Salvation

[edit]
This is a paper I turned in for Personal Evangelism. I got a C+ and was told I am "at odds with the Apostle Peter and my Lord Jesus, Himself." The professor would be, "hard pressed to be able to recommend for graduation ANY student who would make such claims."

Webster defines salvation as “deliverance from the power and effects of sin.” In Greek, the word for salvation is soteria or sozo. Outside of scripture the word is used to describe deliverance from poor health, or rescue from a perilous state. To escape the fate of being dashed against the rocks whilst experiencing a squall would be salvation. The Vulgate translates soteria with the Latin salus, which has a root meaning of having the quality of health and well-being. In English, the word “salvation” comes from this Latin word salus (Bloesch 49). The Biblical pattern for accepting Christ is simply to accept the mission of Christ and the restoration of relationship between God and man.

In order to understand salvation, one must start with the Old Testament. Salvation is not a term that means “saved from the fires of hell and getting to go to heaven.” Salvation describes belonging to God as part of his people. “Abram believed God, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). God did all of the saving, and he did it by his grace. Abram responded to the call (of God’s grace) by leaving his land (showing an act of faith), but even Abram doubted and sinned. His sin didn’t exclude him from the family of God, though. By God’s grace that relationship had been restored. The security of Abraham was in his being part of God's chosen group.

During the time of Moses the Israelites received the Law. The Law was given not for the purpose of restoring the people to God, because they were already God’s chosen people. The Law was given to the people of God in the context of grace. It was by God’s grace that they were even his people to begin with, and through that relationship God gave them the Law. The Law made the Israelites more aware of their sin, and it demanded certain sacrifices. The purpose of the sacrifices was to point to Christ. They didn’t do anything to bring the Israelites to a point of justification. Rather, the sacrifices of the Old Testament were used to bring healing in the relationship between God and men. In the Old Testament, salvation wasn’t an issue of being saved from sin's punishments (they still experienced punishment) or from hell. Their concept of the afterlife was somewhat vague. The Israelites were much more concerned with living life in the here and now. Salvation has almost always been a matter of restoring a relationship with God. Sin separates people from God, and so it is an obstacle that needs to be dealt with. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Is 59:2). It would not be incorrect to say “Your sins are forgiven during salvation,” but the reason sins are forgiven is so that the relationship with God can be restored. That is the focus of salvation -- restoration of the relationship.

When the Old Testament speaks of “salvation” it generally does so in the sense of divine deliverance that brings peace. Unfortunately, nine out of 10 pastors define the gospel as “the good news that Jesus died for people’s sins so they can go to heaven.” (Cartledge) This reflects a misunderstanding that the church has towards what it means to accept Christ. The focus of Jesus’ ministry had very little to do with getting people to heaven. In fact, Jesus never speaks of salvation at all in Matthew and Mark. The word salvation appears only once in John. Jesus did announce his purpose, though. In Luke 4:16-19 he reads Isaiah 61:1-2, and announces that he has come to bring good news to the poor, to free prisoners, to heal the blind, and to release the oppressed. That was the ministry of Jesus. That is the meaning that needs to be read back into salvation. One of the greatest challenges for the church today is to overcome the deeply rooted association of salvation with hell. Salvation is from sin, not hell.

The church for the most part of the last century has lived with a “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” mentality. This is exactly how things should not be. For years the church has told people the story of Jesus. It has said that children twelve years old are guilty of sin because they had bad thoughts towards their brothers or stole some candy from a classmate. They may not have killed anyone, but people have been taught that all sin is the same in God’s eyes, and all sin demands a punishment. The punishment for sin has been communicated as eternal torment in a lake of fire. The good news is that Jesus lived a sinless life, died a horrible death (that everyone else should have had to die), and was then raised from the dead so that everyone else could experience that resurrection and go to heaven instead of hell. Hell can simply be escaped by praying a prayer or being baptized. This is what Ron Martoia, in his book, Static: Tune Out the “Christian Noise” calls point-of-sale Christianity. It is true that many people have had powerful conversion experiences through point-of-sale encounters with Jesus, but many more have had decisively negative experiences that lead them to be uninterested in Christianity (Martoia 21).

Getting to heaven is not what Jesus, John the Baptist, or the apostle Paul meant when they talked about the good news or when they used the word “salvation.” Direction may indeed determine destination, but the chief concern of Jesus was altering the direction of peoples lives. That is the gospel, and that is accomplished through an active faith in the sacrifice of Jesus. Salvation in the Bible is never portrayed as a possession people receive after being baptized or after reciting a prayer. A Biblical view of salvation is one that sees salvation as being a state of liberation from the foreign power of the devil. Salvation in the Bible is a return from exile, and that idea of salvation is what people need to hear today.

