Yesterday, I communicated the essence of the book of Exodus in the Bible. In short, I mentioned that God has done everything to enable salvation to occur in our lives. God initiates salvation, (i.e. seen in choosing the Israelites) God enables salvation, (i.e. seen in the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt) and God ensures salvation (i.e. seen in the new life God gives to the Israelites) So if God does everything, what does it mean to be "saved?" What is our role? Where does our choice come in to play? What I said sounded good, simple and clear,
(I hope) but there are ramifications for how one becomes a Christian and lives as a Christian, especially if God does it all.
When I finished seminary, one professor asked me, "Are you ready for ministry?" I said, "Sure, just one question, 'What does it mean to be a Christian?" This is a prudent question, given the popular and diverse defiinitions in our culture today. This is also prudent given that Jesus' teachings may have lead more people out of the kingdom of God (who thought they were in) than his teachings may have lead people into the kingdom of God. (check out John 6:60-66 as an example)
I am eager to hear your thoughts on this matter? How does one become a Christian? Is it by walking down an aisle and saying a prayer? Is it through the sacraments? Is it by living for causes like social justice? How do you know if you are a Christian? If all we need to do is walk and aisle and say a prayer, how does that square up with Jesus' call to die for him? If living a life for social justice is the answer, how does that square up the Bible's teaching that we are saved by God's grace and it is not of ourselves, but a gift from God? If God does everything, why should we pray and share our faith with others?
Feel free to answer any of these questions, feel free to ask new ones, but please do not feel free to avoid thinking and do not feel free to avoid questioning things and do not feel free to give "Sunday School" answers. These questions are too significant to be cheapened by quick anicdotal answers. Perhaps our answers and questions may show us some of the beams in our eyes and cause us to seek God more fully.
Really hope to hear from you.
Beams Away!
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We are talking about this very topic at WOW! this Wednesday. As I am putting my thoughts together to send to the leaders, I am being challenged by these very same thoughts you raise in your blog. (I read it earlier and was reminded of it as I was preparing WOW!)
ReplyDeleteIn the outline for WOW!, it simply states Admit...Ask...Accept. I'm trying to put some thought provoking statement for the leaders to be thinking, praying about this week. Once again (just like when I read this entry a few days ago) I feel like I am falling short once again because I don't have this grandiose idea and earth-shattering revelation to share.
But then I stop and think about how I muck things up in my life by making things more complicated than it needs to be. For example at work, I come up with some grand design for a solution with many bells and whistles to find out after all that work a simple solution is better.
Being a Christian, I think it needs to be more complex as well. Things that I need to do in order to ensure I am living the Christian life, to secure my reward. But really, it should be as simple as those three words.
Admit...Ask...Accept
Admit I fall short and I sin.
Ask to be forgiven, even though I don't deserve it.
Accept Jesus died, rose again. Our relationship is restored with God when we accept His invitation.
And even though it is that simple, I need to remember to do this often. Not to ensure my salvation, but to remind me that I need God and I cannot do anything on my own.