S is for Salvation

Salvation Is about more than Personal Salvation

The Hebrew song, Dayenu, which I sang with the children, outlines, in an understandable way, God's many saving acts. And with each saving act, the people's response is one of delight and gratitude. Had God only delivered us from the Egyptians, that would have been enough! Praise God! Had God only delivered us through the Red Sea, that would have been enough! But God did more! Had God given us the Promised Land, and left us there, never to bother with us again, that would have been more than enough — and we would have been eternally grateful — but God did much, much more. And so the song continues, a song of praise and wonder that God's saving acts never stop!

I feel the same way about my journey of salvation. If I had only been saved at the age of seven, that would have been enough. If I had only been saved at the age of twelve, I would have no cause to complain. But God did more! God visited me again at the age of twenty-one, and God has never stopped teaching me about the multi-faceted wonder of divine salvation.

My early experiences left me with a deep sense that salvation is personal, and as my understanding of salvation developed in personal terms, it also broadened in other ways. I began to understand that salvation is also social. As I read the Bible, the Old Testament prophets taught me that we need to be saved from things that are bigger than personal crises. Salvation also has to do with relationships, as was poignantly pointed out here last Tuesday when Graham Snyder related the story of forgiveness that he and his family extended to the hockey player charged with their son's death. Salvation has to do with relationships, and families, and communities, and society and its structures and systems. Graham Snyder related how the justice system left no room for the forgiveness his family wished to extend; its practitioners simply could not think along those lines. It was like a foreign language to them!

If the Old Testament prophets' notion of salvation is a broad and encompassing one, the New Testament epistles taught me that salvation has to do with mending the rifts in the whole human race. The New Testament is especially concerned with the enmity between Jews and Gentiles, and it asserts that Christ came to break down the walls of hostility that divide communities. (Ephesians 2:14) The New Testament asserts that there "is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of (us) are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)

Salvation Is about Being Saved from Sin

On my journey I also learned that the biblical notion of salvation takes sin seriously, and not just personal sin or sins, but all sin. The New Testament urges us to put on the "helmet of salvation". (Ephesians 6:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8) So does Isaiah. (Isaiah 59:17) Why does one need a helmet? Why do we wear helmets when riding bicycles? Because something bad could happen to us; we could suffer a head injury. Likewise salvation is more than a vague spiritual experience. We are saved from things that could hurt us, things that could injure our relationships, things that could damage our communities. Isaiah expresses it well: "...we walk in gloom. We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes; we stumble.... We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ...Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; ...truth stumbles in the public square...." (Isaiah 59:9-10, 14)

Salvation, if it is to have any meaning, has to have some content. Although today the word, "salvation," is largely a religious term, it was not so in biblical times. It was, interestingly enough, a military term and referred to victory over evil, or rescue from some dangerous threat. As the biblical authors coopted the word for their own purposes, it came to mean salvation from disease, from natural disaster, from war, and from oppression. The Old Testament story of the liberation of Israel from slavery and oppression in Egypt is the mother of all salvation stories. It is the template for all experiences of salvation that follow, be they liberation from exterior or interior threats.

Salvation Can Be Understood in more than one Way

I also learned, with time, that there is more than one way to understand salvation. When I was first saved, I understood that my salvation lay in the fact that Jesus died for my sins. To use a hockey analogy, if one breaks one of hockey's many rules, one incurs a penalty. And if, for example, a goalie breaks a rule and gets a penalty, one of the other players on his team serves the penalty for him, even though that player didn't break any rule. He will satisfy the penalty in the goalie's place. Likewise Jesus took the penalty for our sins. As the New Testament says, "For our sake (God) made (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21) This is known as the satisfaction view of salvation, a view that came to prominence in the eleventh century. (April Yamasaki, "How we see salvation: What difference does it make?" Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology, Spring 2006, Vol.7, No. 1)

I learned, in time, that there are other views of salvation. There is, for example, the classic or dramatic view, an older view that holds that salvation is a drama, a struggle, a conflict that ends in victory. This view was prominent in the early history of the church, between the second and sixth centuries, and it suggests that you and I are in a struggle with the forces of sin and evil and that God sent Jesus to enter our struggle. Jesus' own life was a struggle, and when he was put to death on the cross, it looked as if he had lost the struggle. Three days later, however, God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus was named the victor over sin and death. "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," announces the New Testament! (1 Corinthians 15:57) The strife is o'er, the battle won!

Another view of salvation, dating from the twelfth century, is called the moral influence view, which holds that Jesus came into the world to show us God's love and to demonstrate how God wants us to live. This could also be called the inspirational view of salvation, for it holds that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is so inspiring that it awakens a similar response in us. It has a moral influence on us, inspiring us to repent and change the way we live. The New Testament tells us, "We know love by this, that (Jesus) laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another." (1 John 3:16) This view shows us that salvation is not just having our sins forgiven; it's also living a new life.

One could list other views of salvation — some scholars list as many as ten different views. They are all serious attempts to grapple with this major biblical concept. They all draw on Scripture, and each one reveals some truth about this great biblical theme and how Jesus — in his life, death, and resurrection — inspires us, forgives us, and empowers us to live Christlike lives.

Salvation Can Be Experienced in more than one Way

If I learned, in time, that salvation can be understood in more than one way, I also learned that salvation can be experienced in more than one way. I do not have as much cross-cultural experience as many of you, although during my early childhood my immediate community had no less than seven ethnic strains. I learned, with reading, that the good news of Christian salvation is understood differently, in different contexts. A Western person, for example, may experience Christian salvation as release from guilt. An African person may experience salvation as release from fears and from forces that have power over one. An Oriental person may experience salvation as release from alienation and loneliness. (examples cited by David W. Augsburger, Communicating Good News)

I admit that those are rather rough brush strokes, but they explain why there is much discussion in cross-cultural mission about contextualization. New Testament discussions of salvation are context specific and perhaps this is why the New Testament uses such a wealth of words and metaphors to represent salvation, words like "ransom" (1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Corinthians 7:23), "justification" (Romans 10:10; 1 Corinthians 6:11), "sacrifice" and "reconciliation" (Romans 5:6-11), "defeat of the powers" or "liberation" (1 Corinthians 15:23-25), and others — whatever words are needed to convey the idea that God saves us from our deepest fears and wounds and for our highest and noblest aspirations.

Salvation Is about Infinitely more than We Can Imagine

In fact, the biblical notion of salvation is about infinitely more than we can imagine! It is intensely personal but it is not circumscribed by personal needs; it is social by nature of its reconciling power, and its scope is universal and cosmic! Its universality can be seen, not only in its appeal to other cultures, but also in its healing nature. Even the healing of creation is on salvation's agenda, for the New Testament declares that creation itself "waits with eager longing (to) be set free from its bondage to decay.... ...the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains.... For in hope we were saved. ...we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Romans 8:19, 21-22, 24-25)

The New Testament urges us not to limit salvation's scope. "I pray," writes the Apostle Paul, "that you may have the power to comprehend ...(love's) breadth and length and height and depth," for the One who is "at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine...." (Ephesians 3:18-20)

Although I learned early that salvation is personal, I grew to learn that salvation is not so much about me as it is about God. Salvation is not so much about our faith as it is about God's faithfulness. Salvation is not so much about my inadequacy as it is about the adequacy and the beauty of God's redemptive plan. When Nicodemus approached Jesus and enquired about salvation, Jesus held before him the allure of salvation, saying, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son... God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved...." (John 3:16-17) Similarly, our reading from 1 Thessalonians states, "God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...." (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

Tom Yoder Neufeld, a professor at Conrad Grebel and a friend of mine, writes that "we must find vocabulary for salvation that expresses restoration, creation, enlivening, and empowerment." The focus of biblical salvation "moves from what we are saved from (bondage, oppression, sin, death) to what we are saved for...." ("Are you saved? Paul and salvation," Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology, Spring 2006, Vol.7, No. 1) That is, the focus is on the redemptive fact that we are a "new creation" (Galatians 6:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17); we were saved for good works (Ephesians 2:10), for living lives of love and peace and justice. Tom says that "nothing brings this restorative dimension of salvation into clearer focus than Easter." The resurrection of the crucified one signals that God is acting to mend the world!

