(The following is a letter that I wrote to a friend who simply asked via text "What does it mean to be saved?")
Thanks for your question the other day. I apologize for the long-winded response, but this is such an important question! Here's how I think about salvation. My thinking is influenced primarily by the Bible, which I believe to be writings inspired by God. That's a whole different issue for another time, though...
First, some basic suppositions:
1) There is something very, very wrong with the world. War, famine, epidemics, AIDS, tsunamis, earthquakes, poverty, the music of Cher...no sane human being could look at our planet today and conclude that things are completely the way they should be.
2) Aside from natural disasters (I know that even this is debatable), the source of all the problems in the world is...people!!! Wars are started by people. Corporate fraud is committed by people. Rape, murder, human sex trafficking, and drug smuggling are all the product of selfish human desire, the desire to "get ahead" or to make ones self "feel good." Humanity itself is the source of our own misery.
3) It is VERY easy to look at the greedy CEO's, the crooked politicians, the rapists and the murders and blame them for all the problems in the world. But, when I really look in the mirror honestly, I find that the same evil desires live in my own heart. Have I ever cheated to get ahead? Have I ever told a half-truth to make myself look better? Have I ever taken something I wanted just because? The answer to all is yes. The only difference between me and the greedy CEO is position.
Once I come to the understanding of how very broken I am, the Biblical explanation makes perfect sense: God created humans for the purpose of expressing his love; we rebelled and chose to live life by our own desires; we have created a terrible mess of our own lives, society, and the world itself. Jesus taught in his "Sermon on the Mount" that the only difference between a murderer and someone who hates is the action itself: the heart is the exact same. We desperately need to be saved in every way imaginable: individually, socially, politically, economically, and spiritually.
Not that mankind hasn't tried to be better!! We have more education, more international peace organizations, more money spent on relief efforts, and yet the problems continue to grow. More money is spent on pornography than on world debt relief. More people have died from wars in the last century than in the rest of human history (and with nuclear technology, we're only just getting started!). This is why the Christian writers, especially St. Paul, have made sure to point out that we cannot be saved by our own "good works." We need the creator God himself to step in and intervene in our situation.
This is exactly what Christians believe that God did in the person and work of Jesus the Christ. In Jesus, God himself entered into human history and has done all of the work needed for salvation. Here’s just some of what we believe that he has done for us:
1) Jesus saved us politically by declaring that the powerful systems of the world will all be held accountable to the ultimate authority of God. We are saved from believing that any worldly power is going to ultimately “save us.”
2) Jesus saved us socially and economically by being a living (and dying) example of how we are to live with one another, how we are to take care of one another’s needs, and how we are to love each other. We are saved from being trapped in a lifetime of selfish, isolating behavior.
3) Jesus has saved us individually because I don't even have the desire or ability to do the above listed things! I once had a tattoo artist tell me that his religious beliefs consisted of “Don't be an ass to people.” While I wholeheartedly agree, I find that (despite my best intentions) I STILL treat people poorly. We are saved from trying/working/striving to the point of burnout because God gives us His Holy Spirit to empower us to be better people than we could be on our own. God literally changes us from the inside out.
4) Finally (most importantly) Jesus saved us spiritually. Because of the horrible way that we have treated each other (and God), we are deserving of His wrath, His judgment. We are saved from that judgment because Jesus stood in as our substitute.
The writers of the Bible, especially Paul again, used the word “justification” to drive home this last point. The word “justification” in the ancient Greek-speaking world is a legal term, roughly equivalent to our American “not guilty!” We learn through Paul’s writings that it is God’s desire to declare us “justified” of the sins we have committed against others, against God, and even against ourselves.
No judge in ANY court could look at someone who is unquestionably guilty and let him go free. That is the definition of a bad judge! However, we believe that all of the punishment that we deserve was carried out on Jesus: his beating, his crucifixion, his being damned and forsaken by God the Father. One day, the Bible teaches, Christ will return to earth as judge, meaning he will FIX EVERYTHING that is wrong in the world. WHAT AN AMAZING DAY THAT WILL BE! Those who have trusted in what Jesus did will be saved on that day.
A lot of people in our modern society don’t really find the Biblical promise of eternal life all that appealing. “How could eternal life be that good when life is currently so screwed up?” In addition, we have all this imaginative B.S. about heaven consisting of fluffy clouds, harps, and a floating, immaterial existence. However, the Bible teaches that the earth will literally and physically be remade, and that everyone who has ever lived will literally and physically resurrect; those who have trusted in Christ will live on a perfected earth in perfected bodies with perfected society and relationships. No more war. No more corporate fraud. No more epidemics. No more relational drama. And finally, Heaven and Earth are joined together as one. That is what it means to be saved.
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