on salvation

NOTE: This is part 6 in a series -- which I did not intend on "politics and social concern."   

I believe there are 5 great confessional understandings of the Church concerning
1. God
2. Humanity
3. Jesus Christ
4. Salvation and
5. The People of God -- The Church
that will ground, inspire, shape, and commission us. Together, these 5 will provide us with a compelling framework for multiplying God’s Kingdom presence in our world today. While I think any one of the above is reason enough, I think holding all 5 together will compel us to engage our world as an act of worship, gratitude, and love.

This week, I am focusing on our confessional understanding of the full salvation God offers...

Isaiah 5.7: How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Mark 10.24-27: Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals, it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

A few weeks back, Carol and I took the Alcatraz tour and became reacquainted with some of the infamous residents who lived on "The Rock." Mickey Cohen was a notorious Jewish crime boss who ran with the likes of Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Seigel. While he was a "resident" there, it is said that he had spiritual conversations with the prison chaplain and later, upon his release, with Billy Graham. He appeared to indicate that he made a commitment to Jesus but never left his career in organized crime. When confronted about his chosen "career path," Cohen allegedly responded: "Christian football players, Christian cowboys, Christian politicians; why not a Christian gangster?" Why not, indeed?!

We live in a time when "pop Christianity" trivializes the nature of salvation as nothing more than a moral reality check, the forgiveness of our sins, a personal fast pass to heaven, a get-out-of-hell free card, or a private spiritual experience without social or moral consequences. It is urgent that we "save" salvation from these caricatures and re(dis)cover the doctrine in its biblical fullness. The challenge is that "pop Christianity" separates and then discards truths that Scripture holds together. The result is an understanding of salvation that is individualistic, shallow, and lacking the capacity to transform lives and communities.

Let me suggest 4 “truths” that we must continue to hold together with salvation if we are to embrace a fuller understanding of salvation.

We must not separate salvation from conversion. Christians have historically confessed that salvation is a radical, comprehensive, and transformative conversion of a person in three movements. It has a "beginning" when we surrender to Christ's call, a "middle" as we continue being saved amidst daily rhythms of conviction and surrender, and an "end" when our salvation is brought to perfection when Christ returns. C. S. Lewis observed:

"For mere improvement is no redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons, not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.. If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man's outward actions – if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before – then I think we must suspect that his 'conversion' was largely imaginary... Fine feelings, new insights, and greater interest in 'religion' mean nothing unless they make our actual behavior better; just as in an illness, 'feeling better' is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up. (Mere Christianity, pp. 215, 207)

Second, we must not separate salvation from the Kingdom of God. In the Bible, these two are virtually synonymous, alternative representations that describe the same work of God. According to Isaiah 52.7, those who preach the good news of peace are also those who proclaim salvation and say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" ' That is, where God reigns, God saves. Salvation is the blessing of his rule. Again, when Jesus said to his disciples, 'How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God,' it seems natural for them to respond with the question, 'who then can be saved?' (Mark 10.24-26). They evidently equated entering the Kingdom with being saved.

Once this identification has been made, salvation takes on a broader aspect. For the Kingdom of God is God's dynamic rule, breaking into human history through Jesus, confronting, combating and overcoming evil, spreading the wholeness of personal and communal well-being, taking possession of his people in total blessing and total demand. The church is meant to be the Kingdom community, a model of what the human community looks like when it comes under the rule of God, and a challenging alternative to secular society. Entering God's Kingdom is entering the new age, long promised in the Old Testament, which is also the beginning of God's new creation. Now, we look forward to the consummation of the Kingdom when our bodies, our society and our universe will all be renewed, and sin, pain, futility, disease, and death will all be eradicated. Salvation is a big concept; we have no liberty to reduce it.

Thirdly, we must not separate salvation in Jesus the Savior from Jesus the Lord. It is a little short of incredible that some Christians erroneously teach the possibility of accepting Jesus the Saviour while postponing a surrender to him as Lord-- even though God has exalted Jesus to his right hand and made him Lord. From that position of supreme power and executive authority, He is able to bestow salvation and the gift of the Spirit precisely because He is the Lord who has the power to save.

The affirmations 'Jesus is Lord' and 'Jesus is Saviour' are almost interchangeable. His lordship extends far beyond the religious or spiritual part of our lives. It embraces the whole of our experience, public and private, home and work, church service and civic duty, missional and social responsibilities. As A.W. Tozer famously declared: "Either He is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all." Salvation is as comprehensive as it is holistic. We must be careful not to fragment it -- as if it could be -- by giving the false impression that there are, for pragmatic reasons, people, places, or "spaces" that are exempt from His Lordship. The salvation Jesus offers can be refused but it will not be reshaped by a world that wants to coopt Jesus to satisfy its will to power.

Finally, we must not separate salvation by faith from our obligation to love our neighbor. Salvation is something we receive by faith, and it is something the faithful bring. While salvation is a gift of grace alone to be received by faith alone, salvation does not remain alone. The same salvation that transforms lives personally is expressed through the saving expressions of love -- service, sacrifice, generosity, and compassion -- that manifest God's saving presence. If it is living and authentic, it will inevitably issue in good works; if it does not, then it is fraudulent and those claiming to be saved may, in fact, be deluded.

Jesus himself taught this in his 'sheep and goats' description of Judgment Day. Our attitude to him, he said, will be revealed in, and so judged by, our good works of love to the least of his brothers and sisters (Matthew 25.31-46). The apostles all lay the same emphasis on the necessity of good works of love. We all know that James taught it:

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith. (James 2.14-18)

So does John:

14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. 16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? (1 John 3.14-17).

And so does Paul.

He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2.14)

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them. (Ephesians 2.10)

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love... For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love, become enslaved to one another. (Galatians 5.6, 13)

"If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13.2).

The salvation that redeems belongs together with the love that serves. Whenever one is absent, so is the other. Neither can exist in isolation. Those who authentically experience salvation—the saving hand of God in their lives—bring the truth and depth of that salvation through acts of love with no hope of reciprocity.

I will close with this... A salvation incarcerated in the closets of personal piety or in the binary self-assessment of "saved" or "unsaved" will be prone to separating salvation from the great truths accompanying it. This kind of salvation does not expect transformation, makes no demand, and promises no hope to the world. Such salvation is an exercise in cognitive dissonance-- embracing a truth that we consider important yet remains functionally irrelevant to daily living. This is why we must not separate salvation from conversion, the Kingdom of God, the Lordship of Christ, or the command to love. Dear ones, salvation is so much more than the forgiveness of sins and the promise of a forever life in God's presence-- although it is nothing less than that.

The gift and the anticipation for this comprehensive salvation are captured by C.S. Lewis, in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, when the Beavers of Narnia sing:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

Thanks to Jesus, we are living in the springtime of His Kingdom ...

Next week, we will look at our confessional understanding of the Church.