Truly Saved? (Part 1)

Time to tackle the single most important aspect of Christianity: salvation.  It’s a hard topic for me to write about, since contemporary American Christianity has somehow managed to distort the biblical view of salvation.

What is salvation?  In the US, people speak of having “been saved.”  What exactly were they saved from?  Biblically, we are saved by Christ from hell, through His sacrifice on the cross, where he paid the penalty for our sins which separate us from God.  Most Christians agree on this.  

But here is where contemporary Americanized Christianity starts to fall short.  Some of us remember when we said a special prayer; many evangelical Christians even point to a time where they “asked Jesus into their heart.”  But what happened after that?  Was there a real change in our lives?  Evangelicals like to talk about being “born again,” but are their lives after their “salvation prayer” any different from their lives before?  Can you tell a difference between the Christian and everyone else in the crowd?  Do they live differently, act differently, think differently, dress differently, speak differently?  Statistics show us that Americans who claim to be Christians live basically like everyone else, including similar rates of abortion and divorce.

Here’s where traditionalists usually throw up two arguments.  The first argument is that it sounds like I’m advocating legalism; like I’m saying we have to follow certain rules to be a Christian.  Leaving aside the fact that we are supposed to follow certain “rules” (I’ll tackle that in another blog), this has nothing to do with legalism.  It has to do with being a new creature in Christ, living a Christ-filled life (2 Cor 5:17, John 3:3, Rom 6:1-14).

The other argument is actually just a witty saying: we are called to bear fruit but not be fruit inspectors.  Well, it may sound witty, but it’s not biblical.  We are supposed to examine ourselves to be sure of our faith (2 Cor 13:5).  I’m not saying we can lose our salvation.  On the other hand, you can’t lose something you never had!  If you say a prayer and get your name on the congregation’s membership role, you may boost a pastor’s ego but it doesn’t mean you are saved.  True salvation is a gift from God, lived out by us in turning away from sin, trusting in Christ, and living a Christ-centered life.  We don’t create our salvation, but we do reflect it.

So, how do we reflect our salvation?  Since I’m sure this post has already set some people’s hair on fire, I better save that for the next one!