Emotional Salvation Isn’t Enough

I know a lot of people who were abused as children. If it wasn’t abuse of the physical, psychological, or sexual sort, it was minimally some category of neglect. It’s no wonder why so many people are burdened with scars, both literal and figurative, that often seem inescapable. In many cases, this permanency proves true, even though God’s Word is our pain-relieving salve. While the truth sets us free from the bondage of our pasts (John 8:32), helping us to see the light (Ephesians 5:13), this type of salvation isn’t salvation from sin in the most critical of ways.

No matter how emotionally relieved a person is to know that God will bear their burdens, His promises of deliverance are the result of being saved, judicially, not the cause.

The above statement is an important one for several reasons. I believe it’s easy to “sell” a person on Jesus Christ if He becomes a person’s savior from emotional pain. While this pain is very real – in the case of deeply scarred individuals it is ever present and agonizing – it is nonetheless merely a function of someone else’s sin acting out against the injured. Before a person is saved, positionally/judicially speaking, the only hope they have of deliverance from said pain is to cope with it using natural remedies (e.g., worldly counseling), which never sufficiently heals them because only God’s grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It’s very important that we believers understand the subtlety being presented here in this blog. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of focusing on the pain someone is in rather than addressing the real issue, which isn’t how badly they’ve been sinned against and therefore damaged, but rather their own sin. When we speak about pain and sin in the same sentence to others, we must do so very articulately, each topic having its own purpose. Why the distinction? Because there are a lot of people out there suffering miserable lives who keep buying the lie that deliverance from pain is finding the right savior from sin borne in others.

We never escape sin in this world, that is, the sinful nature of others, or its effects. Salvation doesn’t promise such things; rather, it promises escape from the dominion of sin in our own lives.

Here’s my concern which occurred to me while I was out on an extra-long run the other day (those are good times to fellowship with the Lord). I don’t often share unrefined thoughts, but this is what He gave me while I was huffing and puffing down the street (be nice, I’m fifty years old now): “When we’re young we seek salvation from the pain caused by others (deliverance from the effects of their sins); when we’re older, we seek salvation from the pain we cause (deliverance from our own sin).” I realize this thought may require a little decoding as it’s merely germinal, hence my writing to you now. I want you to see the distinction between what I’ll dub “emotional salvation” and “judicial salvation”. I’ll come back to this.

Right now I want to give you some startling statistics to set the stage for an example that will explain all of this. According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), in America, one in nine girls and one in fifty-three boys under the age of eighteen experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult. About ninety percent of perpetrators are men and ten percent women.

The effects of child sexual abuse can be long-lasting and affect the victim’s mental health. Victims are more likely than non-victims to experience the following mental health challenges:

• About 4 times more likely to develop symptoms of drug abuse
• About 4 times more likely to experience PTSD as adults
• About 3 times more likely to experience a major depressive episode as adults

Eighty percent of perpetrators are a parent of the victim, six percent relatives, four percent unmarried partners of a parent, and five percent “other” (from siblings to strangers).

— RAINN.org


Please don’t allow the above statistics to distract you emotionally (I know it’s a big ask, but hang in there).

Suppose a little girl you know is a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. I think it’s fair to say that she is going to be battling deep scars her entire life. She is going to suffer in ways many of us cannot even fathom. My heart bleeds for her, truly, as does yours, too, I’m sure. She has been injured by the fruit of sin. Whose sin was it? Her father’s. The key here – now concentrate on what I’m about to write – is that the sin causing all of this pain isn’t hers. Why do I point this out? Because, while she likely cries herself to sleep night after night, seeking salvation from her awful pain, maybe even plotting revenge, hatred taking its natural course in her psyche, the fact is that in this sense, she isn’t seeking deliverance from her own sin, but rather, her father’s. She’s seeking emotional relief, which is wholly understandable.

Painful issues in our souls, especially those borne of childhood tragedy, exist due to the depravity of others. It is the sin of others that wound us so terribly as children. As adults, saved by the grace of God from our own sins, we might pray for our transgressors as we look back and contemplate the horrors that befell us as innocent children. No child deserves to be abused. But again, what is under consideration here is the sins of another person, not our own. This is a separate issue from the one we are called to consider regarding our own sin and its penalty, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The Bible teaches us that we are accountable to God for our own sin. As it pertains to the sins of others, well, that’s between Him and them. Even though the sins of others have damaged each one of us uniquely, our salvation is independent from theirs. While their sins have left us to struggle with emotional pain – it often feels like “Hell on Earth” – the plain truth remains that before being made a “new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17) we have a bigger problem, requiring a bigger Savior.

