SALVATION MILESTONES
ILLUSTRATION
A number of people went to the King and said, "Sir, there are many wandering preachers and scholars who indulge in constant dispute, some saying one thing and others saying another. What, Sir, should we believe concerning them?"
The King answered, "Go and find a number of blind men.” ’Very good, sire,’ replied the people, and they did as they were told. When the blind men were assembled the King presented to them an elephant. He said to the blind men, ’Here is an elephant,’ and to one group he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to another a tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail, saying to each group that their part was the elephant.
"When the blind men had felt that part of the elephant, which they were given, the King called each of them forward and said: “Well, blind men, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?”
"Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, ’Sire, an elephant is like a pot.’ And the men who had observed the ear replied, ’An elephant is like a winnowing basket.’ Those who had been presented with a tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was a plough; others said the body was a granary; the foot, a pillar; the back, a mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.
"Then they began to quarrel, shouting, ’Yes it is!’ ’No, it is not!’ ’An elephant is not that!’ ’Yes, it’s like that!’ and so on, till they came to blows over the matter.
The King turned to his people and said: “ And so are these preachers and scholars the same as these blind men. Each holds fast to his personal view and is blind to the rest of reality. In their ignorance of the truth, they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is what they believe but never willing to seek out the truth.”
The people replied: ‘How are we to know the truth?’ The King told them: “You listen to these blind men because it is easier to believe the foolishness of a blind man speaking in confidence than it is to labor in seeking the truth. The truth can only be found by those with a pure heart, a disciplined soul, the strength of character to work and the willingness to see the complete picture.”
SALVATION HAS MANY CHARACTERISTICS
There is some truth and wisdom in the parable of the blind men and the elephant. At times, we can find issues in the church much like this parable. The nature of salvation is an old but still interesting issue and one that was a major problem for the church during the 16th century. From one perspective, salvation is simply God loving us so much that He has given us the opportunity to obtain eternal life. From another perspective, salvation is extremely complex because it entails our life here on earth as well as our hope of eternal life with Jesus. Both the simple and the complex perspectives are accurate parts of salvation but it takes both perspectives to see the full picture of salvation. It is kind of like the parable against dogmatism, which tells of blind men trying to determine what an elephant is like. Each man described the elephant as being like the portion he was touching; and thus, none of them really came to know what an elephant is like. We humans are the same way; we are touching various aspects of salvation, and we focus in on our portion of the elephant: at the expense of the real salvation picture.
Salvation belongs to God and it transcends all human attempts to bound it by a specific event or lock it into a single point in time and space. Yet, through our own mental gymnastics, we have fabricated the belief that there exists some unique salvation event or milestone; and, upon arriving at this milestone, the performance of a prescribed ritual results in the issuing of a ticket to heaven. Probably, many of us have devoted much of our lifetime to a peculiar brand of “Salvation Process,” and all of the time we were missing the rest of the story. We were comfortable with our brand of salvation because we were in control of the process; we could assure people that they had just experienced an event, which marks the point in time and space when they were saved. This salvation milestone provides us with the illusion that we are in control of salvation: we have distilled the mystery of salvation down to our own specific “brand”.
I realize that many of my brethren will view these words as blasphemy, but I urge us all to look to scripture for the truth, and not turn again to our traditions. It is not that I am knocking church traditions. It is just that I remember Jesus teaching about the dangers of letting go of the commands of God and holding on to the traditions of men (Mark 7:7-9). I am under a strong conviction that using only a portion of scripture can be as bad as altering scripture or discarding parts of scripture. That is why we must examine the full picture of salvation. I sincerely believe that we will find salvation to be a tremendously complex tapestry where spiritual and earthly events are interwoven throughout time and across dimensional boundaries. We cannot turn to just a few passages of the Bible and find enough information to accurately explain all the aspects of salvation. Scripture links salvation to over 30 different factors, see table below. How can we be so bold as to believe that we have the spiritual wisdom to sift through scripture and pick out just a few events and claim these to be the process for salvation? Are our inductions and deductions of scripture so powerful that we can write our own salvation message: ignoring the divinely inspired words of God? I may not be all that intelligent, but I do believe that the preponderance of scriptural evidence is sufficient to defend the stand that some of us have been guilty of not teaching the full salvation message.
SALVATION FACTOR BOOK C V SALVATION FACTOR BOOK C V
Baptism 1 Peter 3 21 Hope Romans 8 24
Belief and Baptism Mark 16 16 Jesus 1 Thessalonians 5 9
Believe Luke 8 12 Jesus’ life Romans 5 10
Childbearing 1 Timothy 2 15 Jesus’ blood Romans 5 9
Confess and believe Romans 10 9 Jesus’ Cross Galatians 5 11
Confession Matthew 10 32 Jesus’ Death Hebrews 9 28
Doctrine 1 Timothy 4 16 Jesus’ Name Acts 4 12
Endure Mark 13 13 Lose life Luke 9 24
Faith Romans 3 28 Love of truth 2 Thessalonians 2 10
Faithful Hebrews 10 39 Mercy Titus 3 5
Faithful till death Revelations 2 10 Preaching 1 Corinthians 1 21
God 1 Timothy 4 10 Remove evil ways Romans 13 12
Godly sorrow 2 Corinthians 7 10 Repent & Baptism Acts 2 38
Gospel Romans 1 16 Repentance Acts 3 19
Grace Acts 15 11 Spouse 1 Corinthians 7 16
Faith Ephesians 2 8 Trust 1 Peter 1 9
Holy Spirit 2 Thessalonians 2 3 Work Philippians 2 12-13
Table One: Salvation Factors
SALVATION IS A MYSTERY
The Apostles often referred to the gospel message as a mystery, a secret, and something that was not understood until Jesus brought it to earth. That is why Paul told the Ephesians (6:19): “and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.” The underpinning of this mystery is that salvation is not an event performed at some fixed point in time and space: it is our union with Christ. It is of paramount importance that we come to understand that salvation is not the reward for our performing some ritual; salvation is our spiritual transformation where we become united with God and through His grace we are changed into a new creation: a servant of Christ. In his letter to the Galatians (2:20) Paul said: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Salvation is not a prayer; salvation is not a confession; salvation is not a baptism; salvation is the mystery of a continuing spiritual transformation. Probably the Apostle Peter best sums up this mystery when he wrote (1 Peter 2:2): “Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation.” The mystery we have before us is that salvation is not some one-time experience: it is the life we live as a servant of Jesus.
Salvation is a mystery; and that is why Paul told the Corinthians (1:18): “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” Paul understood this paradox between the simplicity of grace and the complexity of spiritual transformation. Believing Jesus is the savior of the world is simple but allowing this belief to transform you into a servant of Christ is extremely complicated. It is easy to say: “Jesus is my savior;” it is extremely difficult to actually submit to Jesus as the Lord and Master of your life. That is why James (2:18-20) writes: “Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?” James explains the mystery by telling us that knowing Jesus is savior of the world means nothing unless that knowledge allows the power of God to produce a spiritual transformation, which results in our life manifesting the fruit of the spirit.
EVERY ASPECT OF SALVATION IS NECESSARY
Scripture reveals that salvation is a complex tapestry woven from the personality of Christ and from our surrendering our personal will to the will of the one true living God, as He is revealed through Jesus Christ. We need to recognize each and every salvation thread for what it really is, and then lift up each thread’s spiritual significance so that the Christian can see how vital all of the threads are to the salvation tapestry. You cannot throw away any thread and expect the tapestry to retain its integrity. Where is your salvation if: you have no doctrine; you are not repentant; you were never baptized; you have no trust; you are not obedient to the teachings of Jesus; you have no love; or you do not endure? John (14:23) records a very powerful, and all encompassing, statement that Jesus made about salvation: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” We cannot keep the words of Jesus if we are not born again; we cannot continue to keep the words of Jesus if we are not growing up in our salvation. The grace of God is simple! The spiritual transformation of salvation is extremely complex.
Should we not be concerned that many have never been taught the mystery of Salvation; instead, they were led to believe that salvation comes from the performance of some ritual? Of course we should be concerned; for some of us, we need to be repentant! I agree that Martin Luther was right to resist the Catholic salvation process; but he was in error to so doggedly fight against the need for works wrought through salvation. After all, we humans are a lazy lot and all you have to do is suggest that works have nothing to do with salvation and we are ready to embrace any ritual that offers us a salvation-ticket. Then, once we have that “heaven ticket” in our hot little hands, we do not want to hear anything about salvation being a spiritual transformation or about salvation being confirmed by our bearing spiritual fruit. We are totally happy with no one telling us that: “a saved person must grow and mature as a Christian.” We certainly do not want to know about the gospel mystery … especially if it is going to result in our having a responsibility to work. As blind teachers, we only lead people to see that portion of the elephant we are touching.
We fought against “works” so diligently that we actually took pride in doing nothing. How foolish we are! When we open up the mystery of salvation we find that we are being saved for the purpose of doing good works. We don’t do good works because they save us; we do good works because we are being saved. We do good works because we love Jesus and Jesus will reward us for doing good works. Paul explained this to the Corinthians (3:10-15) when he said: “Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.” Think about this for a moment. Even the people who enter heaven smoking like a singed chicken were doing works: not the quality Jesus expects; but they were trying. What is going to happen to all those people who think some preacher gave them a one-way ticket to heaven by praying with them or dunking them under the water or what have you? The mystery of salvation lies in a spiritual transformation, which bears Christian fruit (works); and not in some event marking a point in time and space in which we are saved.
IMPORTANCE OF EACH FACET OF SALVATION
This willingness to look beyond a single event, and to spread salvation throughout the entire Christian walk, does not mean that we have taken anything away from an event that has special meaning to someone. We all know that one of the most difficult aspects of a Christian’s walk is hanging onto the faith of a little child, and believing in the power of God, during those dry spells when the physical manifestations of God have been so few. In times such as these, when the going gets spiritually tough, there is nothing wrong with our being able to look back at the milestones we have passed, and to hang onto the image as an anchor, which reminds us of our walk with God. Milestones such as the repentant’s prayer, confession, baptism, joining a fellowship, becoming a teacher, or being ordained as a servant of Christ all mark a transformation in our lives as Christians, ending an old phase and opening up more spiritual road in front of us. This is a never-ending process, which, if allowed to continue in a Christian’s life, will cause the Christian to grow in faith and service to Jesus Christ. All of the special events and rituals are a wonderful part of being a Christian but we cannot elevate any one to the point where it becomes the guarantee of salvation. Listen to Paul! In his letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:7) he said: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Paul never talked about any ritual providing him with a ticket to heaven; instead, he taught that he was victorious because God’s grace is the source of salvation and God’s continuing grace, toward the repentant believer, is our guarantee of salvation.
CONCLUSION
We sometimes forget that the Holy Spirit brings conviction to the hearts of the lost, not the fancy speech of an evangelist or the persuasive words of a Christian. Yes, it takes a person to bring the gospel message to the lost; but only the Holy Spirit brings soul changing conviction. We can urge a person to pray or to get in the water; but it takes the Holy Spirit to move a person to turn their eyes toward Jesus and personally communicate with Him as the Lord and Master of their life. When this happens that person is no longer in the hands of man. Once the Holy Spirit moves a person to turn to Jesus, the state of that person’s soul is between them and Jesus. Man neither controls salvation nor do we have the power to set up milestones marking a point in time and space when a person is saved.
Teaching the awesome importance of a salvation milestone is easy; teaching the complexity of spiritual transformation is very difficult. Still, our mission is not to save people; our Christian mission is to help one another stay on the narrow path and to push forward to the next milestone. That is why we must balance the Christian’s need for special events with the truth that salvation is neither the parroting of some phraseology, nor is it the performance of a church creed or ritual. Salvation is the result of a deep spiritual conviction that Jesus is the Son of the one true living God; and that we must bow before Him as the Lord and Master of our lives. Salvation is the deep spiritual conviction that we belong to Jesus and must learn to obey Him in every aspect of our lives. Once this truth has taken root in the soul of a person it will become clear to them that the performance of some ritual, or the babbling of some prayer, cannot put you in right standing with the one true God. Salvation is the fact that God loves us enough to save us and He understands us well enough to know that we are prone to making mistakes; thus, His grace continues to cleanse the repentant heart. God does expect; however, that we will remain faithful to Jesus and that we will never stop struggling against sin. Paul taught that as long as we continue to fight the good fight we would get to heaven; how well we fight determines our rewards when we get there.
P.S. Below are just a few additional scriptures, which show just how complex salvation really is.
1. Endure to the end - Matthew10:22 - “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
2. Works verses salvation - 1 Corinthians 3:15 - But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
3. Turned over to Satan – 1 Corinthians 5:5 - hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
4. We get saved on the day of redemption - Ephesians 4:30 - And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.
5. Our salvation should produce fruit - Philippians 1:11- May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ —for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
6. Work out our salvation - Philippians 2:12 - Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
7. Things come with being saved - Hebrews 6:9 - Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.
8. We are faithful unto salvation - Hebrews 10:39 - But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.
9. We get saved on the last day - 1 Peter 1:5 - And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
10. The goal of our faith is salvation – 1 Peter 1:9 - for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
11. We get saved when Jesus comes - 1 Peter 1:13 - So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
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