Even in a Roman context the term gospel was used to represent a message telling about victory in war or the birth of new emperors. The Romans understood “good news” about the birth of a new emperor that would be their “savior” from war and suffering, and the early church understood these words in exactly the same way. The gospel for the first Christians was that Jesus Christ was their savior, and not the Roman emperor. The salvation was the same, but the Lord that brought the salvation and the extent of that power were vastly different.

The words heaven and hell don’t connect with people anymore. Salvation isn’t about getting a spot on the bus to heaven. It is about experiencing restoration and peace through a return to a proper relationship with God. Eternity with Jesus is just the logical conclusion to a life spent with him. The peace Christians experience in this life is continued in the next life. True Christianity is not about being miserable in this life for the rewards bestowed in the next life. Christianity is about experiencing eternal life in relationship with Jesus here and now. In the words of Ron Martoia, “Eternity spent doing something you don’t want to do for a short time here on earth isn’t heaven – it’s hell.” (226)

Salvation is a process, because salvation is about a relationship. When Nicodemus approached Jesus in John 3, he said, “We know you come from God… because of the miracles.” Nicodemus encountered Jesus on a relational level. When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus about being born again, he was not telling Nicodemus that he needed to be born again to get into heaven. Rather, he was pointing out that Nicodemus could see what God was doing in this world only because he was already being born of the Spirit. The Spirit gives birth to spirit, and it is through the working of the Spirit that people believe. When Jesus said, “…still you people do not believe” he was talking about the Pharisees, who were unaware of the kingdom being displayed right in front of them through Jesus. Being born of the Spirit leads to entering (and seeing) the kingdom of God now. Nicodemus had seen, and he wanted to grow. Nicodemus was experiencing a process of transformation, and the evidence of that transformation was that he was seeing Jesus’ works for what they really were. Jesus said in Matthew 12:28, “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God had come upon you.”

Jesus was giving Nicodemus instructions to move him along in the process of his faith. The Spirit had moved him to come find Jesus. His eyes had been opened to the miracles that were being done through the power of God. This basic principle is true for all Christians. As the Spirit of God opens eyes, they become aware of God's presence and of his miraculous working. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to see where he was at in his transformation so that he could advance in the process of salvation. John 3 is about seeing the kingdom of God, about having eyes opened, and understanding that the identity of Jesus is the key to seeing the kingdom of God in this world.

The problem is this: Christians for hundreds of years have misunderstood the word “saved” as it is used by Paul. They read 2 Tim 1:9, “God has saved us and called us to a holy life,” with the emphasis on being saved to go to heaven. A holy life is not a strongly suggested supplement to salvation. A holy life is the embodiment of living in the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is mentioned at least 51 times in the gospels, and is mentioned 6 times in the book of Acts. Jesus preached the kingdom of God, not salvation from hell. The message of Jesus was not one of instruction on how to attain an eternal life in heaven. Accepting Christ is not about following a series of bullet points like believe, repent, confess, and be baptized. It is about taking part in God's liberation of mankind from the fallen state that sin creates.

John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” Accepting Jesus is a miraculous process of the Spirit. To accept Christ is to accept the sacrifice of Jesus and the restoration that is brought about by a restored relationship with God. It is not a cut and dry formula anymore than meeting a best friend for life is boiled down into a mass publication manual. It is deeply relational and a highly personal experience. “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

The fundamental element of accepting Christ (and salvation) comes from relating back to Jesus at the cross. It is in the cross that Jesus offered radical liberation from the burden of sin. In an immediate sense, the result of sin and the problem of evil is hunger, misery, oppression, hatred, and injustice. The answer to all of those problems is a kingdom in which Christ is Lord, and men have been redeemed from their sinful lives. That would be salvation, and that can happen now. People desperately need to accept Christ's call to show love in the world, and they are able to find the strength to do that through faith in the mission of Jesus. In the words of Gustavo Gutierrez, “the Christian life is a passover, a transition from sin to grace, from death to life, from injustice to justice, from the subhuman to the human... It is because he introduces us into this communion, into a continuous search for its fullness, that he conquers sin – which is the negation of love – and all its consequences.”(176)

God has called those that “accept Christ” to be healers and liberators in a world full of darkness. Everyone has the personal responsibility to live as “salt and light.” (Matt. 5) According to the book of Hebrews, Christians exist as a new sort of priesthood. The broken relationship between God and man is healed. Theologian Paul Tillich emphasizes that healing is the fundamental meaning behind salvation. In the Old Testament salvation was almost always associated with health and peace. Jeremiah 17:14 states, “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”

Psalm 41:4 says, “O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.” and Is. 58:8a says, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;” There is a definite connection in scripture between the healing of God and the manifestation of God's salvation power. At the same time, sickness is also a result of condemnation and distance from God (Numbers 12:12).

