Wednesday, 21 April 2010

• Currently Stockholm Syndrome By Derek Webb see related

  Is Salvation a Possession?

  A friend of mine recently posted a link on Facebook to a video of a popular pastor discussing whether or not salvation is something that can be lost.  I don’t think he posted it because he either agreed or disagreed, though a few assumptive comments followed.  I tried to be grace-filled with my typically lengthy response, and I would love to share it with you.  I welcome more conversation.  I believe this is a divisive issue only if we allow it to be a divisive issue.  In the end, it really doesn’t matter what I think about salvation – what I really want is for all people to experience the river of life abundant that springs forth from a relationship with Jesus.  Here are my thoughts (revised slightly for blogging):

   

  When it comes to the status of one’s salvation, I think so many people's disagreements are semantic.  For me, salvation is a loaded word.  It conjures up images of altar calls and break downs and cries and pamphlets.  Do what our music tells you to do, get saved, etc.  It's what I get for growing up in the buckle of the bible belt.

   

  So, as I've examined my theology and worked out my own salvation, I've had to move past my past.  Scripturally, as opposed to regionally, denominationally, or popularly, I have come to understand that, not salvation, but grace is the free gift.  I believe grace is at work in every person; it precedes every person's own recognition of it, and continues to work in every person for his or her lifetime - whether or not we choose to work in it or whether or not we allow it to work fully through us.  Grace is God's and nobody by any word, thought, or deed will ever take it away from anyone. Without grace, how would we even be able to begin to have a tiny portion of understanding of Jesus' sacrifice?  It's by grace we have eyes to see and ears to hear.  It's by grace only we are able to sense God's wooing and by grace only we are able to respond to it.

   

  All this talk about gaining and losing salvation seems so wasteful to me because it presupposes that salvation is an object.  I don't think it's wrong to talk about salvation as a gift, but again, here in America, a gift is usually an object - a possession passed from one person to another - something we could have had for ourselves anyways, if we saved up or went to the right store or searched long enough and hard enough... Especially when having conversation with a person whom God is longing for, we are fooling ourselves if we assume that he or she will not have an American, birthday-party perception of the word "gift."

   

  So, if we're going to talk about the "gift" of salvation, we really need to reframe the notion of a gift, because salvation is really the relationship established in a gift of charity that is grace - the gift is like one of an arm extended to one who is drowning, or of a rain shower during a severe drought.  The gift is truly grace - nothing we ever could have exacted by our own doing, thinking, wishing, or otherwise.  We don't have to grab, we don't have to drink, but nothing we do may stop the gift.  And if we do grab, or if we do drink - thereby a relationship is established.  You didn't get a flotation aid, you met a savior - you didn't acquire a solution, you experienced a redemption.

   

  Because when a gift is just an object, it is offered and either rejected or accepted.  Our response is all about us, what we want to do with it or what we get out of it.  If we accept it, we own it, and it's ours to do with as we please, regardless of what the giver envisioned.  If we reject it, well, then it's a good in limbo; it's nobody's, and the giver is powerless to change this outcome.  Maybe the giver can return it and get some money back?  Heh.  In short, the value of the gift lies in the recipient.  By saying that we “don’t have to take it” or that we “can throw it away,” I think we’re setting up a self-centered framework that is theologically bogus, even if, in the end, we are just trying to say that we believe salvation could be lost.

   

  But when a gift is charity, it is simply given. Our response is all about relationship, what God wants to do with us, especially together with us.  To "accept" the gift is not to take it, but to complete it.  To "reject" the gift is not to deny it, but to waste it.  When we do nothing, it does not change what God wants to do with us; it only changes how it is done (with us or without us).  The value of the gift lies in the giver.

   

  Consider Zacchaeus - "Today, salvation has come to this house."  Was it because Zacchaeus took something from Jesus, or because Zacchaeus responded to Jesus?  The biblical language in Luke 19 links his salvation with his adoption - an establishment of relationship.

   

  I guess I really just don't think this "once saved, always saved" concept is even a blip on my theological radar.  It's not even a biblical phrase.  Grace is the gift.  Salvation is a relationship enabled, enacted, and established by the gift of grace.  Whether someone has it or not is a very shallow speculation, as "have" or "have not" is not the true language of relationship.  At best, it's a reduction or an objectification of it.

   

  To put it another way: when I say I "have" a wife, I'm not saying that I own her and use her for my good pleasure, I'm saying that I'm married to her, that we love each other and partner in all we do. She is not something I can give away or give back, yet, our relationship may ebb and flow.  Could our relationship be broken?  Yes, I really do think so.  Could it be broken beyond repair?  Of this, I'm not really sure.  But as for us, we have chosen to leave divorce out of our vocabulary.  I have faith that our relationship is an expression of grace, strong in love, and I know in my heart we will be together for our lifetime.  This is my unshakable (and what some would call naïve) assurance.

   

  But whether we're talking about an earthly relationship or heavenly relationship, we know the tree by its fruit, and I will praise God loudly and joyfully along with anyone who expresses an assurance of salvation, because assurance is an altogether excellent fruit.  I may have many friends, and we all may differ for our entire lifetimes as to our theology, but in the end, our hearts are alike, and so we will call each other sisters and brothers.  That, to me, is grace at its finest.

   

  --kory // www.korywilcox.com

   

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