i got the opportunity recently to listen to a great discussion. we were sitting around a table or two talking about salvation. i like salvation. really, i like saving and being saved anyway you cut it. i like it when tara "saves" me a bite of her steak. i like it when i "save" room for dessert. if im falling off a mountain i want some park ranger in green to "save" me from broken bones.
but something happened this afternoon... i didn't want to be saved in the way we were discussing it. please don't get me wrong, i understand and love what Jesus has done and is continuing to do for me, but something deep in my brain and self bothered me. i heard the phrase im sure many of us have heard, "plan of salvation." the discussion moved forward and walked down the roman road nicely and accurately, but still i was uncomfortable.
its taken me a few days, but i think i know what made me so uncomfortable. i think im bothered because we have the gospel and message of Jesus down to a plan. at times i feel we've checked for typos, ran the pages through the copier, stapled each set neatly in the top left corner, and set each packet on the desks of our neighbors. is this okay?
now, i know we need distinctives, and im not trying to say we don't need a belief or a guide. i am also not saying we can get to Jesus anyway we see fit or that we are in fact capable in ourselves to reach the standard Jesus has set... i simply want to pose the question, HOW DID JESUS TALK ABOUT SALVATION? did he use a cut and dry 5 step plan, or did he tell stories? did he use acronyms or toss seeds on different paths? did he use a bullhorn or bread? did he say follow these steps, or did he say follow me? did his first teachings about belief and forgiveness and the kingdom of heaven center around the cross, or did they center around his life?
again, im not trying to discount or devalue paul's writings in Romans or Ephesians nor am i saying they shouldn't be used when sharing the gospel. what i am asking is this: should something like the salvation of our selves and our pasts and futures and nows and our brains and hearts and souls be broken down into a plan to be accomplished or checked off as "done?"
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6 comments:
good thoughts, friend. i feel like we can be so caught up in "plans"--having them, making them, following them, discussing them--that we can miss the really beautiful moments that come unexpectedly. i have come to be afraid of churches with plans for growth, or plans for "converting" visitors, or plans for making money. i feel like too many plans do not leave room for God to be Yahweh (God as the cause of what happened), because really...if a certain group or missions team or church body "plans" an event where people become "saved", there is usually a "thank you Jesus for making our event work"...not "thank you Jesus for working because we are incapable of changing hearts."
-heather
Have you ever heard of or read Will Metzger's book Telling the Truth? It speaks to this very thing, and it's been one of the most encouraging and beneficial books I've read regarding evangelism.
no, but ill pick it up soon... the last day a nd a half ive just wondered if we break down the gospel into a 5 or so step process because we are in a hurry or maybe even because we want to protect it from getting distorted. i understand both, but still... HOW did Jesus speak of salvation and the kingdom of heaven (which is here now)?
Metzger's Tell the Truth is a great book.
Jesus may have employed story, but those stories were always in effort to communicate a concrete, propositional truth. The Epistles, most notably those by Paul, went to great lengths to present the Gospel in a clear way. While I'm with you on not making things cliche', the truth is that the minute you start talking about who Jesus is, what the Gospel is, etc (and what they are not) you're locked into having to communicate using propositions. That's the way human communication works.
Your only other option at this point would be to say that one could be saved by a vague knowledge of what God might be like inferred from various stories. Romans 10 tells us that even the faith of the Jews, for all their zeal, was not according to knowledge, in effect, the truth that Paul is outlining in Romans and even such a zealous faith didn't have the ability to save them.
BTW Austin, it's nice to see you again.
its nice to see you too!! yes it is!
i agree with you completely... and i know from conversations with you in the past that we probably agree paul wouldn't have just loved having 5 statements pulled from a letter like romans to explain the whole of our salvation. and when Jesus used concrete statements they sounded like, "repent and believe," "follow me," "the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure in a field..." im not sure, however, it has to be eitehr all concrete propostitions or an abstract, devalued, vague, void of knowledge salvation. i lean heavily toward and love the concrete truths Jesus presents, but he also says things like "what you do to the least of these you do unto me" (and we all know what comes to those who do not in this parable), "cut out your eyes if they cause you to sin," and said of a short man in a tree that salvation had come to his house before a single prayer was prayed... these were abstract ideas used to share concrete truths.
and again, its really good to see you too.
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