As a priesthood with a restored relationship, it is the duty of Christians to bring liberation and healing to those that do not possess it. Having been freed from the restricting grip of sin everyone that has accepted the call of Christ to deny oneself should therefore work to rescue others from that binding grip. The work of every healer is to break through the love of sickness that entangles the people he wants to save. (Tillich 115) By the power of the cross Christians make themselves available for the Spirit to use them in the expansion of the kingdom.

Amidst the many differing views of what it means to accept Christ, or what it means to truly be saved, it is important to remember something about theological positions. God alone is eternal and everlasting. There is no absolute but God, and theology is forever changing and adjusting itself for different contexts. To accept Christ is to accept wholeness that every human being desperately needs. Accepting Christ means being healed through a restored connection with the divine. Philip Kennedy states a positive truth when he says, “All religions, Christianity included, are secondary, not primary to peoples' lives and well being. Christianity is a human construct. It is one path on which millions follow in search of God, happiness, hope and peace. Its not the only way.”

Service

Service is not something we do with our surplus time or money. It isn't giving up a few extra dollars that we made from overtime, or putting our Christmas money in the offering plate as it goes by. Genuine self sacrificing service is something we should be doing every day of our lives. Someone once said, "Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time."

It should start the moment we wake up, or maybe even, the moment we go to bed. Maybe it starts when we decide that playing one more game or watching one more movie isn't worth the cost it will bring in the morning. Sometimes the wisest thing we can do is tell our friends goodnight and get some sleep. Don't get me wrong. Relationships are important, but like everything, they need balance.

The reason I say that we need to sacrifice when we go to bed is because it makes it so much easier to get up. Don DeWelt would get up at four in the morning and spend at least an hour in prayer every day. For those of you that have done something and followed through with it, you know that there is a benefit to starting off the day by giving up your own 30 minutes of sleep or so in order to pray for others. I think that maybe the reason praying for others is such a great way to start the day, is because it is only in the service of others that we are able to find ourselves.

Throughout the day our minds should continually be falling back to others, and not ourselves. Genuine Christian service is found in humility. Not a false humility, and definitely not a pride. I was talking about service with my small group today about service and we discovered something interesting. The single greatest quality of a great servant was humility. What was the single greatest motivation? Pride.

At some point things have gotten turned upside down. The unfortunate fact of the matter is this: people DO serve out of pride. They keep a tally of Christian service hours. They tell people all about what they did to serve God. In their hearts, in the deep innermost parts, they keep secret pride. Maybe sometimes we're very good at appearing humble. Maybe we don't brag or show off, but deep down inside, we are proud of ourselves. Proud that at least we are serving God. Proud that at least two or maybe even just one person knows what kind of sacrifices we are making.

Pride destroys our capacity to love. Pride is the greatest anti-love we can ever let enter our hearts, and the greatest anti-love is consequently the greatest anti-God. In the service of others we are able to connect with God. Someone once went so far as to say that "The service of man is the ONLY means by which you can serve GOD."

Romans 12:1-3

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

Real humility isn't about ripping ourselves apart. It isn't about destroying our own self esteem so that God can somehow be exalted. Its about forgetting ourselves. You'll know you're doing it right when you've forgotten about yourself completely. When all of your focus is on improving the life of someone else, then you will have found humility. It is then that you will be practicing Christian service.

When we do something good, we're very much aware of it. When I go out of my way to make someones day better, they might never even realize it, but I do. Sometimes I'll think about it for a very long time. I'll think about how awesome it was of me to do that good thing. I'll think about how much better I am then someone else, even though they might have a far more healthy relationship with God. In doing this one thing, I am awesome. That is the wrong idea completely.

From what I see in the Bible, if you're living an authentic Christian life then no one needs to ask you about Christian service. It will be blatantly obvious to everyone around you, but you will be completely oblivious. You'll want to serve others because you care about them and not because you want to get something out of them.

Look at Jesus. According to Hebrews, he was at the right hand of God, in the most exalted of positions, and he came to earth for us. He lowered himself and he willingly submitted to the Father so that we might be exalted.

Philippians 2:5-7

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."

Richard Foster wrote this concerning humility and service:

More than any other single way the grace of humility is worked into our lives through the discipline of service... Nothing disciplines the inordinate desires of the flesh like service, and nothing transforms the desires of the flesh like serving in hiddenness. The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition.

Jesus didn't call us to service just to make the world a better place, although that will happen. Jesus called us to a life of service because in doing so, we are made better people. We need to serve others. It is not because we are spiritually strong or physically capable that we help others. We do serve because we desperately need to. People do not need us to serve them half as much as we need them to let us serve.

Serve in the mundane things. Give yourself to people that will give you nothing at all in return. Someone asks for help with something that seems stupid, but you drop what you're doing and help them. Nobody is too good to perform the lowliest task.

Let yourself be interrupted. It is easier to hear about serving than it is to actually serve. Just about an hour ago a stranger walked into my dorm room and asked if I could help him move. I told him no and encouraged him to keep going down the hall and maybe someone would take him up on the offer. What I didn't tell him was that I was too busy writing a devotional on how to serve.

Can study be a poison?

Here I am. I've found myself opening the Bible and searching through its pages. The goal is not find special knowledge or enlightenment. Rather, I am at a point where I do not know what to do and my only hope is that God, in his power, has written somewhere in these pages an answer to my dilemma. In Bible College I'm surrounded by people that study. They study Greek and Hebrew, Hellenistic Philosophies, New Perspectives on Paul, historical contexts, systematic theology, missiology, eschatology, and a long list of other things. If only we could remember that study is not our chief purpose, and that knowledge is not the most precious of things to obtain.

My fear is that people in ministry may sometimes use Jesus as a tool to form their own identity. Their lives lack transformation, and like a cup that is only clean on the outside, their inner hearts are broken and longing for satisfaction. There is a definite danger in studying without the aid of the Holy Spirit. It can turn someone's heart sour to the true things of God like love, kindness, and faithfulness. It can be a poison that plants the seed of pride deep into our hearts and lets it grow, or it can be an immense blessing that opens our eyes to the active movement of God in our lives.

I keep hearing talk about community and love, but I have no respect for someone that doesn't live by what they teach. Genuine Christian living is not taught. It is caught. If you don't have it then you will be powerless to give it to anyone else. My hope for everyone is that in studying Christ, they would not just know about Christ. It would be much better for them to be like Christ. A well worded quote by John Ortberg or Dietrech Bonhoeffer would be in order here, but instead I'm going to list a few verses from the Bible.

"He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8


"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." Matthew 23:23

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean." Matthew 23:27

"He also told them this parable: 'Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.' Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Luke 6:39-41

"Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.We know that the law is good if one uses it properly."
1 Timothy 1:6-8

Obedience

Jesus has covered our sins through his sacrifice, but that is not the ideal. Yes, we are forgiven, but it is not the sacrifice that God wants from us. He wants us to obey, and he wants us to understand that living right is more important that making up for our sins and shortcomings. Jesus died and we are forgiven, but the intensity of Jesus' death tells us something about sin. There is a cost, and that price has been paid. Despite that, God wants us to live for him. He wants us to love him and obey him, and he doesn't want us to sin. "I don't want you to sin, but because you have the cost has been paid. Now please, don't continue. I've forgiven you, but that doesn't change the fact that there is sin in your life and I want you to stop."

We must be sure not to take advantage of the forgiveness God has given us.

"Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am- it is written about me in the scroll - I have come to do your will, O God.'" Hebrews 10:5-7

For hundreds of years

For hundreds of years priests offered sacrifices in the temple. There were very specific guidelines to what they did, but that was not eternal. We no longer depend on a priest to offer sacrifices for our sins. Rather, our sins have already been covered by the sacrifice made by Jesus. Jesus is our "high priest." In Hebrews 8:5 we find "They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven." Offering animals as sacrifices is just an image for us. Christ, though, that is greater. It is more than the imagery of the temple. Christ has offered and been offered for us, that we might find salvation.

Anchored

The Bible is full of warnings against unfaithfulness. I think sometimes we confuse warnings of unfaithfulness with warning of unbelief. Yes, we believe in God, but do we have faith in him? Do we actually trust him to work things out, even when things seem to be falling apart? What must "God's chosen people" have thought when he brought them out of slavery in Egypt to a dry and desolate desert. "Is this really God's plan? For life to suck? This is stupid. Where is the promised land? Where is the land flowing with milk and honey that we were supposed to get?"

It is interesting that our own personal unfaithfulness is sometimes compared to God's faithfulness. We are able to find strength in remembering that God is faithful, even though we are not. We go our own way, and we burn ourselves and it hurts. Despite that, God is faithful. God is better than we are. He keeps his promises, and there is encouragement to be had in that. Our faith is anchored to God, which is fortunate! If it were anchored to a human being it wouldn't hold us. It would get tossed about and we'd find ourselves forever dissapointed.

"Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."
Hebrews 6:16-19

Christ an example

Jesus is our "high priest." He was born. He lived. He was tempted. He went through life just like we do. He went through times of suffering just like all of us do. He learned obedience and became the source of our salvation. Jesus stands as a mediator between us a God. Just like any priest, he plays the inbetween-man for men and God. Jesus is special, though. He was man, but he was also God. He was a high priest. Of all the high priests, there was none so high as Jesus. He was the only inbetween-man that was fully in contact with God. He was divine, and a part of God. He had elements that no priest has.
We are able to go to Christ, and rather than going to a man that will communicate to God on our behalf, we are able to go right to God. How awesome is that? To have the ability to be in direct communication with God? That is significant.
"Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest..." Hebrews 5:8-10