STILL WANT THAT TICKET?
When you want to talk about what evangelicals mean by “salvation” (or “being saved” or “getting saved”), you are talking about two separate but closely related things, because there are two things from which we must be saved.
First, we must be saved from God (from His wrath and His righteous judgment). Jesus did that for us by His sacrifice on the cross, satisfying God’s wrath at sin and turning it away. I refer to that as “salvation on the books”. Theologians call it “objective salvation”.
In the circles in which I have traveled, I have found this is all that most people mean by “salvation”. The big concern is getting a ticket for the right destination and nothing more.
But the story is much bigger than that.
“Heaven” – God’s kingdom – the new heavens and the new earth – whatever name you want to give that time and that place – is governed by the principle that God’s will is done by those that reside there, always and willingly.
It’s not a world where you get annoyed or angry because your neighbor mows a foot-wide strip on your side of the boundary line every week. You rejoice instead in his thoughtfulness and thank him.
It’s not a world where you can promise to do something and then lie so you can renege on your commitment because something better came along. You keep your word and do what you promised you would, even if it isn’t quite as fun as the option you had to turn down.
It’s not a world where everyone is identical or even equal – or in which it’s right to complain about inequality. It’s not a world where you can feel cheated and then whine about injustice and favoritism if your neighbor gets a bigger house than you did, or in which you gossip to others to get them on your side and protest to the authorities to change things. It’s a world in which you rejoice with those that rejoice.
It’s not a world in which there are sides or in which people care about ‘sides’. Self and its desires no longer matter. All that matters is what God wants.
I picked these few examples because they are small – but they are surprisingly and annoyingly trying to our souls now. But they will be normal life in God’s kingdom – the world to which we are going.
That is how it will be there, and when I am forgiven of my sins, I turn toward God and He starts making me what I’m going to become. That process begins here and now. That is what the entire journey is about. That is me being saved from myself – the second part of “salvation”.
When you follow Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit begins rescuing you from the selfish thing that you are. He begins to mold you into the selfless soul that you are going to be – a soul that will love living in God’s kingdom, doing what God wants.
God teaches you the life of the destination by challenging you to learn to live it on the journey toward the destination.
That’s why you bought the ticket in the first place, isn’t it?
Still want it?
First, we must be saved from God (from His wrath and His righteous judgment). Jesus did that for us by His sacrifice on the cross, satisfying God’s wrath at sin and turning it away. I refer to that as “salvation on the books”. Theologians call it “objective salvation”.
In the circles in which I have traveled, I have found this is all that most people mean by “salvation”. The big concern is getting a ticket for the right destination and nothing more.
But the story is much bigger than that.
“Heaven” – God’s kingdom – the new heavens and the new earth – whatever name you want to give that time and that place – is governed by the principle that God’s will is done by those that reside there, always and willingly.
It’s not a world where you get annoyed or angry because your neighbor mows a foot-wide strip on your side of the boundary line every week. You rejoice instead in his thoughtfulness and thank him.
It’s not a world where you can promise to do something and then lie so you can renege on your commitment because something better came along. You keep your word and do what you promised you would, even if it isn’t quite as fun as the option you had to turn down.
It’s not a world where everyone is identical or even equal – or in which it’s right to complain about inequality. It’s not a world where you can feel cheated and then whine about injustice and favoritism if your neighbor gets a bigger house than you did, or in which you gossip to others to get them on your side and protest to the authorities to change things. It’s a world in which you rejoice with those that rejoice.
It’s not a world in which there are sides or in which people care about ‘sides’. Self and its desires no longer matter. All that matters is what God wants.
I picked these few examples because they are small – but they are surprisingly and annoyingly trying to our souls now. But they will be normal life in God’s kingdom – the world to which we are going.
That is how it will be there, and when I am forgiven of my sins, I turn toward God and He starts making me what I’m going to become. That process begins here and now. That is what the entire journey is about. That is me being saved from myself – the second part of “salvation”.
When you follow Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit begins rescuing you from the selfish thing that you are. He begins to mold you into the selfless soul that you are going to be – a soul that will love living in God’s kingdom, doing what God wants.
God teaches you the life of the destination by challenging you to learn to live it on the journey toward the destination.
That’s why you bought the ticket in the first place, isn’t it?
Still want it?