Now, That’s Salvation!

Sheer paradox; that is the only way to describe it. First you’re at one end of a large spectrum, and then it seems you’re catapulted to the other, and, in the matter of a moment. It’s a paradigm-shift in every sense of the word. It defies intelligent and logical explanation, yet it is entirely real, perhaps the realest thing there ever was. It is the process of being saved. “Salvation” is the word to describe the process. Right-mouse-click this word and we get words like, rescue, recovery, deliverance and escape. And what do we escape from? A hellish life lived apart from God.

The experience of salvation, in my opinion, has never been more succinctly or powerfully expressed as through the words to the song, “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’” The very essence of the process of salvation, apart from our obedience, is that there’s nothing human in it; it’s all God. All power, all timing, all grace, sweeping over our being such that we don’t really know what’s hit us. And no wonder the doubting, sceptical non-Christian cannot grasp it. I mean, to them, how can a person joyously say they are strong when they’re weak; how can the destitute poor joyously say they’re rich; to add insult to blatant injury, now tell them, how do the joyously blind possibly see? These are questions only the Spirit of God has answers to. In faith we can only believe.

The following passage comes close to explaining both the awesome irony of God’s grace (as a response to humankind’s fickleness) and what ought to be our best response i.e. rapturous thanks, to this process:

“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” –Titus 3:4-7 (NRSV).

When we respond to his mercy by truly recognising our inherently foolish ways, God stands at the gate of our hearts (as he always has done) ready and willing to forgive. And the price? Uh, what do you mean... it’s free? Yes, FREE. We get the gift of the Holy Spirit for nix. (Some might say there is a price; that of surrender--see below.)

What about the price for continuing in our ignorance? The hellish life alluded to above is life constrained to our own ignorance and denial. It is an origin of infancy and it is a staying there. It is a journey deceptively wrought in the ‘bliss’ of laziness and greed--a seeking of our own way. It is a destiny of pathetic and lonely proportions. It is a malformed and immature life that is constantly reinforced by lies; and the giveaway is how those in this hellish life talk and walk. Truth and the lack of commitment to it characterises the modus operandi. No wonder life can get very messy. And these have the audacity to complain bitterly over their self-won lots. Yes, complaint is another giveaway of the life without the presence of God.

This is possibly the most important thing anyone could write or read about simply because everyone needs to hear it--even Christians. Salvation might be said to be a once-off experience but that is not how the LORD our God intended it. Salvation was meant to be experienced continually--that is why even spirituality is a struggle. We need it afresh every day. A.W. Tozer once said that ‘the Christian life is a constant miracle, or nothing at all.’ The only advantage the ‘now-saved’ have is they know what it feels like to have a salvation experience and they know sort of how to get it. They’ve known surrender. Salvation, the experience, is conditional--at the very least--upon surrender. Surrendering takes faith; a faith that is at times not easily explained. Surrender is the invitation a dormant Holy Spirit needs to create the miracle within a quiescent Christian. Surrender is paradoxically freedom. (See now when referring to the above statements regarding the price to be paid for the indwelling Holy Spirit and how it can be seen as being for free? Surrender has cost us nothing because we gain freedom.)

The song, “Let the weak say, ‘I am strong,’” attributes the miracles of the weak, poor and blind experiencing strength, riches and sight as something ‘the LORD has done in’ them. Although we are (finally) willing participants in the process of salvation, the act has nothing to do with us; God does something in us to transform us and suddenly there is evidence of salvation.

And the evidence? By faith, we conquer an addiction with relative ease and it defies explanation. By faith, we learn to say sorry and are genuine enough to grow through to a higher level--we learn to repent and back up our apologies with actual, visible change. By faith, we learn to be truly thankful and this breeds the type of joy that means when we’re weak, we’re strong; when we’re insolvent we’re actually still well-off; and, when once we could not see spiritually for the life of us, we’re suddenly very enlightened. Now, that’s salvation.

The challenge to the non-believer or the uncommitted believer is this: our self-worth is not enough. It’s not enough to sustain us through a life that will have its fair share of pain and torment and identity struggles. What we can conjure for ourselves without God is pathetic in comparison with that which he gives freely. What’s the wise thing to do?

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.