Salvation Has Personal and Congregational Implications

If the biblical writers were to appear among us today, they "would be puzzled by how little we settle for and how little we expect of ourselves as the beneficiaries of salvation." (Yoder Neufeld) The word, "salvation," is a good biblical word, not only for a baffled and beleaguered generation, but for a generation of Christians that have grown soft and less demanding of each other. Salvation may be a good childhood keepsake, something to hold on to in case of a spiritual emergency, but which appears to have very few implications for our lives — few implications for our direction in life, for our choice of careers; few implications for the use of our leisure time, or for the use of our resources; few implications for how we relate to others; few implications for our marriages, and our family life; few implications for how we do business or how we conduct ourselves, professionally, sexually, or in any other way.

My own journey of salvation has taken me from an experience of personal salvation to the humble realization that God's plan of salvation is much broader than my experience. Many of us have no doubt grown tired of the trivialization of salvation, as portrayed in what amount to infomercials, and we may have forgotten the grandeur and breathtaking scope of salvation. The New Testament appeals to us, however, to recover its wonder and transforming power. It appeals to us to form ‘communities of salvation,' where Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, slave and free, commit themselves to pray together, to work together, to confess Jesus as Saviour and Lord together, and to "imitate (our) crucified and risen Lord in living humbly and courageously the way of suffering love in a broken world...." (Yoder Neufeld) My own journey of salvation has taken me from an experience of personal salvation to a broader view, but then back again to the realization that it always has personal implications for me.

A young man who couldn't keep his mouth shut about salvation, his self-absorbed enthusiasm doing little to make salvation attractive, approached an elderly gentleman wearing a clerical collar and asked him, "Brother, are you saved?" The elderly cleric stopped, pondered for a moment, and replied: "Yes... ...partially, ...and no." That is an excellent biblically-based answer to the question, for while the Bible often mentions salvation as a past event of which we can be assured, it also treats it as an ongoing process in which we participate, as well as a future event which we anticipate. In other words, we are a work-in-progress, encouraged by God's Holy Spirit to "work out (our) salvation with fear and trembling...." (Philippians 2:12-13)

Our Gospel reading features a despicable little rascal named Zacchaeus, who was considered beyond redemption. He was politically suspect, financially suspect, and morally suspect. He was anathema to his decent fellow citizens. His profession was considered treasonous, and he was considered persona non grata at social functions. Such is the allure of salvation, however, that when Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus' house, Zacchaeus jumped at the chance.

Zacchaeus was a wealthy man, but his response to Jesus is very different from the wealthy man in the previous chapter who "became sad" (Luke 18:23) when Jesus suggested that his salvation might have an effect upon his distribution of wealth! When Jesus reflected on the difficulty of bringing salvation to rich people, his own disciples asked, "Then who can be saved?" (18:26) Well, the man many thought beyond salvation was saved, for at the end of his visit with Zacchaeus, Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house...." (19:9) Zacchaeus had been so moved by Jesus' love and friendship that after the meal he stood up and announced, "Half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." (19:8)

We see, in the story of Zacchaeus, the transforming power of salvation. In Jesus' presence Zacchaeus felt accepted, affirmed, and loved — all of those things that he'd been missing. His feelings of regret, however, were far surpassed by his feelings of joy! Zacchaeus discovered that in the paradoxical and mysterious workings of God, we have only to declare our lostness to begin the process whereby we are found!

The God of salvation seeks out the lost, and that alone is worthy of our praise. But God did more! God, in His mercy, tells us that our sins are forgiven. That would be enough, but God did even more! Praise God! God sent us a Saviour who by his life showed us how to live "lives worthy of the Lord, ...pleasing to (God), (and) bear(ing) fruit in every good work ...as (we) grow in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10) Amen