Salvation II

Dear Readers,

I will now continue our conversation about salvation and it's complexities. In my last letter I presented to you, the different ways in order to be saved as represented by the New Testament authors. In this letter I will continue in that line with the addition to the teachings of Jesus on the subject as well as the relation to the atonement to his teachings.

"As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

'Why do you call me good?' Jesus asked. 'Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: 'You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and your mother.'

'Teacher,' the man replied, 'I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.' Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. 'There is still one thing you haven't done,' he told him. 'Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heave. Then come, follow me.' At this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!'" - Mark 10:17-25

This passage in the Gospel of Mark is a direct conversation between a rich man and Jesus on how to gain eternal life (salvation). Jesus makes it very clear, follow the commandments, most importantly treat others as you would have them treat you and act compassionately towards one another.

As I expressed in my last letter on this subject, Paul of Tarsus and Jesus clash in their soterology. Jesus tells us that eternal life is gained through following the moral law with the aid of God, Paul on the other hands tells us otherwise:

"So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." Romans 3:28

But, Paul does express a future tense in salvation as Jesus does in the synoptics, in his epistles:

"This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." Romans 13:11

"But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control." Philippians 3:20-21

Notice the future tense in Paul's wording. Salvation, like the Kingdom of God is a present and future process.

In later New Testament writings, the future tense of salvation shifts to the past and present and a transformation takes place: Jesus is no longer the savior of man in the future, but the savior that has already came. So we must now come the realization that salvation is an ongoing process, that will culminate with the final salvation when the Day of the Lord comes. The ongoing process can be expressed like this:

Jesus has saved us from the penalty of sin.
Jesus is saving us from the power of sin.
Jesus will save us from the presence of sin.

He has saved us as being the scapegoat for mankind in his execution and proving it through his resurrection. He is saving us by continuing his message of seeking righteousness and doing good works which is shunning sin (Note my brothers, that man cannot do good works by himself. It is through the power and help of God that we can do our good works). He will save us by judging us according to our works and then condemning sin and death to the second death.

It is through grace that mankind is capable of doing good works and having love and compassion to one another. This grace is given by God, and it is this grace that Jesus points to in his parables and when he tells people how to obtain eternal life. The grace is God's to give, and it through this grace that we are now able to do the works that the Lord commanded us to do.

So in conclusion my brother's I have discovered this: salvation is the grace of God upon man to shun sin by following in Jesus' way. Jesus has given his life as the final scapegoat to God for the sin of man that we may not suffer the penalty of sin, and has shown us the way to escape the power and influence of sin through acting compassionately and lovingly (and repenting when we do sin). He will, in the course of time, come to cast away all sin and it's penalty. In this process he will indeed save (to rescue, to heal completely) us by making us whole and restoring us to the mankind that God has envisioned us to be.

- Ιάσων