In the Marine Corps, we were given a mission with a clear objective. There are many moving parts working together to complete the mission. And, as a Marine, you understand that opting out is not an option. You don’t get to say, no thanks, I don’t like that, or you know, I’m not good at what you’re asking me to do, or I’d rather be left alone & not engage a hostile enemy. Your mission was your mission & you accept it; there was no other option. And so it is with our Christ-given commission.
What is Salvation For?
On this week’s SitRep I want to talk about salvation–not what it is; if you’re listening to this you probably know what salvation is; if not contact me, I’d love to talk to about that–I want to talk about what salvation is FOR. I believe we Christians often look at our salvation in terms of what we’re saved from, but not in terms of what we’re saved for. It is important to understand what Christ has saved us from, our sinfulness & the eternal punishment we deserve. However, it is equally important to understand what our salvation is for. In other words, what are we saved for?
Let’s think about this for a minute. If we are saved simply to avoid hell, why are we still here? Why aren’t immediately transported to heaven upon accepting Christ? It seems to me that eternity in heaven is not the only reason we’re saved.
What is another possible reason we’re saved? I often hear from Christians that “my job is just to love.” What the person usually means is that Christians are supposed to be nice, which would include not disagreeing with anyone; not calling sin sin. The problem with this claim is that it’s not scripturally accurate. John 1:14 tells us that Jesus came full of grace & truth. If Jesus was full of truth, then as His followers, we must be also. Beyond that, if you read through the book of Acts, you won’t find a single instance where Paul focuses on being loving. In every instance in Acts, where Paul is preaching the gospel, his focus is on truth. Now, we know love is important; However, both secular society & some well-meaning, but misguided Christians have adopted an incorrect understanding of love. Love is not telling people what they want to hear, affirming bad ideas, ignoring sin, & so on. Love, as Thomas Aquinas defined it, is willing the good of the other. Affirming an idea that we know is going to lead to harm for someone isn’t willing their good, neither is ignoring sin. As Christians, we know that sin leads to death. Telling people what they want to hear to avoid an uncomfortable conversation involving the truth is not loving. Jesus always told people
what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear. That’s why he upset so many people. Jesus frequently told the Pharisees that they were proud, that their hearts were hardened, that they overburdened the people, that they made it harder to enter the kingdom. Jesus told the rich man to give up his possessions & follow Him, which made the rich man sad. Jesus told the woman at the well about her multiple affairs. My point is that Jesus never shied away from the truth to sparer someone’s feelings. Additionally, all throughout history we see Christians sacrificing for their faith. Whether martyred for their faith or living for Christ at the expense of their own desires, we see believers who lived before us serving others. That’s what Jesus said he came to do in Mark 10:45, to serve others.
So, if we’re not saved just to go to heaven, & we’re not saved to affirm everyone, then what are we saved for? I believe the answer lies in John chapter 17, in the middle of Jesus’ high priestly prayer. Jesus prays, asking,
15I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
Jesus didn’t ask the Father to take us out of the world. Instead, He asked the Father to keep us from the evil one. Moreover, we need to be sanctified in truth, which dispels the notion that our job is only to love. Next Jesus tells the father that He has sent His followers out into the world just as He was sent out by the father.
Based on this passage, we can conclude that accepting Christ is the first step in our salvation. After that, we are sent out into the world to tell the truth, think the Great Commission. John 3:16, probably the most famous Bible verse, says that God gave His only Son so that we could have eternal life. Additionally, in John 10:10, Jesus says that He came so that we may have abundant life. Again, we see that we’re not just saved for eternity, we’re saved to have abundant life.
What does abundant life look like?
It looks like living in the light of biblical truth; it goes beyond merely having a private relationship with Christ. It means publicly living out our faith. It means leaving behind our worldly identity & assuming our identity in Christ as adopted children of God (Ephesians 1:5). It means grounding our meaning & purpose in Christ.
