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Salvation? (Or Just
Justification?) |
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Are you experiencing salvation? An ongoing witness
of deliverance from the enemy? Can you say, with King David, that the Lord is
restoring your soul, having lifted you out the slimy pit and setting your
feet on a rock? Do you see the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit being
manifested in you as part of a local body of Messiah Jesus?
By definition, every Christian asked would perhaps
answer "yes" to the question of whether or not they had been
"saved" or "born again" or "come to a saving
knowledge of Jesus" (or whatever terminology might be familiar to a
person); and yet, many would have difficulty answering "yes" to
experiencing the Biblical concept of Salvation as expressed by the
questions in the opening paragraph. How is it that people come to believe
that they are experiencing the fullness of Salvation when, in reality,
they have not even been introduced to its Biblical essence. Many
Christians would readily label their experience as Salvation despite
its shortcomings compared to the Biblical reality. At least part of the
reason this occurs may be explained by confusion and intermingling of the
concepts of Justification / Reconciliation, Salvation, Election and Judgment.
Rather than go into detail on these technical terms, I offer a quick summary
of Justification, Reconciliation and Salvation in the table
below -- highlighting their differences -- and invite you to contact the Tzemach
Institute for the first chapter of the Discipleship Manual that covers
these terms more fully (download at http://www.tzemach.org/disc/ch1.htm).
As an example, a person may hear of Jesus' sacrificial
work on the Cross as a covering and become convicted of the sin in his life.
In response, he repents and chooses to live in accordance with God's word.
This event involves Justification accomplished in the work of Jesus on
the Cross and Reconciliation in God reaching out to that individual
through the spoken word of one of his ambassadors followed by the person's
decision to reconcile himself to God. Salvation, from a Biblical
perspective, has not occurred; yet, the individual is likely to hear that he
is "saved" or has been "born again" and may look back on
the day of this event as the day he "came to a saving knowledge of
Jesus". Certainly, he would be considered a Christian. Christian.
Yet when we look at the experience of the first Christians at If
Salvation, from a Biblical perspective, should involve more than Justification
and Reconciliation, it is not clear to many what “getting
saved” actually involves. For one, such phrases tend to support the concept of Salvation
as a static event that happened at some past point in our lives. While this
understanding can faithfully be applied to Justification (Jesus’
death on the cross) and
Reconciliation (God’s outreach and our response), it is
not accurately
applied to Salvation. Salvation may assume Justification and Reconciliation
as prerequisites; however, Paul distinguishes between these realities as well
as the basis for them: “For if while we were enemies we were
RECONCILED to God through the DEATH OF HIS SON, much more, having been reconciled, we SHALL BE
SAVED BY HIS LIFE” (Romans 5.10, emphasis added). In addition to
tying Justification
/ Reconciliation to the death of Jesus while connecting Salvation
to His life, Paul sees Salvation as a future event, not something
completed on the Cross.
If Salvation is NOT the forgiveness of sins; if
it is NOT walking uprightly in proper relationship with Man and God; if it is
NOT “Fire Insurance” that obligates God to accept us into His New
Heavens and Earth on the Day of Judgment because we “accepted Jesus as
Savior” at some point so that we can continue a self-centered existence in
this age without worry of a self-centered existence (Hell) in the age to come
— if it is not these popular Christian misconceptions – what is it?
Dostoevsky describes it as “the beginning of a new story – the story of the gradual
renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from
one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life” (Crime and
Punishment, Epilogue). From
a human perspective, it costs us everything, from God’s perspective, it is a “light burden” that is “rest for your
souls” (Matthew 11.28-30). It is something especially available to Believers
in Messiah Jesus but, in some sense at least, is generally applicable to everyone (1 Timothy 4.10). Finally, it is an unknown, a mystery
beyond the scope of any paper let alone this short article. God challenged
Jeremiah to “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will
tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33.3). As my
Pastor recently mentioned, we are at best, without continual interaction with
Jesus, only vaguely aware of the degree to which our souls are in need of the
His Salvation,
of His restoration from the great chasm into which we have sunken. I hope that some of you reading this are questioning not your eternal destiny but whether your experience, today, as a Christian is the experience of Biblical Salvation; or, is it merely the result of Justification and Reconciliation, lacking the dynamic power and wonder of a life of interaction with the risen Lord Jesus – filled with His Spirit and functioning in a local manifestation of His Body? I want to challenge you to prayerfully consider these ideas as well as those found in Chapter One of the Tzemach Discipleship Manual. The Lord has wonders awaiting those who seek to be filled with His Holy Spirit, to meet Jesus and to begin the journey of Salvation! And I would like to hear from you as well: contact me anytime.
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