There are some things I need to state before we get started. I am a CPA. Don’t quit reading thinking this will be another boring paper. Second, I am a Christian. How can a CPA be a Christian? CPAs are held to a higher ethical standard than any other profession. If you plan on sitting in front of an IRS auditor, who is going over your client’s tax return, you better be a truthful, ethical, and a praying person. A good CPA should have a healthy fear of the Lord and a healthy knowledge of IRS laws.
On a sidenote, when asked if I am conservative, I say “If I were a plumber, I would wear suspenders and a belt?”
Any accountant who made it through Accounting 101, without sleeping too much, can tell you the accounting equation. In its most simple form, the Accounting Equation is: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. But it can be restated as: Assets – Liabilities = Equity. We will use this restatement.
To explain the concept of Assets, Liabilities and Equity, let’s assume you live in a house. Your house, and the land it sets on, is the asset. It is an item that holds value and can be sold. The loan you got, so you could buy your house, is your liability (i.e. a promise to repay something in the future. Equity is the difference between what you own, your assets, and what you owe, your liability.
How can I prove the accounting equation? Let’s say you own one (1) asset; $1,000 cash. Cash is an asset that can be used to buy what you need. When you buy or pay for something, your cash goes down and you get the benefit of the service or item.
A liability is something you owe for. When using a credit card to buy something, you promise to pay in the future for something you just bought, or a service you just paid for. For example, let’s assume you owe $400 on your credit card. You used the credit card because you didn’t want to carry or use your cash to buy a service, a meal or a dozen eggs.
The equation then becomes $1,000 (assume cash is your only asset) – $400 (assume you only have one liability for your credit card) = $600 (equity) or $1,000 Cash – $400 Liability = $600 Equity.
Now you are paying off the entire credit card balance of $400. This will leave you having $600 in cash. $1,000 (Cash) – $400 (Credit Card Bill) equals having $600 cash, which is equal to your equity. Your accounting equation now looks like:
$600 Cash– $0 Liabilities = $600 Equity. You have zero liabilities since you paid-off your debts, the $400 on a credit card.
The accounting lesson is over. I wish accounting school could have stopped there, because the CPA exam would have been easier, instead of a 20-hour test.
Now, let’s talk about the Salvation Equation. It is derived from the Accounting Equation. But I use it to explain salvation so that other people can understand it. In its most simple form, the asset becomes salvation, the liability becomes unconfessed sin and equity becomes salvation equity. So, the Salvation Equation is: Salvation – Unconfessed Sin = Salvation Equity.
How can I prove this? When you invite Jesus into your life, you have salvation. To become saved, you must admit you are a sinner, believe Jesus in the true Son of God and confess your sins to Jesus. He then enters your Spiritual Heart.
The moment you are saved (accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior), you have salvation, a spiritual asset and 100% Spiritual Equity. But you can’t buy salvation, nor can you be good enough to get into Heaven. No matter how much you give to a church, you cannot buy your way into Heaven. Salvation is a gift from God through Jesus. You can never be good enough to get into Heaven. The only way to get equity in Heaven, is by being saved.
So, at the time you are saved, for that very moment, you have just received Jesus as your Savior and have confessed your sins to him. This means you have no unconfessed sin. So, the Salvation Equation becomes: Salvation, for illustrative purpose, you substitute 100 beside salvation – zero (0) unconfessed sin means you have 100 salvation equity or the following:
100 Salvation – 0 Unconfessed Sins = 100 Salvation Equity.
How does the Salvation Equation work when compared to the Accounting Equation? In the accounting equation you can go “in the red”. This means you have negative equity, or your liabilities are bigger than your asset’s value. But with the Salvation Equation, if you are saved, you can never go to or below zero equity. You will always have equity in your salvation. Also, you can never go “in the red” with your salvation because as your unconfessed sin grows, God’s grace grows even more, and your salvation also grows to cover the unconfessed sin.
Let’s put some numbers to the Salvation Equation. But understand that the numbers assigned are for illustrative purposes only. All sin is equal in the eyes of the Lord.
Let’s say you left church, after being saved, and went to a restaurant for lunch. You got burned by the food and used God’s name in vain (which arbitrarily goes for 40 unconfessed sin value). You, just have an unconfessed sin. If you are not convicted to apologize to God and ask for forgiveness, on-the-spot, the sin remains unconfessed. Now the Salvation Equation looks like:
100 Salvation – 40 Unconfessed Sin = 60 Salvation Equity.
Now, let say you go home, and your girlfriend just found out you were saved and dumped you by text message. Sorry, it could happen. You let a string of cuss words flow like a river of discontent. We will assume that string goes for 60 more unconfessed sins. Your Salvation Equation is now:
100 Salvation – 100 Unconfessed Sin = 0 Salvation Equity. But as I stated above, your salvation grows with God’s grace and your equation is actually:
120 Salvation – 100 Unconfessed Sin = 20 Equity.
You see, if the Salvation Asset of God’s grace does not grow, you would be at zero salvation equity (100 Salvation – 100 (40 + 60 ) unconfessed sins = 0 salvation equity). But I have always been taught, once saved always saved. That means your salvation is more valuable and it covers the shortfall of equity.
That night you are saved, you finally go to bed. You decided that every night you would pray confessing that day’s sins and asking for forgiveness. This is not a bad practice. Think of this as paying-off the day’s sin debt. After praying, and asking for forgiveness for your sins that day, your equation changes. It is:
120 Salvation – Zero Unconfessed sins = 120 Salvation Equity
You die, that night, of a heart attack. No signs that you were sick, it just happened. Some say due to a broken heart. But, as you open your eyes, you are standing in Heaven. You have a personal assistant to get you into line and look-up your name and information.
The Heavenly Being, says, “100% Salvation Equity, Welcome to paradise.”
The guy standing beside you has a Heavenly Being saying, “16% Salvation Equity, Welcome to paradise!”
With as little 1% Salvation Equity, you still have equity in being saved. As I said earlier, once saved, always saved.
But, if you are not saved, you have the following equation:
Zero Salvation – 1,000 unconfessed sins = -1,000 Salvation Equity. And unfortunately, you won’t be admitted into Heaven. Once judged, you will be handed over to Satan and his demons.
I said above, if you are saved, you have equity. If you are not saved, the opposite is true, you have Zero Salvation Equity. You can’t have salvation if you have never accepted the gift of salvation from God, through Jesus.
This scenario is in no way symbolic of the way that Heaven operates. It is just a symbolic way to explain how salvation works. But, as a CPA, I had to reconcile, in my mind, how salvation might operate. Why am I a CPA? I felt it was my calling since high school. And it helped me to explain an equation that without Jesus, we would not be able to have equity in our salvation.
If you are not a believer, but feel the urge to be saved, please pray the following prayer:
“God, I come to you through Jesus. Jesus is my Christ and I hold him to be your Son. I admit that I am a sinner and have committed the following sins: (you fill in the blank).” Confess all the sins you can think of and place them here. Then state, “And God the many sins I have not mentioned, please forgive me of them. Jesus, please come into my life.”
After this, you have just completed a salvation prayer. Your salvation equation is: 100 Salvation – Zero Unconfessed Sins = 100 Salvation Equity.
Maybe someday we will meet in Heaven.