What does this abundant life have to do with our salvation? Well, once we are reconciled with Christ it is our job to take up the Commission that Christ left us with: to tell the world about HIM! Sometimes we want to leave that commission up to our brothers & sisters in Christ who are extroverts, or who have the gift of evangelism, or who are good at public speaking; we can’t leave that to our pastors, & others in vocational ministry. That wasn’t part of the Great Commission, but we like to insert it. Jesus didn’t give us that option as Paul makes clear in 2 Corinthians 18-19 that we are all called to the ministry of reconciliation. Christ makes us a new creation, the old self is dead; once we are reconciled with God through Christ, it is our job to help the rest of the world reconcile as well.
First
We do this by actively living out our faith, & that involves being redemptive cultural agents. We redeem our culture by responding to the cultural movements of our time. We can’t sit back and watch society continue to move further away from God; we can’t standby & not confront the bad ideas of our time. We have the remedy for our broken world, we just must be willing to follow Christ’s example & do the hard work of transforming our culture. To be honest, this is no small task in our present age; the big C Church has largely lost its cultural influence, & that’s happened for two reasons. First, we’ve privatized our faith. By that I mean we have allowed ourselves to be pushed out of every public sphere. Sure, we may live out faith in our homes, or on Sundays, at church. But, we don’t live out our faith publicly, in noticeable ways. We’ve become comfortable with our faith being only personal. The problem with position is that our relationship with God was never supposed to be merely personal. It should be personal, but it should never be private. Read through the New Testament; you won’t find any examples of a personal, but not public faith.
Second
We’ve left the ministry of reconciliation to those in vocational ministry: pastors, missionaries, authors, & so on. We’ve developed a mindset that only certain professions are responsible for leading nonbelievers to Christ. That’s not the departing mission Christ left us with. We are all tasked with be cultural agents for Christ. If you are here in this time & place, then God put you here to respond to our cultural moment, just as he did with every believer who went before us. He could’ve put us in any time & place, but He put us in this one. God has given us all various gifts & abilities, & He has called us all to various careers. The goal should be to figure out how to use the gifts & abilities He gave us in the field He called us to for His glory.
How do I get started?
Maybe you’re hearing this & thinking “I’m already actively involved in taking Christ to our culture. If that’s the case, great; I applaud you. Maybe others are wondering how to get engaged. Here’s a good place to start, four questions you can ask yourself (I got these from the Colson Center Colson Fellows Program):
1) What’s good that we can celebrate, protect, and promote?
What’s a good that we can celebrate & protect? Our God-given identity. Our culture is brainwashing people into believing their identity is grounded in chosen sexual ideology. This is a lie! We have an identity that is given to us from God, & any time the world tries to coop that identity people end up harmed. We need courageous men & women of God who will boldly confront this lie.
2) What’s missing that we can contribute?
How about the lack of churches willing to stand on Biblical truth in direct opposition to the lies of our culture? How about churches willing to align themselves with Christ rather than be accommodating to sin? How about churches that are focused on shaping culture rather than being shaped BY culture. We need the church to be the church.
3) What’s evil that we can stop?
Here’s something that’s evil & prevalent in our society; the idolatry of the autonomous self. Our society is preaching the religion of self, that my biggest concern is me. And, that’s regardless of whether or not I have a wife or kids; my priority is me regardless of how that impacts my family. The lie of the autonomous self basically says that I am my own god. We need believers who will preach & teach the truth, that the only source of identity, meaning, & purpose that satisfies our desires is God.
4) What’s broken that we can restore?
Here’s one, how about the family unit. Maybe not yours, but as a whole, the nuclear family as a meaningful entity, has been wrecked. We need people who are willing to do the hard work of restoring the family unit to its place of cultural prominence. The family unit is the foundation of civilization & always has been. Society goes the way of the nuclear family, it either flounders or flourishes.
I encourage you to seek the Lord for ways that you can engage the culture for His glory. That’s our job as followers of Christ. I’ll see you next on the E3 Underground.
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