Conversion xi / Salvation

 

…it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved.

(Acts 15:11)

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

                       (II Tim.1:9-10)

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

(I Cor.1:18)

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

(Rom.3:11)

 

Perhaps one of the most common titles for Jesus is ‘Saviour’.  In our liturgy we regularly close prayers (especially Collects) with a variation of the phrase, ‘In the Name of your Son, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,’.  It’s a powerful way of speaking of Jesus in the context of prayer, for it captures His mediation, articulating as it does His relationship to the Father (Son) and to us (Saviour).  This is the confession of the Church, and the declaring of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour is repeatedly captured in our Creeds, our liturgy and worship, and our Articles, to the point of declaring those who do not confess Christ as the exclusive means of salvation ‘must be regarded as accursed.  For the Holy Scripture declares to us that it is only in the name of Jesus that men (sic) must be saved’ (Art.18, citing Acts 4:12).  In his sermon on salvation (Homily 3, ‘Salvation of mankind only by Christ our Saviour, from sin and death everlasting’), ArchBishop Cranmer is at pains to show that this has been taught ‘by all the old and ancient authors, Greek and Latin’ (i.e. from both the Eastern and Western Churches).   To speak of Christ as Saviour is to confess Him as Lord (Is.43:11).

The work of Christ is focussed on revealing the Glory of God in the salvation of sinners (I Jn.4:14).  To confess Christ as Saviour, is to confess the Church as the saved.  But to speak of salvation isn’t as straightforward as it might first seem.  Read the citations at the top of this study carefully, and ask yourself: Am I saved?  And if so, when?

Trying to capture the sophistication of the Bible’s teaching about our salvation, theologians speak of the three tenses of salvation, each of which is reflected above.  To ignore, or lose sight of any one tense is to skew our thinking about what it means to be saved, so that we will struggle to make sense of our experience of God in the Gospel, and will open ourselves up to confusion and frustration.  We have been saved (Eph.2:8, also e.g. Rom.8:24, Titus 3:5 etc.): past tense.  Reflecting on the studies of previous weeks we can see that there is a profound sense in which our salvation is completed.  ‘He has saved us…’.  We are already delivered from the guilt of sin, and from its penalty and condemnation.  Herein lies the grounds of our security.

But we also speak of salvation in the present tense: We are being saved (II Cor.2:15, see also I Cor.15:2 which likewise speaks of salvation as a present continuous experience).  This speaks to our ongoing transformation as the enslaving power of sin is weakened and at times broken, so that we are slowly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom.8:29).  Herein lies the grounds of our sanctification.

And alongside both this completed and continuous salvation is a future tense: we will be saved (Rom.5:10, also e.g. I Cor.3:15, Phil.1:28 etc.).  In this we anticipate our full and final deliverance from the power and indeed the presence of sin.  This future aspect is often spoken of as ‘glorification’ (see our next study), and is as certain as the others for a number of reasons, not least because He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil.1:6).  Herein lies the grounds of our striving.  We continue to press on, even in the face of failure and frustration, because we know that our final victory is inevitable.  Our sure and certain hope inspires our unshakeable confidence in midst of the ambiguities of life in this age. 

This is the great promise of the Gospel forged by Christ.  He came to seek and to save the lost (Lk.19:10).  The Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (Rom.1:16-17).  

Questions

How would you explain ‘salvation’ to someone who was curious about what you believed as a Christian?

 

Do you think talking about being ‘saved’ is helpful in our own culture?  If not, can you think of other language or imagery that would convey the same idea? 

 

Does the idea of salvation in 3 tenses help you to make sense of your experience as a Christian…  or not?  Do you find it encouraging … or not?

 

Read I Pet.1:3-12

What do you think Peter means when he talks about ‘an inheritance that can never perish, spoil of fade’ (v.4)? Does it excite you that it is kept in heaven for you (v.4)?  …does it inspire worship (v.3) or do you find it difficult to envisage and respond to?  Why do you think that is?

 

What are we shielded from through faith, and by God’s power (v.5)?  How do you reconcile a promise like this with Peter’s recognition that the Church suffers grief in all kinds of trials (v.6)?  What do you think Peter has in mind by ‘trials’?

 

What tenses of salvation can you pick out in I Peter 1:3-12?

 

Do you value your faith as something ‘of greater worth than gold’ (v.7)?  How is that manifest in your life and decisions?

 

Would you describe yourself as someone ‘filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy’ because of your faith in Christ (v.8)?  Is Peter being unrealistic in terms of the Church’s trials (v.6)?  How would you explain this verse to someone with depression? 

 

How do Peter’s comments in vv.10-12 shape your view of the Old Testament?  Do you think of the Old Testament prophets as serving ‘you’ (i.e. the New Testament Church)?  What do you think that means?  What difference does it make to how you read the Old Testament?

Memory Passage:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 

Rom.8:28-30

 

For further reflection:

The is something compelling about seeing the whole Trinity engaged in the project of our salvation, from before creation and into the everlasting ages of the New Creation.  The Father has chosen us in Christ before the creation of the world (Eph.1:4), and so longs to be reconciled to us that He has willingly sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (I Jn.4:10); the Son willingly has undertaken to represent us (Heb.5:1), to be a substitute for us (II Cor.5:21), and for the joy of sharing His inheritance with us endured the cross to redeem us (Heb.9:12, 12:2), and now in His glory He intercedes for us (Rom.8:34); the Spirit is willingly living in us (Rom.8:9), leading us (Rom.8:14), interceding for us (Rom.8:26-27),  and applying Christ’s work in the very depths of our experience.  This plunges us into the heart of God and His love and grace.

But what is it we are being saved from?  Our first response might be: from our sin.  Obviously there is a great deal of truth in this (although intriguingly the Bible speaks almost universally of being set free from sin, rather than saved from it e.g. Rom.6:7, 6:18, 6:22; Heb.9:15; Rev.1:5).  But it does beg the question of what it is about our sin that we need to be saved from.  We might focus on egocentric aspects of the answer to this question, recognising that sin is self-destructive.  But Scripture has a more Theocentric emphasis: Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Rom.5:9).   In the final analysis we conclude with the Apostle that we need to be saved from God’s wrath against our sin, and the expression of that wrath in judgement.  At the deepest level, God is saving us from Himself.  In Christ, holy mercy triumphs over holy judgement.  This is the mystery of our salvation.