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CHAPTER TWO

SALVATION. WHAT IS IT?

ONE of the common words in the vernacular of

religion and particularly of Christianity, is the word "salvation." We are accustomed often to hear such expressions as these, "I was saved," "I am saved," "I hope to be saved," "I have found salvation." Whatever ideas of it may be held by individuals or churches, it is true that the word expresses the great central objective of Christianity. Therefore it is important that each person understands what it implies. We shall not discuss the faith in Jesus and the spiritual processes which are necessary to secure salvation for we are now simply seeking a definition of it. It will be wise however to state that the process must not be confused with the objective. Salvation is the goal to which Jesus is leading mankind. Faith in Jesus is indispensable to the securing of that objective, but it is not salvation itself. It is the introduction to the process which shall, under the influence and in the power of the Holy Spirit of God, produce in man that which Jesus came to make real within him. Faith in Jesus puts man in touch with the One whom he must have to actualize the goal or the salvation which the Father has for him. Faith in Jesus should therefore be considered vital to man's salvation. We desire to know what condition the individual and humanity in general, must be in to experience the salvation that Jesus came to lead man

kind into. When can we say humanity is saved? A century ago preachers and workers knew what they were trying to do and the people who heard them understood what they implied by salvation. Today conceptions may have changed, but we are still seeking to save and there is no reason why either preacher or individual hearer should be mistaken about the significance of this well known term. We are led to state first of all that in the Semitic religions and in the Old Testament before the dawning of the hope of immortality, salvation referred chiefly to this life. It implied the removal of the effects of sin so that man could live under the favor of the gods. To escape the judgments of capricious Gods during life was its significance to the people of that time. In the Mystery Religions which surrounded Christianity at its inception, this word had its place. Their chief aim was to offer salvation to those who became duly initiated and it implied to them primarily deliverance from the tyranny of an omnipotent Fate, which might crush a human life at any moment. Death, with its unknown terrors, would be Fate's terrible visitation. Hence to have assurance of life after death, or a victorious immortality would mean salvation. As they might die any moment in the grip of relentless fate, salvation was deliverance from that fate.

We find considerable in the Christian conception of salvation which reveals more or less of a similarity to that of the Mystery Religions. It is not hard to produce passage after passage from the New Testament which implies that in the thought of the writer it was synonymous to the expression "escape from the wrath of God." There was one who could and would crush. To escape his wrath was salvation. Since that

day exhorters and revivalists have cried out loudly "flee from the wrath to come" and thousands have been brought to their knees in tears and fear under their powerful appeals, until the idea that salvation implied primarily deliverance from some impending doom to be meted out by a God of vengeance, was thẹ commonly accepted definition of it. To escape punishment and that punishment something which was to be inflicted in some future state, has been the meaning of salvation to millions of good Christian people. A study of Calvin and his followers makes it clear that in his conception of salvation, the primary thought was the escape from future punishment and the joy of eternal bliss.

We are not to ridicule the facts of the awfulness of sin and its consequences or belittle the truth concerning God's wrath (the reaction of the Divine nature against sin) or to declare that there is no solemn truth in the idea that salvation has to do with immortality and deliverance from sin's eternal effects. Far be it from us to suggest such thoughts. The errors in this conception are largely in the view of our Heavenly Father that it portrays, the emphasis it places upon future punishment rather than present, and the limited idea of salvation which it fosters. The relation of a holy, loving Heavenly Father to his child, be that child what he may be, must form the basis of our conception of salvation, and his divine will for us both in the present and the future of salvation, and must define the nature and scope of it. Spinoza was correct when he said "The love of God ought to occupy the soul more than anything else." "Our salvation, our happiness, our liberty consist in a constant and eternal love of God, or if you will, in God's love for us."

This is the beginning and the end of salvation. In commencing our discussion of the definition of salvation, as we progress and as we close it, we are to think in terms of the love of God and we shall ever have in mind the ideal that love has conceived and revealed. Salvation is the holy objective which a true Heavenly Father who has our interests at heart, plans for us, not something for us to secure apart from him or despite him, not so much something we are endeavoring to obtain from him but that which he is seeking to accomplish in us. And we should remember that in Jesus' ideas we have the will of God manifested to us. In Jesus himself we have his salvation goal outlined and personified.

We also quickly recognize that any idea of salvation which confines itself to the present merely, and forgets the long future, is at once inadequate and far from being satisfactory but we would impress upon all the fact that some previous conceptions have been altogether too limited and the demand is for a more rational and more Christian conception of it. We need Jesus' view of it. Any other will not be adequate. To some it may seem easy to furnish Jesus' idea of it, to others it may be very difficult because in the entire Gospel record, Jesus uses the word just once, Luke 19: 1, in that memorable utterance to Zaccheus, "Today is salvation come to this house." In this statement from the lips of Jesus, we note that emphasis is placed upon the present. However, Jesus, while not using the word often, did give to his disciples and others his thoughts regarding his objective in coming to earth. He referred many times to the "saved" and a thoughtful study of his words leaves us in no doubt about his idea of salvation. He

was singularly free from involved sentences and inexplicable terms and the trend of his teaching is very evident. From that trend we learn that Salvation is as follows:

IT IS SPIRITUAL AND MORAL SOUNDNESS OR

WHOLENESS

To be "saved" signifies just this. It is more than safety. It is a condition which implies moral and spiritual safety. It implies to be made morally sound, to be brought to a state of spiritual health. The man who is safe from sickness is the physically healthy man. One is saved as he is made sound and kept sound. The Greek word "sozo" used to describe salvation, translated "saved," is found some seventy-five times in the New Testament and the etymology of the word implies this wholeness of spiritual and moral life. It makes plain that salvation is some condition of the person himself which makes him safe. As fire cannot burn asbestos because it is made of materials which will not respond to it, so nothing can harm the individual who is morally sound because there is nothing in him to respond to the immoral. Thus men are made safe by being made sound. Jesus was all the time talking to people of heart and soul soundness. He came on purpose to make known to them the fact that the Father's will for them was to be made true and pure at heart, for no moral safety could come to them unless this were true, therefore salvation was fundamentally a condition of the inmost life of the individual. Jesus did not know of any salvation which was not an actual experience of their own lives. No person could be saved unless he was in a condition

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