Saved
This is the forth entry in a mini series in which I’m trying to clearly and specifically name what I believe and why.
I was recently listening to the latest Soul Survivor Live album and was struck by the regularity of lyrics that talk about being set free, or saved, or are addressed to the “Saviour.” In one of my more sceptical/critical moments I began to wonder why Christians so readily use this kind of language and terminology about themselves. When we say these things or talk about salvation (a word that means ‘to be saved or delivered’), what do we actually feel or believe we have been saved from?
Its not that the idea of being saved by God is wrong - its deeply biblical - but I think the Bible has a much clearer understanding of how God has saved us than we do! And there is a lot of imagery and stories tied up in the Bible’s understanding. One of the most significant of which is the story of the Exodus - God literally saving a nation of slaves from captivity. This remarkable moment in Judeo-Christian history underpins a huge amount of theology surrounding the idea of God being our Saviour - but probably isn’t in many of our minds as we sing “Thank you for saving me...”
Let me hazard a guess that for many of us, our understanding of God as our Saviour is that we have been saved from our sins. Which is true. But aside from my anxieties about that archaic and unhelpful term I question whether we quite know what we mean when we say this?
The danger with talking about being saved from our sins, is that we end up minimising the enormity of God’s saving work down to the cleaning of our personal conscience. That’s sort of like saying God came as Jesus and died on the cross, so that we might feel better about some of the naughtier skeletons in our closets:
For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall have their internet browser history reset...
This kind of understanding is so personalised and so feeble, its no surprise that people who hear the phrase “God can save you from you sins” aren’t all leaping unquestionably on the band wagon of Christianity. When they don’t jump on board we often try and persuade them with our golden ticket: life after death. But again, I think we misunderstand the ins and outs and enormity of what we mean by this. We may try to convince them with stories of when God has saved us from nasty people, or difficult situations, or sickness. But is this all that we think being saved by God is about?
Let me put a thought to you...
What if a conscience cleansing that takes away incapacitating feelings of guilt and shame is part of the saving work of God, but only part? And what if life after death is another part of how God saves us... But only part. What if helping us through some of the difficulties in life is yet another part of God’s salvation... But still only part? What if God’s real saving work is more magnificent and cosmic than just us and our dirty little secrets and eternity on a cloud somewhere!?
When John the Baptist was in prison expecting execution, he had a brief freakout moment where he suddenly thought maybe cousin J wasn’t the promised savior or Israel after all. So he sent some of his disciples to speak to Jesus to double check. Jesus’ response was genius...
“Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard - the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”
Luke 7: 22
The thing is, even John the Baptist was a bit surprised by Jesus’ interpretation of God’s saving work. Like the rest of the Jewish people, he was partly expecting it to look a bit like The Exodus mark II: a radical political development championed by a warrior of David-like prowess that saw Israel reestablished as the major superpower on earth. Instead Jesus saved people by giving them healing, life and good news.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t ever had any major healing, or been raised from the dead, so I can’t argue that I’ve been saved in this way. And, although I would argue that I’ve received good news, as I’ve looked at a bit previously, I think we misunderstand and minimise the gospel too. But there is more to Jesus’ saving work than meets the eye.
Tom Wright’s excellent book Simply Jesus, explores how Jesus came and demonstrated what it looks like when God is King. Jesus’ life and ministry gives us a taster of what a world where God is King is like... Its a place where there is no sickness, where there is no oppression, where people genuinely take care of one another and selflessly look to give all that they have for the sake of others. And crucially a place where there is no death - ideologically, spiritually and physically.
Because the invitation to be a Christian is not just an invitation to be saved from a guilty conscience or receive life after death, or have a PA for life’s issues... its an invitation into a whole new world view and way of life.
Death is a worldview that believes what we can see and measure is all there is, that our life’s purpose is the pursuit for personal happiness and personal dreams, that you get what you deserve and deserve what you get, that death is the inevitable final ending and that is that.
But Jesus saved us from death. Jesus saved us from this world view. Jesus invites us to be part of a world where God is King, and that has a very different belief set...
Jesus saved us into a world where what we can see and measure is celebrated as the physical expression of a mysterious God’s creative love - and we can have a relationship with that mysterious God and receive his love for ourselves. Jesus saved us into a world where our life’s purpose is to work with the Holy Spirit in renewing the goodness of God’s love-breathed creation, so that one day there is no sickness or oppression, and love and care of God and one another is the prevalent sustainer of society. Jesus saved us into a world where through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we can achieve God’s dream of heaven on earth. Jesus saved us into a world where we get things we don’t deserve, including unwavering forgiveness and grace despite any mistakes we may make or damage we may cause. Jesus saved us into a world where our hope is underpinned by the knowledge that we will one day be resurrected into a new life and therefore don’t need to be scared or shy of any obstacle or difficulties we might face in our living out this world view - including death itself.
That to me reads like real salvation. That’s a Saviour really worth singing about! Thank God we can be saved from mundane, nice, all-about-me religion into a world where God is King!
