Salvation: What God Does, What We Do, Part Two

Getting the Story Right

When we speak of “salvation” in theology, we are talking about a rescue: God’s ultimate rescue plan.  But, it is more than simply “fire insurance,” which means it is more than securing eternal reservations in heaven instead of hell.  God’s redemptive work is initiated by God, as we have already discussed, and by grace we are able to respond, though we were “dead in transgressions and sin,” as the Bible says (Ephesians 2:1-5).  

God speaks “first”, meaning that God takes initiative, and then He gives us the ability to respond.  But the work of God does not stop there.  It is not as if God says, “I demonstrated great mercy to you through Jesus and through the calling of the Holy Spirit, so if you now grasp this salvation you can keep it with you until I see you in heaven.”  

Instead, salvation refers to a much greater kind of rescue.  By accepting the Divine invitation to join God in a relationship, we are then given opportunities to allow this relationship to deepen.  The deepening of this relationship with God becomes a deliverance from former ways of living, thinking, measuring, and choosing that once kept us from fully experiencing the love and peace that God longs to give. 

Some versions of the story of redemption go something like this: God used to have a place for us, we sinned, God became angry and even disgusted with us, in His frustration He sent Jesus to take our punishment, and by saying “yes” to Jesus’ work on our behalf we can hide behind Jesus when God looks at us so that God will not destroy us or wish to destroy us anymore. 

This is a popular version of the story, but it is not the story.

The story of salvation/redemption, according to Scripture,  is more along these lines:

•   God, who is always and has always been completely loving created us as a way to share in that great love,
•  We, given the opportunity by God to choose, chose our own way,
•  God, who is always and has always been completely loving, continued, of course, to love us, and therefore reached out in ways that sought to restore our relationship with God,
•   God, in an ultimate attempt to clearly demonstrate His love for us, sent Jesus – God and God’s love “in the flesh” – to reach out to us with an invitation to restore an intimate relationship,

·         Because of the clarity of love we see and experience in Jesus Christ - His teachings, His life, His death, and His resurrection - we receive the clearest opportunity and message of forgiveness. We are therefore able to most clearly respond to God’s quest to share in a loving relationship with us.

Then What?

Sin involves choosing our own way instead of God's ways.  Removing the barrier of sin and allowing us to continually be led by God’s Spirit and reminded by God’s Spirit of God’s ways, we are transformed.  Also, by confronting the resurrection of Jesus – the ultimate example of God’s defeat of death – the fear of death (the ultimate existential angst, as the philosophers have called it!) is replaced by the experience and peace and freedom in God that allows our lives to be motivated by love instead of fear. 

God certainly “sees us differently” in a sense, because of our surrender to His ways as found in Jesus Christ.  But more than that, God continues to communicate with us; to invite us to become more and more transformed into all that God intended for us to be, despite our past (and present and future) failures and weakness.

 

The Rescued Community

We then become participants in a new community: a community of those who also believe and seek to follow God as seen through Jesus Christ.  This group is nicknamed (first by Jesus in Matthew 16) the “Church.”  The Church is a gathering of people, locally and globally, who are on a journey of rescue or deliverance.  We are consistently experiencing and sharing the good news of rescue with each other (worship) and with those who have not yet had this encounter with God (evangelism/mission).  

It is a deliverance from old, self-centered, fear-based ways toward a way of living that is “rooted and established in love” (Ephesians 3).  Along the way, unique and personal moments of awakening and growth occur (sanctification, which I will address in Part III). But even these personal and unique moments are designed to deepen our fellowship with the Church and to bring us into greater involvement in the overall mission of God (missio Dei) in the world.

Salvation: What God Does, What We Do, part 1

More Than a Moment

What we mean when we say “Christian” makes a difference regarding how we actually live.  If “Christian” refers to a moment when we affirmed a basic belief or said a certain prayer, then how does participation in God’s mission in the world factor into the Christian life?  If Christianity is simply a way to avoid hell and punishment for sins, then what happens between the moment we say “yes” to the offer of Jesus Christ and the moment of death? 

Too often we have emphasize the “moment” when we are first awakened to our need for God’s direction and redemption without looking at the further implications of that moment.  In the Gospels, Jesus calls out to his first followers: “Come, follow me.”  He does not simply say “affirm me”, or even “believe all the right things about me.”  For Jesus, the Christian life – the life of being a Christ follower – is about a journey that begins with a commitment but extends through both the peaks and valleys of life. God does something in response to God's desire to extend the fullness of God's love to us.  We are graciously equipped to do something in response to that call.  It is less like jumping on a train than it is agreeing to participate in a treasure hunt.  It is not just about receiving a "thing."  It is more about entering into a relationship.

What God Says

According to the Bible, God speaks first in the redemptive process.  Even as early as Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve fail to follow God’s ways and seek to take matters into their own hands before lying, hiding, and blaming, God is on the move.  His words, “Adam, where are you?” are not a call to punishment, but a call to fellowship.  God speaks first instead of walking by and leaving them in their shame and disobedience.  While there are indeed consequences to their actions, there is also a redemptive opportunity to set things right between God and humanity.  God’s initiative is an act of grace: that means that it is a gift given to us out of God's sincere love.  John Wesley called this “prevenient grace,” or, grace that comes first.  It is the grace-filled initiative of God.  For Wesleyans, this initiative is always at work, always moving forward, and always seeking another opportunity to fully display the love, forgiveness, and fellowship of God.  Here, then, is a God who seeks out the fellowship of others and will not allow our weakness or even our sinfulness to stand in the way.  Just when we thought we were disqualified, God takes initiative to get us back into the plan!

What We Do

Part of this same prevenient grace involves a God-given ability to say “yes” or “no” to God.  Think of this: we, though “dead in trespasses and sin,” as the Bible puts it, are actually given the opportunity and ability to say “yes” to the call of God to an eternal relationship.  This is a great gift.  Furthermore, as strange as it may sound at first, the ability to say “no” – to resist an all-powerful God – is also a product of God’s grace-filled gift.  The God who seems to have the power to force a “yes”, lovingly grants the freedom to say “no.”  That choice is certainly not recommended, since the peace, love, and joy God can provides are unique in the universe and fill the deepest desires of our lives.  However, the option is there, inviting us into a genuine relationship of true cooperation with God.  Again, because this ability is a gift, an act of grace, we are not the ultimate source of our redemption.  God is.  We do not impress our way to God, or even work our way to God.  Instead, using the very gifts of freedom God himself has opted in love to provide, we can, when confronted by God’s redemptive love, say “yes” and enter into the fullness of a growing and eternal relationship with God our Creator.

How and For How Long?

The duration of salvation emphasized in the New Testament, especially John’s Gospel for example, is "eternal.” Eternal life, which is a life in peaceful fellowship with God, does not begin at death.  Rather, it begins when we say “yes” to follow Jesus Christ and His ways.  Both of these aspects - the person and the ways of Jesus - are crucial.  Jesus Christ provides the redemptive means, the evidence of God’s death-defying love for us; and, following Jesus actually means replacing His way of doing and being with the old ways that only lead to death and sorrow.  

Jesus provides the means, and he promises an eternal life that begins while we are still living here and now, only to continue far beyond even death and into all eternity.  Along the way, the same faith – the same believing that allowed us to first encounter the forgiveness and love of God – allows us to actually be transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus.  We become part of a family of Christ followers – the Church – that seeks to carry out the works of God in the world. We then become greater evidence of God’s initiative in redemption for whoever will subsequently respond to this wonderful call to embrace the grace and love of the God. This is the same God who from the very beginning sought out fellowship with those whom He created.