Saved...from...what?
It's always been interesting to me, although I've only recently been able to connect it to the larger picture, that salvation in the Old Testament is always talked about in very concrete, "here-and-now" terms. Save us from our enemies, save us from this famine...salvation is a huge OT topic (check out the Psalms), yet without the language of Heaven or Hell. It was a salvation from earthly things.
And I wondered if that had any correlation to our life under the new covenant...or if we are just luckier than them and get to conceptualize salvation in a purely spiritual sense, thus muffling the NT's call on our lives for transformation in the here-and-now.
I slowly have begun to see that salvation has a very real, very important significance in both the spiritual and physical realm (I know...that's a false dichotomy...but it's easily understood). Just as we are saved FROM "Hell" and INTO Heaven, we are also saved FROM our sinful nature and INTO God's purpose here on earth. Maybe we need to revise our concept of salvation, too.
I think Jesus came to save us from our lusts, from our lies, from our laziness. He wants to save us from the power that greed holds over us, break us out of our bondage to our culture. He came to give us salvation from broken relationships and self-centered egotism. And he came to save us into a kingdom of healing, of peacemaking, of relationship and community. He's asked us to share in his mission of love and concern for others, of worship and generosity...that's salvation. Those things that sometimes we wish we wouldn't have to do...those things we consider obligations...those aren't values to be tolerated...they are the point of salvation: to have our brokenness restored...right now. To have the sins that are killing us destroyed and to be swept up in the excitement that comes with really doing kingdom things. We aren't saved and then gradually begin to do those good things...we are saved TO do them.
We haven't just been saved from the eternal guilt of our sins...he wants to save us from sin. Right now.
And I wondered if that had any correlation to our life under the new covenant...or if we are just luckier than them and get to conceptualize salvation in a purely spiritual sense, thus muffling the NT's call on our lives for transformation in the here-and-now.
I slowly have begun to see that salvation has a very real, very important significance in both the spiritual and physical realm (I know...that's a false dichotomy...but it's easily understood). Just as we are saved FROM "Hell" and INTO Heaven, we are also saved FROM our sinful nature and INTO God's purpose here on earth. Maybe we need to revise our concept of salvation, too.
I think Jesus came to save us from our lusts, from our lies, from our laziness. He wants to save us from the power that greed holds over us, break us out of our bondage to our culture. He came to give us salvation from broken relationships and self-centered egotism. And he came to save us into a kingdom of healing, of peacemaking, of relationship and community. He's asked us to share in his mission of love and concern for others, of worship and generosity...that's salvation. Those things that sometimes we wish we wouldn't have to do...those things we consider obligations...those aren't values to be tolerated...they are the point of salvation: to have our brokenness restored...right now. To have the sins that are killing us destroyed and to be swept up in the excitement that comes with really doing kingdom things. We aren't saved and then gradually begin to do those good things...we are saved TO do them.
We haven't just been saved from the eternal guilt of our sins...he wants to save us from sin. Right now.
posted by Neal | 3:28 PM
1 Comments:
Jesus saved us from... death? (This is both a OT and NT hope.)Isn't that pretty here-and-now physical? The resurrection means God will not give up on his creation. Isn't this what we celebrate? And from this flows all good works, our gratitude...
If God came to save us from our stupidity, he failed. If he came to save us from death, he succeeded (we believe).
I do agree with you that the focus is not on Heaven and Hell, but I think resurrection is the central hope for early Christians like Paul, when the here-and-now was persecution and violence.
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