SALVATION – A RELATIONSHIP
INTRODUCTION
If a person is uncomfortable with the idea that there is no special event or ritual that marks the time and place of their salvation, then they certainly have a great deal of company. In fact, almost all existing denominations and Christian religious organizations share in the belief that we can tie salvation to some event. Thus, if you are one of the few who do not believe in a “this saved you event” you are standing quite alone. Yet, you cannot betray your understanding of scripture. Yes, it would be nice to join in with those who declare that the sinner’s prayer, believing, confession, baptism, or some other ritual results in a person being issued a ticket to heaven; but, perhaps this is not the right thing for you to do. Certainly we take no pride in being alone in our opinion; and to be honest, it is kind of scary. How can we be right and all these great religious scholars be wrong? So you see, if you do feel uncomfortable reading this, I hope you can appreciate how uncomfortable it is to write in opposition to the “this event saved you” doctrine.
COMPLEXITY OF SALVATION
To start with, I cannot find any scripture that clearly tells us “do this and you will be saved;” let alone tells us: “do this and you will be saved forever.” Jesus and the apostles never taught that we can base our salvation on one event or even a series of events. It boggles my mind that a well-trained man of God can be convinced that only believing saves you or baptism saves you or whatever event will save you. I have studied the same scriptures they quote, but I certainly do not see the message: “this thing saves you the instant you perform the ritual and now you’ve got a ticket to heaven.” When I holistically read what Jesus and the Apostles said, I clearly see we have the hope of salvation because of the cross. I also clearly see that we are part of a great spiritual war: we are in a great race for our eternity. In this I am not frightened; Jesus promised He will always be with us and He will never desert us; He will never let go of us, even in the midst of our many trials and tribulations. Jesus also promised that, if we remain faithful to the end, we will see our hope of salvation come to fruition. So you see, our salvation is a relationship with Jesus and it is not a ticket to heaven issued at some salvation ritual.
If we are honest; if we look at the complete picture; if we listen to the rest of the story; we will clearly see that we are saved; we are being saved; and we will be saved.
1. Salvation Past – For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.(Ephesians 2:8-10)
2. Salvation Present – Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1) For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
3. Salvation Future - Are (angels) not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14) Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.(Romans 5:9-10) Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13) In the day of the Lord, our service to Christ will be judged. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:15)
The above scriptures are just a few of those that declare we have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved. Our salvation is a free gift from God; it is not a single event or a prescribed series of events; it is a life-long (past-present-future) relationship with Jesus Christ.
SCRIPTURE BEYOND OUR DOCTRINE AND TRADITIONS
I realize that many people have placed their faith in the traditions of their fathers or in the hands of some TV preacher; for them to even question what they have been taught is to take them out of their comfort zone. I wish I did not bring discomfort. To be truthful, I find the New Testament to be a constant source of challenge … it is constantly taking me out of my comfort zone. Perhaps that is why I am suggesting we lay aside our rose-colored glasses and take an honest look at all of scripture. If a person honestly embraces all of scripture, it is impossible to declare, with absolute certainty, that a single salvation ritual, or a process of rituals, will save you.
Just for a moment, clear your mind of family traditions and the doctrines of scholars. Consider: are we not acting like magicians when we practice some rite that is supposed to result in a person being issued a ticket to heaven? By what mystical force do we conjure up the great “salvation ticket?” I, for one, am not so bold as to stand before God and declare: “it is at this ritual, or this process, that you will enact salvation!” Scripture lists many things as part of the salvation tapestry and I am fearful of usurping the authority of God in declaring that there is only one event that gives assurance of salvation. After all, who determines when a person is saved: me or God?
Who among us completely knows the mind of God, or can look into the soul of another person? By what power, or with what authority, can you pass judgment on the soul of another: to declare them dead in their sins or saved by the blood of Jesus? Stop and think about this for a moment.
We see nature and the handiwork of God speaks to our spirit
We hear the word and the word speaks to our spirit
We are moved to seek the truth
We can suppress our feelings or we can embrace them
• A Milestone – We can react to our spiritual urging or we can quench the spirit and turn away from God. This milestone will occur at many places in a human’s walk with the Lord.
If we listen to our spirit we will seek to learn more about God’s will
We personally reach out to God … we pray and ask for knowledge
• A Milestone – We believe: we may not understand but we do believe there is a God. This is just our introduction into believing. The quality of our journey with Jesus will depend on our capability to believe. We will be given many opportunities to believe and to act on our belief.
We continue in the word and we continue searching and we continue listening to our spirit and our belief grows
At some point we will receive the faith to expand our belief by acting on that belief
• A Milestone – We receive faith: only God can give a person the faith they need to let go of the world and put their trust in something they cannot see. This faith only comes to those who really want it and who are willing to ask God.
We reach the point where we truly know Jesus and we recognize our own sinful state
We feel guilt and remorse … we seek God’s forgiveness
We desire to turn our life around; both spiritually and physically
• A Milestone – We repent and we ask God to help us change
We honestly accept Jesus as the Lord and Master of our lives
• A Milestone – We publically confess Jesus to be our Lord and Savior
As we continue to learn about Jesus He becomes our hero … our ideal
We want to obey Jesus and follow all of His instructions
• A Milestone – We are baptized because we understand why Jesus commanded us to do so
We continue to study and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit
We honestly come to understand what it means to die to our self-interests
We truly reject self and turn our life over to Jesus. This cannot be done in our mind; it must be an action, which originates in our heart and our spirit.
• A Milestone – We have died! We have lost our life that we might gain eternity.
We come to fully understand what it means to be a new creation
• A Milestone – We are Born Again. We truly understand that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation and that we are ambassadors for Christ
We now serve Jesus in Gold, Silver, and Precious Stone or in Wood, Hay and Stubble.
• If we build in Gold, Silver & Precious Stone we:
i. honestly seek out our own personal ministry
ii. continue to fight sin in our lives
iii. continue to study the word of God
iv. continue to rely on the Holy Spirit as our guide and teacher
v. continue to fellowship with other Christians
vi. continue to work to be a better Christian
vii. continue our ministry
Please understand, I am not trying to build a new Roman Road to Salvation nor am I attempting to establish a sequence of things a person needs to do to be saved. I will admit that it is tempting to try and turn the above list of things into a salvation sequence; but that would be wrong. In this list, I am simply saying that we will experience such things in our journey with Jesus. It is important for us to realize that these events and these milestones cannot be controlled or conjured up by man. What part can you throw away or what part can you elevate above the rest? How can you tell someone they are saved if they are not in possession of all these things? How can anyone apply all this to their life without the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life? If you get baptized because the preacher said it is time … it means nothing. When you reach that point where your spirit craves public identification with the death and resurrection of Jesus, there will be nothing in the world that could keep you out of the water. Look at it this way; the things listed above are physical manifestation of your spiritual desires and they are interrelated: it takes all of them to define your walk with Jesus: to define salvation.
Our journey with Jesus is not a physical journey it is spiritual … our spirit grows and changes … not our body. Thus, at each milestone we take on a new spiritual resolve. I repented when I first recognized my sinful nature. Now I repent every day! Does this mean that every day I get saved all over again? Of course not! I died to myself and took Jesus as my Lord and master. Now I must kill self-interest every day, and every day I must actively submit to the authority of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Master. Every day I struggle to reject the world and to embrace the things above so that sin may not reign in my mortal body causing me to obey its evil passions. (Romans 6:12) I was saved the day I turned to Jesus; I am being saved as I work out my salvation with fear and trembling; I will be saved when I enter paradise with Jesus or I am raptured.
BELIEVING BEYOND THE RITUAL
I would like to propose our considering the fact that our only source of instruction comes from the Holy Bible; and then, it is only of great value when we consume all that it has to say. If we make the assumption that our grandpa was right in his traditions or that the preacher is right in his doctrine, we have placed our faith in the mind of man. Jesus said: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6-8) Therefore I encourage us to stop putting our trust in just a few salvation scriptures and turn to the entire salvation message. Let us leave our elementary doctrine about salvation events and go on to maturity; a maturity that rests in the full holistic message about our salvation relationship with Christ. (Hebrews 6:1-2) Allow me to bring to remembrance the parable of the talents (a talent was a large amount of silver). In the parable, the master gave one servant five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. The servants who had been given 5 talents and 2 talents both doubled the money by the time their master returned. The servant who had been given the one talent simply hid it and upon his master’s return gave it back to him. The two faithful servants were rewarded but the slothful servant was cast into the outer darkness. A place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:14-30) In the same way, we have all been given the New Testament, which Jesus expects us to put to good use. We all have some level of capability for putting the New Testament to use. Our telling people that they have been saved by some salvation ritual, and now they have a ticket to heaven, is like hiding the New Testament in the ground. What can we expect to receive when we stand before Jesus in the final judgment.
I realize that it is extremely difficult to look at our salvation ticket and accept the fact that it is based on only part of the story. The truth is, our salvation ticket is worthless; it is truly like a talent buried in the ground; it cannot support a relationship with Jesus. In Jesus’ parable about the sower, there are those who BELIEVED for a while, but in time of testing fell away. What happened to their: I believed or I confessed or I was baptized salvation ticket? Then there are those who believed but were choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. We are talking about people who were in the process of producing fruit. Think about it. Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it cannot produce fruit. These are people who went through all of the rituals; what happened to their salvation assurance? In the parable of the sower I believe Jesus is telling us that salvation is all about the relationship existing between the word of God and humans. This is not a relationship, which leads to salvation; this is a relationship of salvation, which leads toward the goal of serving Jesus in Gold, Silver and Precious Stone. Thus, salvation is not wrapped up in some event; salvation is our relationship with Jesus; past, present, and future: as long as we do not give up.
In my humble opinion, a person who places their faith in the performance of a salvation ritual has really placed their faith in the person leading them to that ritual. The person who places their faith in a relationship with Jesus Christ has placed their faith in the author and sustainer of salvation.