In the case of our fictitious little girl above, what say you of her salvation? Should she turn to Jesus as her savior from emotional pain? Is something she can feel even as a young, wounded child the impetus for being saved by the blood of the Lamb? Is this the basis of her crying out for salvation? What is she seeking salvation from, exactly…is it from emotional pain caused by another’s sin, or from her own sin? The prior is most likely the truth, for how can a young child, who nonetheless is trying to keep from drowning in an ocean of pain, truly come to grips with her own depravity? Not even relatively stable childhoods manifest in an ability to contemplate one’s own depravity (the precursor to crying out for our Savior from their own sin) as a child. And yet, I’ve met many people who are confused about this, and it concerns me deeply.

As awful as childhood abuse is, the emotional pain cannot be the impetus for crying out for salvation from one’s personal sins. Salvation, in the positional/judicial sense, is an act of reconciling one’s own sins with the sovereign, holy God of the Universe, for even abused children carry their own portfolio of sins that have harmed others (often in similar ways that they’ve been harmed). Even the most awfully damaged child is without excuse before God regarding sin. Strictly speaking, regarding an eternity spent in the Lake of Fire, an unbeliever’s primary issue isn’t emotional salvation at all, it’s salvation from sin, itself.

I fear that many people have sought deliverance from childhood pain and believe to have found it in Jesus Christ in the absence of true salvation. The demands from God never waver. A person must address their own sinfulness before His holiness. Emotional relief may come with sanctification, but sanctification must begin where it begins with every other human being who’s ever been saved, with repentance. “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30b).

I truly hope I haven’t come off as insensitive, callous, or unfeeling – nothing could be further from the truth, being an abused child, myself. My heart goes out to anyone who’s suffered at the hands of another person’s sins. But you know what? Jesus, who promised peace and deliverance (John 14:27), said, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Why would He ever suggest such a thing? Simple. When it comes to the sins of others, our focus is forgiveness towards them, whatever we can muster in light of the Word of Truth, “just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you” (Colossians 3:13b). When it comes to our own sins, though, our focus must depart the throes of our pain caused by others and turn inward, to the pain we’ve caused our Creator.

It’s not enough to seek a savior from our childhood pain. That is not the salvation Jesus came to establish, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Is He able to protect and even heal our wounds? You bet. But healing takes time, something sanctification addresses in the life of a believer. Sanctification doesn’t begin until a person is saved from their own sin, having been washed clean and delivered by the redemptive power of the Cross. Knowledge of our own depravity is the impetus for crying out for our Savior, for this is the deepest source of our pain. Being at odds with our Creator is a much greater malady than being abused as a child. The stakes are much, much higher.

Seeking relief from childhood pain is never enough to drive us to repentance, for it deals with the sins of others, which isn’t the issue in personal salvation. There are victims of child abuse both in Heaven and Hell.

One last thought before I wrap this up. When trying to evangelize an unbeliever who is struggling with pain like that described above, we mustn’t lose focus. For starters, we don’t want to be dismissive, for their pain is real. What we want to do is let them know the truth about salvation, itself, and why they need a Savior, and why He came to save. We mustn’t be afraid to tell the truth. We must avoid the temptation to water down the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one that includes both repentance and faith, in an attempt to avoid causing any more consternation in the souls of others. If we fail this test, we are lying to them, creating even more confusion in their lives, and ultimately more pain down the line.

Tell people the truth about their depravity and their need for a Savior. Don’t just “sell” Jesus as an emotional crutch like so many churches seem to do nowadays. And if you’re ever faced with dealing with someone staking a claim to Heaven on the basis of what smells like “emotional salvation,” do them a big favor and cut to the chase – give them the full Gospel of Jesus Christ, you may just be winning a soul. They may reject you, sadly, “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16), but at least you’ve done your job. That is what matters…you presenting the unadulterated Truth from the Word of God.

The next time someone claims to have been saved at an early age (before what is likely their ability to contemplate something as deep and personal as their own depravity), ask them the following:  “Saved from what, exactly?” Chances are, they felt saved from the craziness that was their childhood and/or the pain that defined it. Tell them that such things are never the impetus for true salvation in Christ Jesus. Salvation is a gift given to those seeking a Savior from their own sins, not the effects of others’ sins upon them.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins