Salvation B (Listen or Read)
Salvation’s Purpose
Having an idea of what we are saved “from,” we must now consider what we are saved “unto.” C. S. Lewis, twentieth century British teacher and prolific author, understood the purpose of salvation. He wrote, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”5 Scripture reveals salvation to be a process as much as it is an event. It goes beyond a new birth experience. Consider these:
¨ Warn…that we may present everyone perfect in Christ (Col.1:28). Warn against what?
¨ Boldness in the day of judgment; because we are like Him (1Jn. 4:17). Christians facing judgment?
¨ Work out salvation (Ph. 2:12-13). Salvation by works?
¨ Shall be saved by His life (Ro. 5:10). Shall be saved? I thought we were saved already!
¨ Take heed…in “doing” you will save yourself (1Ti. 4:16). Saved by doing? Save yourself?
How are such expressions reconciled with Paul’s teaching on salvation by grace? They refer to salvation’s “made complete” dimension (Col. 1:28)—the end goal of our salvation. Salvation always depends completely on the work of Christ on the cross. But, we must understand that God is going somewhere with our salvation. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Ro. 8:29); “We shall be like Him…” (1Jn. 3:2); “Till we all come in the unity of the faith…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ep. 4:13 KJV; Ga. 4:19). Reconciliation (Ro. 5:10) is not salvation in that sense, but refers to what God has already done in Christ. It is a means to an end—our perfection (Col. 1:28). Once reconciled, God’s purpose is for us to become transformed into the image of Christ. This is why believers are said to be “especially” saved (1Ti. 4:10) since they are presently submitting to God who is working salvation in them (Ez. 36:27; Ep. 2:10, 3:20; Ph. 1:6, 2:13, 4:13; Jn. 15:5). Salvation goes beyond deliverance from temporal things and from God’s passionate displeasure in judgment, to actual deliverance from our sinful nature. Our perfection is the goal (See Ro. 6:3, 4, 11-12; 8:29; Ga. 4:19; Ph. 2:12-13; Col. 1:27-28; 2Ti. 2:11-13; Tit. 2:14; 3:8; Ja.1:27; 1Jn.3:3; 1 Jn. 4:17).
Attaining the fullness of salvation, our perfection in Christ, comes only through the cross working in our lives. “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Ga. 6:14). It is only through dying to ourselves, sufferings, and trials that we develop spiritually. (Mt. 16:24; Jn. 12:24; Ro. 5:3-5; 6:6; 2Co. 12:9, 10; Ga. 2:20; Ja. 1:2-4; 1Pe. 1:6-7; 2:21).
Though sufferings and trials, our cross, are not redemptive (only the blood of Christ is), they are nevertheless essential to our training. Either we take up our cross willingly, or God will lay it on us in His own time. For the way of the cross is the only path to our “full” salvation—“to a perfect man” (Ep. 4:13).There are no shortcuts. Even Christ “learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (He. 5:8). “The disciple is not above his teacher; but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher” (Lu. 6:40).
We must all be perfectly trained. Believers have been given the opportunity to live a godly and selfless lifestyle in this age, i.e. crucifying themselves daily in the steps of Christ. Unbelievers will have their opportunity in the coming age or ages as God brings the cross upon them through purposeful judgment.
Why faith then? What is its purpose? What does it mean to believe in the “name” of Jesus for salvation (Ac. 4:12; Ph. 2:9-11)? Faith is “trusting” in God’s “Person”—His nature, character, and ways, being fully assured, that what He promises, He can and will do (Ro. 4:21). It is not a religious formula, but childlike trust in the true God (Mk. 10:15). Faith opens the channels of God’s blessings into our lives. As we trust Him we begin to know His peace and subsequently yield to His Spirit working in us.
Many think that because they have faith, they are a cut above the rest. Not so. Faith is God’s gift and work in us. Hebrew and Greek scholar, Dr. Michael Jones says that the “gift,” referred to in Ep. 2:8, clearly and unmistakably refers back to both salvation and faith in the Greek.6: This is confirmed by He. 12:2: “Jesus, author and finisher of our faith” (He. 12:2). The following, I believe, will confirm this: Mt. 11:27, 16:16-17; Jn. 1:13, 6:44, 15:16; Ac. 13:48; Ro. 10:17, 12:3; 1Co. 4:7; Ph. 1:6, 1:29, 2:13; Col. 1:12; 1Ti. 1:14; Ez. 36: 26-27; Jer. 24:7, 31:33-34, 32:39-40.
Some even scorn the thought that unbelievers may be able to trust Christ beyond this life. How sad. “Of course they’ll believe then,” they say, “it will all be too obvious. There will be no merit to that!” Merit? Since when is faith meritorious? “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith” (Ro. 3:27). Why must faith only be valid in this life? Can trusting God ever become obsolete? And what “if” faith were limited to this life? Would that paralyze an almighty, all-loving God from restoring life to whom He wants, when He wants, and where He wants? When did He stop being GOD?
References: See Bibliography page.
