Grace THROUGH faith

What is it that really saves us? My entire life I've been told that we are not saved by anything we do, but by what Jesus has done. The key verse that people back this up with is Ephesians 2:8-9,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

People use this verse to say that grace is not of ourselves, but yet seem to think that faith is of ourselves entirely. This is perhaps why many Christians "blame" non-believers themselves(rather than God) for not having faith before they died. But if faith is of ourselves entirely, and is not a gift of God, then wouldnt we have something to "boast" in as believers? If us mustering up the faith to believe, is what makes salvation applicable, then we are doing something to save ourselves; we are in effect, saved by a work of ourselves!

That seems to be against everything Paul is saying here though. He says,

for by grace you have been saved through faith. and this...

This what? This grace? No...this grace through faith. And so what about it? It is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God. Grace comes with faith, and vice versa...Paul doesnt seperate the two components to salvation and say that one is of ourselves, and the other is not. So perhaps faith is like the vehicle, by which grace comes to us FROM God to execute salvation within us.

some might object however and say,

Well you have to accept that gift

And I think thats true to an extent, but again if that ability to accept something is entirely of ourselves, it is us that is doing a "work" to be saved...not God and His grace. So I think God has to make someone able to accept grace through faith, if it is truly not of themselves. Simon Peter didnt believe that Jesus was the Son of God all on his own, he believed because God revealed it to him. In Matthew 16:15-17, Jesus says

"But who do you say that I am?"

Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

If you get nothing else out of this blog, get this: Grace is what enables us TO have faith!

I think this more or less blows a hole in the mainstream christian theology that says that faith is up to us and our "free" will. Because these verses seem to say that it is not up to us to save ourselves or give ourselves faith; it is of God and his dispensation of revelation to people individually. And if that is so, then it is logical to say that if someone dies without having received said grace through faith, that it is not they that are ultimately responsible...but God.

But wait, God cant be to blame for the sinner that rejects Him! you may reply.

Yes, God is totally responsible for our salvation, if it is truly not by our own works. That includes our acceptance and rejection of it. Paul testified to this too in a sense, in Romans 9:18,

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills

Did you catch that? He wills, not our wills. It is His will that some(probably most) will be hardened from the gospel this side of the grave.

But this is only disturbing though, if we think that Gods title as "Savior of All Men" will never truly be fulfilled. This is only disturbing, if we constantly beat every bible verse and thought against the doctrine of "free" will. We need to realize that God has a plan that wont fail.

The end result of those people that are hardened, will not be eternal separation(which according to what we've examined, would be Gods fault basically). They too will come to God, when He allows them to. Because it is true that no one can come to faith in God, unless God draw him (John 6:44). But it is also true that God will draw all men to himself (John 12:32). What time table God decides to do that under I will not limit him, but I will say that it is not limited merely to this short human existence we have been granted.

Two kinds of salvation

Two blogs ago I talked about how we are not so much "saved" from a place called Hell, but rather our separation from God. This is going to be sort of the follow up to that blog, so if you havent read it yet, read that first. This week I will be taking about salvation in its two different forms, and hopefully, I will do it without confusing you or myself, haha:

Salvation in Christianity is most popularly viewed as the act of accepting Jesus into ones heart and asking His forgiveness. That by saying the sinners prayer, Jesus comes to "live" in your heart and you get saved from the devil poking you with his red pitchfork.

This view treats salvation (or reconciliation to God) like a freely given coupon, in that if you fail to cash it in by an unknown expiration date...the blood shed for you is no longer any good to redeem you and thus you get to go to Hell for all time. In this view Gods attitude is,
I did my part, now do yours, or I will cease to help you

Salvation (in this view) is thus not entirely dependent on God's love and Calvary, but is equally co-dependent on mans will to repent and live the correct lifestyle. Our works and attitudes ultimately affect Gods so called "unchanging" ways and attitude towards us, and makes him out to be no different than any other temporary, selfish human being. Even so, we talk a lot about how Christ came to free us from doing works to get Gods favor and forgiveness...yet this view clearly states that Christ really only gave us new works in order to merit Gods affection.

But is this really how God set up salvation to be? Lets look at Romans 5:18-19
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

There are many things we can say about this passage. But I think the most notable, is the fact that it relates the human condemnation through Adam(which none of us chose to be born into), in direct proportion to justification through Christ. Therefore, if the condemnation Adam brought on human kind didn't take our acceptance to take effect, then why would the justification of Christ need our acceptance to take effect? According to this passage, Adams curse on the human race is in effect from the day one is born, so by the same logic, Christs justification takes effect from the day we are born, to counteract that curse. All this to say, it doesn't take ones accepting Jesus, in order for one to be justified by Jesus. We are all justified by the blood, whether we "accept" it or not. Beyond that, because of Christ, it is impossible for a human to offend God by sinning.

The Greek word for sin is "hamartia" (to offend) or sometimes the Bible uses "hamartano" (to miss the mark). knowing that, the following passage reads thusly:
1 John 2:1-2
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not [miss the mark]. But if anyone does [miss the mark], we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our [offense], and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

We all miss the mark in life, for even the most devout Christian will still sin. But God cannot be offended by our wicked deeds any longer...Christ paid and saved us from the offense. This dismisses the popular notion that God somehow has "no choice", but to cast unrepentant sinners into an eternal abyss, because his holy purity is somehow offended by the stench of our sins. It is literally impossible to offend God, because of Christ. I call this Type A salvation, or automatic salvation, because everyone is justified and clean of offense automatically via the Cross.

