One of the posts on this blog dearest to my heart, because of the importance of the matter, is the one entitled "What does it mean to be saved?" It has evolved a little bit over time but not in a significant way until now. I will leave the last edition of it unchanged if anyone wants to know what exactly has been altered in my perspective since then.
And although I do believe that the latest changes are helpful steps in clarifying what both sin as the root problem and the cross as God's solution mean, I'm sure this won't be the final revision and I always appreciate your comments and constructive criticism. So here's the latest version:
1. "Salvation / Savior / being saved" - the terms only make sense if there is something that presents a mortal danger in our current human condition that God wants to either prevent or bring us out of, or both, and if God's action on our behalf brings about a significant change that equals a transition from death to life.
2. The biblical metaphor of "being lost" describes the mindset and the resulting lifestyle of a person who has lost the proper sense of identity, dignity and orientation in God's unchangeable love and validation. Because of the belief and constant mental reinforcement of this basic lie, the lost person is constantly seeking alternative means of finding identity and approval elsewhere in order to fill the felt void inside and also to try to cope with the feelings of guilt. He has lost his way and his ability to reflect God's image in him accurately because he has internally lost sight of God as his creator, loving father and friend, and created a self-inflicted inner reality of separation from God which leads him further and further away from light and life into darkness and death.
3. Because of His unchanging character of love, compassion, mercy and grace, God allows us to experience and suffer the consequences of our choices and false beliefs, including physical death and a sense of enslavement to our inner impulses, to make us aware of our root problem, and He also continously and consistently reveals Himself and reaches out to a lost world, culminating in the incredible act of completely immersing Himself in our humanity through the person of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, the living Word, God has revealed in a supreme and final manner His true character and nature - through Jesus' words and interactions with people, and also through his death and resurrection.
4. The cross of Christ is God's incredibly humble and willing act of self-sacrifice, fulfilling humanity's warped sense of justice and giving in to its demand to have the offensive God image in our midst brutalized and killed, not only to show us the stark contrast of the utter depravity of human sin and God's unlimited and undefeatable depth of love, grace and forgiveness, but also to effectively remove the mental barriers to peace and reconciliation with God by becoming sin Himself, entering the space of death and perceived separation from God, and never letting go of His love for us throughout the unimaginable experience.
Having defeated the grip of sin and death within us through shedding His innocent blood on the cross, God raised His Son from the dead in a new body to vindicate Him and His death as God's chosen tool of salvation, and to show his power and victory even over the physical consequences of sin.
Through the cross and the resurrection Jesus also effectively defeated and eliminated the power source of all invisible influences of evil who formerly had gained much control over our thinking through our own embrace of their deceit, accusation and condemnation.
5. Salvation is both an act and a process. It is an act insofar as God already has done everything necessary for our eyes to be opened and to embrace by faith the unchanged truth of His love and validation and the goodness of His kingdom. Through His intervention in Christ we are able to be rescued from the deceit of sin towards a relationship of renewed trust and a joyful and willing embrace of our calling to be true images of God in a life of freedom and love, actively participating now in His continuing work of restoration towards wholeness throughout the world.
5. Salvation is both an act and a process. It is an act insofar as God already has done everything necessary for our eyes to be opened and to embrace by faith the unchanged truth of His love and validation and the goodness of His kingdom. Through His intervention in Christ we are able to be rescued from the deceit of sin towards a relationship of renewed trust and a joyful and willing embrace of our calling to be true images of God in a life of freedom and love, actively participating now in His continuing work of restoration towards wholeness throughout the world.
It is a continuing process insofar as this new way of seeing God, ourselves, our neighbors, and even our enemies from the divine perspective needs to be learned and practiced in contrast to the old patterns that are still deeply embedded in our lives through firmly established mental pathways, biological reactions, and our difficulty to let go of old habits for reasons of comfort and fear.
6. Salvation can only be communicated effectively if with the assistance of the work of the Holy Spirit the framework of God's story and love is told and understood, both verbally and through the actual demonstration of its truth in our lives, no matter how imperfect both ways will necessarily remain and always will still leave much room for misunderstanding.
7. Salvation will have reached its ultimate goal when we will obtain complete wholeness in body, soul and spirit, in untarnished communion with God and through His continued work of inner healing in the new heaven and earth.
