Thoughts about who gets saved

Sometimes you read something you sort of wished you had skipped.
Forgive me, but we’re about to get theological, and technically theological at that.
Like this: “So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time — he’s told us this quite plainly — he’ll also rock the heavens: ‘One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.’ The phrase ‘one last shaking’ means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.” Hebrews 12: 25-29 (The Message)
Here’s the rub.
Ask yourself just what are the essentials?
If you ask me, the essentials of the Gospel, it seems to me are:
1) Christ died for our sins; because He loves us.
2) He was buried, thus showing the finality of the battle with sin and death.
3) He was raised on the third day, thus showing the winner of the battle, and that his promises are indeed true and worthy of our trust.
That’s it. That’s all. That’s the trifecta, the trinity of essentials as I see it. Again, as I see it.
But the Apostle Paul tells us that if we believe that with our heart, and profess it with our mouth, “You will be saved.”
Period. It doesn’t add a whole lot of acts to it. Just believe. Faith is all we need, by grace, to paraphrase Paul again.
My youngest asked me the other day what would happen if a born-again Christian got drunk and went out and had a wreck in his car and killed himself. Would he go to heaven?
Now, this is me. My belief. I certainly understand this is not a universal belief. Some fellow United Methodists might be spinning in graves when I write this, and I don’t expect anyone else to necessarily agree with me.
But the way I read the above statement by Paul, tells me that if the person believed that and professed that, then he or she would still be saved. It doesn’t say you will be saved if you never do so and so again. It says you will be saved.
I would perhaps argue that if you profess that you wouldn’t get drunk, but I understand more than most that things happen.
But this notion that we surrender to Jesus as Lord and are instantly perfect runs contrary to all I have ever seen, and all I have ever felt and experienced.
First, John tells us “If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins — make a clean breast of them — he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself.”
Boiling the essentials of the Gospel down to three seems, to some, a bit off-putting. Where is the virgin birth? Atonement? Transfiguration? Trinitarian teaching? Wise Men, Shepherds, Angels and such?
All wonderful. But none of them save me and you. Only the shed blood that caused the death of our Savior, the fact he was truly dead for us, and then the resurrection that showed us how to live matters.
A wonderful song by Christ Tomlin tells: “His love ran red at the cross.”
In other words, it, he, saved me. It saved you. Nothing I did saved me, so there is nothing I can do to unsave me (if I truly believe).
Now go out and show, through the help of the Holy Spirit, all that you are and all that you can be and all that can be done when someone drinks in the Spirit but not spirits.
Just saying.
Billy Turner is a pastor of the United Methodist denomination and a retired journalist.