So I was going to title yesterday's post "Step One" but realized before I posted it that that's a horrible title. I'm working on leading people to Christ, who is our salvation, and it is in my theology that salvation is not a process, but a culmination of events at once.
When I was working for Enterprise I ended up talking with some baptists who believed whole heartedly what they were taught without thinking about what it was. I know this because they stuck to their beliefs even after I thoroughly questioned them poking some pretty big holes in their theology. This also happened with some other baptists who randomly showed up at my house because I visited their church. Those were some fun conversations.
But the real conversation and banter found itself centered around one particular issue: Eternal Salvation.
For those of you who don't know, this is the idea that once you are saved you will always be saved no matter what you do. If you want to believe that, go for it. That's incredibly dangerous territory to be and isn't supported by scripture, but you go right on ahead and believe that.
So when I was talking with the guys from Enterprise, I asked if one of the men believed in predestination like other baptists. He gives some answer that sounded a lot like predestination but made even less sense. But then he stated that he believed in Eternal Salvation. I start asking him questions, poking here and there, and he holds to it with all he has. I look at the other guy there and ask if he believes in it to which he replies, "Eternal Salvation? Oh yeah of course. As long as you're fully saved."
Fully saved? Does this mean you can be partially saved? If you die and you're not fully saved does only part of your soul head on to heaven while the rest goes down to hell? By saying "fully saved" what he was saying was that salvation is a process and that there are hoops you must jump through in order to be saved. Does this sound like how God works? That's how it was in the OT, but once Jesus came the things that we did became meaningless for salvation because Christ did all the work. That's the point of Jesus coming to earth. So by saying that salvation is a process then we are still saved by ourselves and the of Jesus was for nothing. Not only that but scripture points to not a process of salvation, but an event of salvation.
I take this idea of salvation as a process from something that was started in the 60's or 70's I believe called the five steps of salvation. I could have those dates completely wrong, but the five steps were: Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized. Yes, all of these things lead to salvation, and it cannot be had without these things, but these are not hoops that we must jump through to be saved. They are not entirely separate actions. I see them as chain reactions.
Now in the rest of this I may make some older and fundamental people mad, but oh well. This is how I see scripture, you don't have to believe it. Just don't outright say I'm wrong without proof and don't try to shove your beliefs down my throat. I'm not making anyone believe what I say, I'm only sharing what I think.
So what makes us "saved?" Is is being baptized? Living a good life? Praying, reading, and singing on Sunday's? Am I saved simply because I went to a Christian college or am in ministry?
Absolutely not. It doesn't matter what we do, none of these things will save us.
The biggest issue with churches that I've ran into on this topic is baptism. I once baptized a guy in my youth group and his elbow was sticking out and the minister there wanted me to do it again because of that. He thought he wasn't saved because he wasn't, by definition, "Fully immersed." If God keeps a person out of heaven for that reason me and him are going to have some issues. But if it's baptism that saves us, then why was Jesus baptized? Did he have sin of which he needed to be forgiven? Did he need saving as well? What did he need to repent of? Does anyone else see the issue behind the statement of, "baptized for salvation?"
Salvation is being saved. Saved from sin and the death that comes with it. You cannot be partially saved, that makes no sense. You cannot save yourself, you can only be saved by outside help. So being saved washes away our sins, if it didn't, we couldn't have the Holy Spirit, God himself, with us because God can't be in the presence of sin. In Acts 10 we see Cornelius, a God fearing Gentile with his family and Peter when the Holy Spirit, God himself, comes upon them. To which Peter replies, "Can anyone stop them from being baptized?" Now how can God come upon people, full of sin, if they haven't been baptized for salvation? How many times throughout scripture do we see people receiving the Holy Spirit at baptism? Once. And that was with Jesus. Ever other time we see baptism there is no sudden coming of the Holy Spirit, it either comes before or after baptism. This leads me to believe that baptism is but a symbol. It's necessary for all believers, being commanded by Jesus, but it's not what saves us.
So what does save us? Ephesians 2.8 says that is is grace that saves us. Well how do we get grace? Through faith. Faith for me is incredibly powerful and essential for all Christians. We have faith in the point of yesterday's post, that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the only and living God. Not only that but we accept him into our life as our personal King and savior. When we have that faith we have all of the things that salvation will include: It causes us to be humble, repent, acknowledging the supremacy of Christ. We receive grace, redemption, righteousness, sanctification, justification. In a simple word, through this true and actual faith, we are saved. If we have this faith then we will act on it. All that comes from this faith is a process. we are not 100% righteous, but Christ continually works at making us righteous. We have not 100% repented, we still fight our demons, but now with the help of Jesus. We are not 100% sanctified, but are continually being made holy.
The only two things that happen 100% when we come to this faith is that we receive that Grace of God and are saved by it. But it will not remain if do not allow ourselves to be transformed. God doesn't want you to come to him perfect, he wants you as you are: Broken. He'll put you back together again and make you into something new and better. But you have to let him do this. This is where we humble ourselves and repent.
All of this is what I will be getting into through the next week or so. But this is what I felt like I needed to talk about today. The main thing to remember is Jesus did all the work. And in the words of the fantastic Dr. Girdwood, all we have to do is ride his coat tails up to heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment