How do you know if you’ve been “saved”?

What do you think of when you hear the term salvation?

I hope you think of a lot of things, but I'm afraid you might think of just one.

In America we've done a sloppy job when it comes to the Gospel. Someone somewhere decided it would be a good idea if the Gospel had its own elevator pitch. What's the quickest, most compelling version of this story? I suspect someone somewhere asked that question.

The American Gospel invented the marketing formula "problem -> agitation -> solution." You probably get it, but in short, that means, you name a problem ("all have sinned"), you make people feel like they have (or are) the problem to an extent that they become uncomfortable ("and fallen short" think of: original sin) and then present them with a solution so that they can relax and let out a deep breath (this one is a little more complicated but, basically: repent and be saved so you can go to heaven when you die).

Scripture is a complex series of documents written by many people (inspired by God) over a long period of time. It's not a dictionary of terms. You can't just look up the definition for salvation, or mercy, or forgiveness. You have to spend time sifting through all the ways these things are portrayed over time, across cultures, and people groups, and so on and so on. It's boring work. Elevator pitches are easier.

The good news is almost any boring work you can think of someone has already done. So I recommend you check out Joel Green's book, Salvation, if you want to get into some details. In the meantime, I want to say a few things about this "big word."

Salvation in scripture appears in a number of contexts. Salvation is being healed from an illness. Salvation is rescued from slavery. Salvation is the ability to plant roots after years of wandering in a desert- so it's having a home, a reliable source of food, etc. Salvation is being included into God's people. Salvation is when a community prevents you from feeling the effects of poverty. Salvation is the joy of knowing God. Salvation is being given a purpose. Salvation is, as well, having a place in the new creation that God is in the process of forming (i.e., going to heaven when you die).

Salvation is used in all three tenses: past, present, and future. Christ's death and resurrection made it possible for all people to come to God (past). Life in God's community means we experience some (if not many) of the gifts of the new creation right now (present). The promise of life in the new creation where there will be no suffering and no tears is, of course, the future.

What have you been saved from?

I suspect there is an unlimited number of answers to that question just as I suspect there's an unlimited number of ways in which we might think about salvation. I also suspect that there are things we deeply long to be saved from and haven't yet experienced that. One of the greatest challenges we face as people of faith is disappointment which, for whatever reason, we often assume we shouldn't feel or that God doesn't want us to feel, or whatever. We think, perhaps, that because we're saved we shouldn't complain and just be grateful and so on and so on.

The reality is salvation, like everything else in scripture, is complicated. We can both be grateful for what we have even as we wait and hope for the time when suffering will be no more. We are stuck somewhere in between what God has done and what God has promised to do. His work is not yet complete...and that isn't easy to live with.

Maybe part of how we deal with the complex nature of salvation is to periodically remind ourselves of the ways in which we have experienced it. Healing from illnesses, the support of a community, examples of forgiveness, grace, or mercy, the purpose that comes from living a life that points to God, and so on.

So, I'll put it to you, what do you tend to find most encouraging when you are discouraged by having to "wait" for God to finish His work?

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The Power of Joy