Now you might say, what about Romans 10:9?
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Using this verse, you might argue that surely one has to confess and believe to be saved, right? Well, I think its important to note here that when the bible talks about being saved or salvation, it doesnt necessarily have anything to do with the common churched idea of eternal deliverance. In Romans 10:9 the word used for saved is "Sozo", which literally means to heal or preserve (think back to the other blog where I said Christ came more to save us from earthly things than eternal ones). So this passage is not talking about justification, so much as its talking about sanctification. Everyone is already justified, or made right with God. But not everyone is sanctified, or made holy in relationship with God. Sanctification requires Gods revelation to us of His truth in order to progressively release us from earthly woes, and thus unite with God in fellowship

In other words, to be justified by God through type A salvation, no you dont have to confess or believe anything. But to benefit from type B salvation, yes, you must confess and believe in order for THAT to take effect in your life.
(sounds like Im talking about diseases, doesnt it? Type A and Type B and all lol). Think of it this way,

Suppose you have a rich uncle who dies and leaves a 100,000 dollars JUST for you in a bank account, and the only one who knows about it is your dad. Now in order to benefit from this large stack of moola, you would first have to know that it exist. But you would not have to know about it, for the money to merely exist in your name or for it to gain interest. It is yours and legally, nothing can change that. However, your father might not tell you that it is there until you are old enough to spend it wisely and fully appreciate the gift for what it is.

I realize theres a few flaws with my analogy, but I think it illustrates my point adequately. Type A salvation is a done deal, it was completed and put into effect the moment Jesus said on the cross,
It is finished.
However, type B is not persay done, because it is not an event. It is a process that may never actually cease to progress the human soul. Type B salvation starts when one is awakened in their conscious to the fullness of Christ (when GOD chooses to reveal), leading that person to take up their own cross and follow Him. When a person accepts Christ, they are re-birthed in their mind and heart to what God has done for them and will continue to do in their life. This is what I think Jesus truly meant by one being "born again"(John 3:6-8)

Ive brought up the following verses before,1 Timothy 4:9-10 it says,
This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance ¹⁰(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

When one confesses and believes in Christ, they can truly live in the peace and knowledge of ones reconciliation to God and thus fully experience a relationship with God. This is what I think is meant here by saying especially those who believe. God is the savior of all men, whether they acknowledge it or not. But He has a special relationship and "salvation" from self, for those that do believe. We are all justified, but not all sanctified.

We are all bought by the blood, but we are not all yet washed by it.

Salvation is not like a coupon that expires, or milk that goes sour. It is imperishable. It is in one way, already complete. Yet in another way, requires Gods unveiling of our hearts and mind to the truth in order to obtain the life that He has waiting for us.

I realize I got pretty heavy in this blog, I even had to double check some passages and words to make sure I knew what I was talking about (lol). But if nothing else hopefully you understand this idea of salvation a little more clearly.

"Saved" from what?

Last summer, I remember one sunday at church we had a missionary who gave a sermon on "evangelizing to the world". I dont remember much about the message, but one story he told still comes to my mind frequently.

With very distraught eyes, he told the story of him and another missionary coming across a baby at the foot of these mountains, in india I think it was. And the other missionary looked at the baby with tears in his eyes and said,
You know, it would be better if we killed this baby right now so it could go to heaven...than to let it grow up in this culture with the likelihood being that it would grow up and reject God, and go to Hell forever.

The rest of the sermon is blank to me now, but Ill never forget the look of horror and desperation on the missionary's face all throughout it, the tears that never left his eyes and the deafening silence from us that were listening.
Soon enough though, everyone was back in the halls...laughing, smiling and scarfing down sprinkled donuts, while the unsaved world was supposedly "going up in flames". And I remember going home that day, and thinking to myself,
Could that really be the great hope we Christians are hanging on to?

It certainly must be hard for anyone to come to grips with this doctrine that God has seemingly placed more responsibility on Christians to save mankind, than He has placed on that of Christ himself. Such would seem quite absurd, but I find its what most of us Christians actually believe.
And Ive come to find that maybe the problem is, is that no one really understands what it is that Jesus came to save us from in the first place.

In Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam that the day he eats of the tree of knowledge, he shall die. Take note God does not say "you shall surely be thrown in an everlasting pit of flames and screaming" as the consequence of sin. He simply says that Adam will die. While Adam did not literally drop dead in the garden the day he ate of the apple(in fact he supposedly lived about 900 years), he and Eve did die another way that very day; they died in spirit. In a similar way, I contend we have all died in spiritual awareness and connection with God because of our sin. It has little to nothing to do with us being doomed to a fiery abyss in the ground.

This makes massive sense when we look at what Jesus said he came to do. In Luke 4:18, he says,
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed

I find it interesting that in His first public address, Jesus speaks of freeing us from a much more earthly state of being, than an eternal one. If Christs sole mission was to save us from an eternal Hell, why the focus on temporary things? Why even waste time talking about and healing the temporary ills of this world, when we need to be snatched out of the gaping jaws of eternal damnation? Maybe it is because eternal damnation was never in the balance to begin with. Maybe it is because Christ came to liberate humanity not so much from Hell, but from the Hell of life caused by our spiritual death in sin.

In 1 John 3:8 it says,
The Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the work of the Devil

If the devils work was tempting humankind into a state of spiritual death, than that is what Christ came to save us from...not this pagan conception we call "Hell". Our souls and our planet are subliminally broken and out of proportion because of our flawed nature, but Christ came simply to heal and lead us in a Godly process. So that step by step, every human lost from God could have an awareness of the Father and His love for us.

I have more to say, as this is a very complicated subject. But I think this is a good place to stop for now and hopefully hear some comments.