Is there More to Salvation?

It is a right and proper claim that Jesus came to seek and save the lost and to give His life a as ransom for many.  (Luke 19:10;Matt 20:28).  Salvation is mentioned over 165 times in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.  This is a major theme for us in scripture.  We all want to be saved.  Salvation is core to our belief in Jesus.  He gave His life for ours so that we may gain salvation.  But is there more to salvation than escaping consequences?  What if God has a bigger perspective?

From the beginning of Creation, God's purpose was to create a people for Himself who would love Him as much as they could as He loved them.  Creation comes out of the heart of God.  He already created angels with free will to love Him or not. Still, His heart of love continued to create a different kind in people who would need to trust Him and obey Him like a Father to survive and thrive in the new creation.  He created people with free will to love hm or not and to win our love through His own grace and love.  He was seeking a people after His own heart...a people for His own possession.

As we all know, we cannot become His people in our condition of slavery to sin, under judgement of death for sin. A price needed to be paid.  Jesus paid it. Hence the great blessing of salvation.

Salvation begins for us as escape from our judgement of death, separation from God in eternal punishment.  Our Salvation for God is that we become "a people after His own heart"..."a people for His own possession".   Our view of salvation so often is limited by our own desire for safety and avoiding punishment.  Too many view salvation as a "get out of jail free card" and there is an element of that in Jesus' sacrifice for us.   Still, isn't salvation is more than that?  Isn't salvation, from God's perspective, really the freedom to choose God's presence, to join with His people, a people called by His name, a people for His own possession, a people after His own heart enjoying His presence for all eternity.  This is His big picture and His big plan.

The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” 1 Samuel 13:14

and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods? 2 Samuel 7:23

James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me. 14  Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. Acts 15:13-14

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12  instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13  looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14  who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14

 But you are A chosen race, A royal priesthood, A holy nation, A people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10  for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10

Who Can We Trust?

Christians more than any people should have a pretty solid understanding of human nature. When we come to Christ we first admit and confess that we are sinners, slaves to sin, unable save ourselves or even fix ourselves.

Scripture teaches us clearly who we are as humans.

"for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,” " Romans 3:9-13

Most of us are well acquainted with our own sin and flaws. Still we tend to be surprised when we hear of sinful behavior in others. Sin becomes rather abstract in our relationships.
We trust people in our relationships too blindly and all too often find ourselves pained by those we have trusted. We often don't walk out our understanding of human nature in our everyday lives. But Jesus did.

"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name,

observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man". John 2:23-25

The good news is that this frees us up from performing for God's love. God loves us not because we are lovable but because He is love. He proved this in sending Jesus to pay the price for our sin and free us from slavery to sin.

Yet the truth is that we still occupy corruptible bodies and are tempted by sin and self interest and none of us has arrived yet at the sinless state of Jesus on earth. That means that even those who are in Christ are not fully trustworthy. We still seek our own interests first most of the time. Furthermore, those in the world who do not know Christ, who are still dead in their sins, are even more corruptible and slaves to self interest and evil impulses.

No one is righteous, Not one. Not you or I or your spouse or children or parents or friends or pastors or doctors or teachers or police or government. None. Those of us who are in Christ may be justified before the Father but we are yet far from the purity of the selfless, sinless life in this world. We must stop walking around naively believing that people will behave differently than what we know about people. Trust is limited solely to where our interests align.

Obedience vs Trust

I admit that I have authority issues. My character is such that I question the "why" of everything and

choose what I want to obey. However, I do obey those in authority not for fear of consequences from those authorities but voluntarily as obedience to God. The Scriptures found in the Bible are the Word of God and therefore the final authority over creation.

"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves." Romans 13:1-2

Something few people notice in this chapter of scripture is that nowhere does it say that we should trust in the government or those in authority. Our trust must always be in God. Humans are not reliable enough to trust. As I have posted many times, trust is only reliable when interests align. When interests diverge trust disappears. The interest of those in government do not often align with the interests of the people, even in America. The government interests are first and foremost founded on its own preservation and expansion of its power. No government will ever sacrifice itself or its interests for the sake of the people. Nevertheless, we are still living in a time when we can voice our disagreement with the government and seek legal redress for our grievances without disobeying the authority of the government.

Never forget though that regardless of what this scripture says there are plenty of other scriptures that describe people of God defying earthly authorities when those authorities try to force them to violate God's authority.

1) Daniel defying the King of Babylon
2) Elijah defying Ahab and Jezebel
3) Peter and John defying the Sanhedrin (refusing to stop preaching in Jesus' name.)

Obedience and trust are not the same.
Obey those in authority until they call for disobeying God.
Choose carefully which earthly authorities and which people you may trust recognizing that common interests can change over time.