but I hope you get the point.Heaven is going to be wonderful, but that is not why God chose to save us. God’s plan for salvation is much, much greater than merely a trip to Heaven. This is one of the reasons why an unbeliever’s desire ‘not to go to Hell’ is terribly insufficient as a reason why God might save them. The issue with salvation is not ‘where a saved person is going’, it’s ‘where a saved person is coming from’. With the wrong perspective, a person might think these are two sides of the same coin. However, that’s a dangerous oversimplification. Salvation is not about location, it’s about status.

Let me explain using a military analogy.I can fly a civilian and an Army General in an airplane (although, since I haven’t piloted a plane in a while, that may not be advisable - lol) from the state of Massachusetts to the state of Vermont. Before they board my plane, they may have similar thoughts about their trip. They may both desire to leave their current abodes behind in favor of the clean mountain air up north. Their location may change, but when they step off the plane in Vermont, they are still going to be a civilian and a General…their status unchanged. Suppose the civilian represents an unbeliever, and the General a believer - if God were the pilot and Heaven the destination, upon debarkation He’d point to two separate lines, one for the Judgement Seat of Christ for believers (2 Corinthians 5:10) and the other for the Great White Throne judgment for unbelievers (Revelation 20:11). If the civilian then cried, “But my grandmother told me that this plane goes to Heaven, and if I simply decided to get on it, I’d end up there!” God will let that person know, in no uncertain terms, that their grandmother was wrong, as religious as she was.Religion often waters down the Gospel to something like, “Get on the ‘Jesus plane’ before it’s too late so you, too, can go to Heaven and spend eternity with your loved ones!” That’s a perversion - an incomplete representation of what the good news actually is. It’s a misdirection. Unfortunately, there are going to be a lot of people that hear the same words the religious folks in Jesus’ day will hear when they “debark the plane”:Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.Salvation must be viewed from the perspective of God’s plan for His children’s deliverance from the penalty, power, and presence of sin (in that order) to imputed, imparted, and perfected righteousness (in that order). In other words, salvation is really an issue of how God saves us from sin. That’s different than assuming that salvation is merely a trip to Heaven (with focus on the avoidance of Hell). The prior requires an unbeliever to address the fact that they are a sinner and in need of a savior. Given the Gospel, they must then humbly accept it as the only way they can ever hope to overcome sin and spiritual death - by God’s grace (Ephesians 2)…climbing out of that pit some other way is futility.But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.The Gospel is our most treasured resource. Believers must guard it with their lives, ensuring that it is never presented as something it isn’t. While the result of being saved includes a ‘trip to Heaven’, the real issue is how one finds themselves aboard that “plane” in the first place. What does that trip entail? What is one leaving behind them? The one who presumes to take their sins, undealt with, on their “trip” will be lost forever. Fear of Hell is insufficient cause for God to save a person; yet, that is the motivation that religions propose as righteous. It’s disastrous.Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”In many ways, salvation is better thought of as “coming from” somewhere (the slave market of sin) rather than “going to” somewhere (Heaven). The real issue is sin, not the final destination.I can’t wait to get to Heaven - truly. My hope is wonderfully secured in the fullness of Christ, having understood and accepted the truth about my own sinfulness and need for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, my Redeemer, Who paid the only price acceptable to purchase me from the slave market of sin. Honestly, even now, with no disrespect to Heaven, I could care less where I end up in the eternal estate, as long as it’s near my Lord always. I just want to be near Him…to thank Him…to worship Him…to love Him.Thanks be to God for making that happen. ‘Destination Heaven’ is going to be magnificent, but to us believers, unfettered access to God’s love will be the true destination for our hearts.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins