Salvation

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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.”