I've often wrestled with what we believe as Christians & how it effects our lives. One of the areas I've had particular interest in is: Salvation. What does it mean to be saved? How is a person saved? WHY does a person want to be saved? How does someone live out their salvation?
As I've explored this subject in the NT & other books I've realized Jesus' main mission wasn't to impart salvation (at least not the way we realize it), but his mission was to impart: life. No doubt we all agree, salvation is important; however, it is the result of being "born again," into a new life. He came to give "life & life unto the full." Thankfully, salvation is a part of the package.
Yesterday I visited a wonderful church. At the end of the sermon, "with all heads bowed & every eye closed," the pastor faithfully asked those in attendance, "who wants to receive the forgiveness of the cross?" I was grateful several people accepted the invitation. My question is: An invitation to what?
Within western theology salvation generally means accepting the mechanism of Jesus' death upon the cross & little else. Like a light-switch that is in the down position, my acceptance of what He's done flips the lever to the forgiven side & it's a done deal. However, is this faithful to the biblical example of what it means to be saved? No where does Jesus use such formulas; & what we've adopted as Paul's formula (Romans 10:9) isn't the silver salvation bullet we all imagine. The explicit implicit theology of Lordship is the overarching theme of this verse, not: "Just say these words in this order friend & you'll be saved." I don't assume Paul ever intended this line to be THE salvation mantra.
Too, what is Jesus continual invitation to this new life within the Gospels? Surely Jesus had one? I'm always perplexed by Jesus turning people away who seem to be interested. Why does He do this? Maybe they wanted to reduce Him to a mechanism of their salvation; instead of accepting who He is: the Living Lord of the Universe who wanted to give them transformational Life.
Jesus wants to forgive our sins is much less an abrasive thought than Jesus wants to give us a new life. Why? Because by giving me a new life He's saying there is something wrong with my old life; the way I live, my systems, my values, my loves & He's going to rearrange them to suit & reflect Him.
The mechanism of what Jesus did on the cross is amazing. However, the new life He wants to give us is so much more. New life; a life; real life; the life; Life to the fullest; Jesus' life lived out in me & through me.
The coolest thing ever.
Dallas Williard puts it so well: "So the replacement of salvation (new life in Christ) for one of its effects or components (the forgiveness of sins) has dominated both the monastic system of Christianity & the reaction against it (monasticism) in which we still live today."
7 comments:
I'll add to that a little push in another direction...
If we exegete Romans 10:9-10 a little bit more fully we will see that it comes in the context of Paul's distress over the state of his Jewish brothers and sisters...
What does that mean to you?
I've never really checked that out. Did you see that yourself or did you read it in a commentary?
OK. here is Dan again bringing in another persepctive....
I totally agree with you..... but I have been observing and thinking about this for a long time. And recently I was at a private NT Wright event where he made the comment that so often we now reject the very reductionist and simplistic form of accepting/trusting in Christ through a prayer that WE came to faith in. We now see later how overly simplistic and focused it was on sin-forgiveness. But it is the very way almost all of us came to faith in Jesus and now we reject or even mock that very format. NT Wright said something like maybe we need not underestimate how God does (and still does) use that in the initial prayer or entry into belief. Make sense? I didn't do prayers like that for a couple of years, but now we actually do again. Anyway, thanks again for your thinking and hope you don't mind my interludes here.
I think what is critical, is what happens AFTER the prayer in the life of the person and church. I think that was our mistake of the past. So as we learn from mistakes, we now can try and change that.
OOPS! The comments on this post were meant to be for the previous blog entry you posted! About praying the prayer for salvation etc.
Hey Dan, thanks for your thoughts. This is a wonderfully difficult subject & has such wide reaching implications that reach into almost everything we do. I would assume this is the central question we are all wrestling with: How does a person find life? Then we live our lives, steer our communities, etc along those lines to help people find Jesus.
I love how you came to Christ (man in the mall) because I can't imagine you doing that yourself; yet that's how your walk started. It is interesting to me how many people came to faith by ways I find odd.
No doubt people can come to Christ through a prayer; yet to reduce it to a formula isn't correct either. I think/know we agree here. Great book: Conversion in the New Testament: Paul & the Twelve. For us how Paul got saved is THE normative way. Yet didn't preacher Jesus have an invitation for life as well? He did. I don't think we resonate with His methods for various reasons I'd love to discuss. One being the very systems we've created & call "church" aren't set up for discipleship.
Too, culturally speaking, we are one of the most reductionaistic consumer oriented cultures on the face of the earth. I love looking at advertising...Target: "Expect more, pay less." We're bombarded by all of this; everywhere. This has to have theological ramifications. "What's the bottom line for Jesus to serve MY need to escape Hell?"
Along these lines I'm also intrigued by the idea that we've created systems of church that cater to the very people who Jesus turned away or were turned away by Jesus. I assume this had to do with invitations into life. How does this play a part in our cultures rejection of "Christianity?" How many people do you know who are "refreshed," because you're "a real" believer.
Jesus never said "convert," but he has much to day about discipleship. I agree, this is the issue, since people accept Jesus' invitation with or without us & our ideas!
Please comment as much as you'd like. I've always appreciated your perspective, heart, & the outworking of them both in SC.
We should hang sometime.
Hey Sean!
We have only met one time, and I am not sure if you would remember me but just to refresh your memory I am Cheryl Adams' husband. How are you?
I know this is an older post of yours but I wanted to share a thought about the call to salvation and modern thoughts on a proper system for this extraordinary event that has shaped all of our lives. I very much agree that the idea that saying a prayer as the proper mechanism to which salvation is obtained is extremely detrimental to the church. In my life I have encountered countless people who have 'said a prayer' and now believe that they have a spot in Heaven reserved for them. However the vast majority of these people do not exhibit what the Bible defines as 'Christ like' behavior in 1 John 3:9-10, "9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God...".
So in light of this I would say that the sinners prayer is an incredibly dangerous development in evangelism because we have a terrifyingly large number of people who believe they are saved, but are definitely not saved, and do not want to hear about how they are not saved because they "Believe in Jesus". I find that Peter says it very well in 1 Peter 1:8-9 "8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls." It is through faith that we obtain the salvation of our souls.
I do not want to keep rambling on about the meaning of faith, that is a conversation for another time,but I will end with Jesus' words from John 15:10 "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." To me that sounds like a formula for life! Thanks for letting me contribute to your guys' excellent and very important discussion!
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