Saved From, or Saved For ... What?

Spirituality Column #170
February 9, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Saved From, or Saved For … What?
By Bob Walters

In accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, are we being saved from something, or for something?

Much Christian evangelism describes and sells the fearsome, high-stakes, eternal spiritual consequences of not being saved from one’s sins, from guilt, from death, from everlasting damnation, from Hell, from perpetual pain and from being forever vanquished from the presence of God. Be saved or burn!

Yikes. Sign me up.

But, wait a minute. How do I process that “saved from” message if I’m a reasonably intelligent, rational, functional, productive, loving, decent, free and generally informed good-citizen non-believer?

I probably recognize – but rationalize – my own sins, let guilt abate over time, don’t really “get” death because I haven’t been there, think of “damnation” more as a cussword than a curse, don’t see how Hell could be much worse than some parts of this world, have survived some pretty awful pain in life, and cannot conceive "forever."

Presence of God? “Show me.”

Terrifying fear, guilt, sin, death, pain equals what? Joy in the Lord Jesus Christ? Faith, hope and love? Excuse me? “No thanks. I have enough problems of my own.”

Christ’s great gift is so often misrepresented. I know a dear Christian brother who will occasionally say to an Orthodox icon of Jesus, “My friend, I feel sorry for you.”

“Saved from” evangelism should mean we are saved from our guilt, fear, and sorrows, not bludgeoned by Salvation. Christ died a horrible, real human death to erase our sins – yours, mine, everybody’s – and in his resurrection remade fallen humanity into a new spotless Creation before God; cleansed with and covered by Christ’s blood.

With faith in Christ we can approach physical life trusting God’s grace and love, and physical death with the certainty of salvation: everlasting, sinless, loving communion in Heaven with God Almighty.

The magnitude of that cleansing gift is as big as God.

I am a flawed, limited, human servant badly in need of His eternal, divine washing. Christ wants us to accept that gift, find strength in that gift, believe in that gift … but I can’t imagine that he wants us to feel miserable because of that gift.

When did you ever give someone a gift in order to hurt them?

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are saved for love and for communion, from everlasting to everlasting. Have faith. Repent. Rejoice and be glad.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) understands pain is a powerful sales tool, but salvation is a gift, not a product.