Salvation

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life."

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."


Many times we find Christ's words to be parodoxical. In one instance He says simply believe. In another to leave everything and follow. Which is it then? Believe and be saved or lose your life in order to find it? Is this really an option God has given us? Can you do one without doing the other? I don't know. Only God knows the hearts of men.

It has been my experience that the church today is filled mostly with "believers" but very few followers. This is nothing new. In the 1400's Thomas a' Kempis wrote in his book The Imitation of Christ, "Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross."

As a nation and a church we have all but eliminated the need to loose anything--except maybe our guilt--to be a Christian. The evangelists focus on the rewards--on what we can get from Christ. The majority of our music is centered on this. Is this what we find in the life and teachings of our Lord? Did He qualify His actions by asking the Father what was in it for Him? I think we all know the answer to that is a resounding NO.

The basic instinct of life is self-preservation. God knows this and uses it to bring us back into fellowship with Himself. To believe, to trust in Christ for salvation from our sin is at the root of every persons conversion. My question is, "Is this all there is to it?" Are we just saved so we can live forever and be with God? I can't believe it. We are here to be taught to be like God. To fulfill our eternal destiny of being created in His image.

Self is the enemy of Life. When we please ourselves we are not pleasing God. We either live for self or for God--these are the only options. George MacDonald said that self was a dungeon and that freedom could only be found in leaving self to live for Christ and our fellowmen. There is no greater love than to lay down our life for our Friend. This kind of love, the giving up of ourselves, is the only real salvation because it is the only true freedom--freedom from the prison of self.

You may be thinking that I'm being too harsh in here. "You mean I can't do anything I find pleasing ? Doesn't God just want me to be happy?" Unfortunately, when we try to answer these simple questions in light of what Christ said, they no longer seem so simple. I would say that God does want us to live joyful lives, but when we say that do we know what true joy is? Do we know what it might cost us in worldly terms to find it?

Following Christ's call to follow He made the statement, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." We've heard this a hundred times in Sunday schools or sermons, but have we ever looked into what Christ meant when He said "lose" and "find"? The Greek word used for lose is apollumi which means "to destroy". The Greek word for find is heurisko which means "to see, learn, discover, understand; to find out by practice and experience". Let's also look at "save". The Greek word sozo means "to rescue from danger or destruction".

After a study of the true meaning of the language Christ used perhaps a more literal and realevant translation would be, "Whoever wishes to avoid the death of the cross will be destroyed, but whoever willingly goes to this destruction for My sake will find out by experience what it is to live."

I asked the question at first whether you could believe and not follow. I think Christ speaks for Himself.

Grace and Peace,

Nathan