One possible answer...
Submitted by Jules on December 12 1999 at 17:40:38
In reply to For Jules...or anyone who can help. Submitted by Chris on December 12 1999 at 14:06:16
|
Oh Chris, my dear brother, what a question! The volumes that have been written... What can I say? This will have to be a quick answer before a hot bath and a good night's sleep, otherwise I won't be fit for the last week's study at college before the Christmas break. By the way, I think most of the credit for things I've posted here must go to my college tutors - they've read more than I have and they're inspirational. I've really learnt so much about salvation in the past few months, and I suppose it's just been overflowing a bit! Looking at the big picture, salvation is God's thing, not ours. His purpose is to have a people who perfectly reflect his glory, just like Jesus. ("We know that when he appears, we shall be like him" 1 John 3:2.) He wants to make a people who are truly in the "image of God" (Gen. 1:27). To think salvation is just being about "rescuing sinners from hell" doesn't do justice to the thing at all. Jesus is the model for the whole process: conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, living in total reliance on his Father, being obedient, even to death and so rising to new life. In all this, he was the first member of God's new humanity. And it was all by the work of the Holy Spirit in him. My confidence for salvation is: "If it worked for Jesus, it can work for me" - not that Jesus needed saving from actual sin in the same way as I do, but he did need saving from human nature and from death (Heb. 4:15; 5:7). Hey, I think I've just got the inspiration to read the whole of Hebrews again - it's been a long while. My understanding of how we are saved is by being united with Jesus. If we are in Christ, then our old humanity has died with him, the new humanity has been born in us, we live with him now and we will live with him for ever, all by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. The security of our salvation, then, comes down to belonging to Christ by his Spirit, being part of his body. Can someone be 'in Christ' one moment and then 'out of Christ' the next? Does God ever give up on us because of our faithlessness? No. But can we choose to leave him? Well maybe, but only by a conscious act of rebellion, it seems. 2 Tim. 2:11-13, probably part of early church liturgy, makes a distinction between being faithless, when God will remain faithful, and disowning him, when he will also disown us. Heb. 6:4-6 also warns that there is no possibility of a second new birth for those who have forsaken their relationship with God. These together suggest that the only thing that could prevent ultimate completion of the process of salvation is active rebellion against salvation, a deliberate choice to leave Christ, a deliberate rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit in transforming us. (The translation "fall away" in Heb. 6:6 is wrong if it suggests something that happens gradually or by accident.) Salvation is the work of God from beginning to end, but he doesn't impose it on us if we don't want it. I've often heard it said that being saved is like receiving a valuable gift for Christmas. It's there for you, someone else has paid for it, all you have to do is to recieve it. Well, perhaps we could extend the metaphor: Once you've received a valuable gift, you will always have it, unless you throw it out. You might put it away somewhere and forget about it for a while but it's still yours. Well, that took longer than I had hoped; I think it will have to be a quick shower instead of that hot bath! Never mind; what could be better than spending a Sunday evening thinking about our salvation! Let us know how you get on with your on-line brothers. Bye for now. With love, Jules |