DirtDiver said:
" 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." 1 John.
How does one get the Son?
The Gospel:
Everyone is a sinner and continues to sin.
Sin separates us all from God.
God sent His perfect sinless Son to buy, purchase, redeem, pay our debt of sin freely as a gift.
That Gift is specifically His life for ours.
Jesus rose from the dead.
The moment a person accepts, trusts, believes, receives, God's gift of Jesus for their sins, their debt is paid no matter how many sins that person has committed and will commit in the future.
All people in hell are sinners and all people in heaven with the exception of Jesus are sinners. Those who burn in hell are the ones that don't have the Son.
Im not quite sure who you were replying to as it is a general statement but for the sake of discussion I would like to offer the non Protestant/Catholic perspective as this doesn't quite sit right.
The reason this doesn't hit right with me is that you're looking at salvation through a strict legalistic which is a later Western development. First by the Catholics then the Protestants adopted it as they didn't know any other way that from the tree they branched from.
The Orthodox Church doesn't see salvation as a legal transaction where a debt is paid. It sees salvation as a hospital or physician. Sin isn't a legal infraction that makes God angry but rather as an illness that corrupts us.
The whole paying a penalty perspective has always confused me. Christ didn't come to pay an angry God. Kind of weird when you think about it. God sent his own nature or essence to suffer to pay himself back for our sins?
He came to heal our broken nature, conquer death in the process and inject His own immortal life into us. This just makes more sense on the most basic level.
It certainly isn't free though. Orthodoxy agrees you can't earn grace or buy your way in. It's absolutely a gift but it's like a life saving medicine that only works if you actually take it and stop doing the **** that made you sick to begin with. It requires synergy and relationship with God.
Salvation isn't a one-and-done that negates all future unrepentant behavior. No alter call, revival moment or getting "saved" does the job. No "once saved always saved".
It's a living relationship. Salvation is "free" in a way but it costs you your entire life (Faith and Works?) to stay united to God.