Thursday, 3 May 2012

Salvation in Christ

We've been studying the Theology of Christian Salvation for the past few weeks (and months) - and one of the requirements for this course is to define what salvation in Christ is.

It has been really much harder than I thought. The Bible portrays salvation in many different aspects... and so, it is quite impossible to define "salvation" in just one sentence. Exploring our Christian salvation through the Word of God feels like we have been dipping our hands into a huge, bottomless sack of goodies... to bring out pure delights superior to candy treats ~ new discoveries and understanding about this life we now live in Jesus Christ. Such an excellent way to "work out my salvation".

I was reflecting on Romans 5:1-11 today as part of my assignment (for yet another presentation this week). There were so many things Dr. Sunny wanted us to look for in the passage i.e. key terms that refer to Salvation, Salvation from the perspectives and actions of the Triune God, objective and subjective aspects of Salvation, Salvation from the perspective of time, terms and ideas that describe the Christian life, benefits of the Christian salvation, etc, etc. Just in case you are thinking, "WOOOOOW!" ~ I need to confess here that I fell asleep doing the assignment this morning, LOL. Obviously, I am no superhuman. Thank God, we had a follow-up class this morning on this assignment... I thought that I gleaned more from sitting in our class discussion than doing the assignment on my own.

This brings me to the final question on our hand-out: "What does Christian Salvation mean to you personally today? Answer this question by choosing ONLY ONE IDEA you have gathered from studying this passage."

Wait, let me share the passage here...

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

And so, for me...

Salvation is the liberation of a believer who has truly accepted God's love... into a lifestyle of experiencing the power of this love - and therefore a life of hope. Because God's love toward us was finally demonstrated or evidenced to us (human beings) through Christ's death for our sins (v8) as well as His resurrection, we were convicted to accept this love. If we have truly accepted this love, we would have made ourselves vulnerable to God - come what may - and would have therefore put our faith in Him who loves us. Perseverance in tribulations requires us to look forward to "the season's end" and therefore hope. However, it is only by faith in the God who loves us, can we hope for anything good to come out of our tribulations and not feel alone in our struggles. What or rather WHO keeps us in this faith? The Holy Spirit, through whom God not only proves the love we have accepted, but also leads us to rejoice in any tribulation and be transformed. When we can rejoice in any tribulation, we live a life of hope - the essence of eternal life in Christ.

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