salvation

Recently I was asked to define 'salvation' and what it meant to me for our high school students at church. The following is my response - for what it's worth.

As I’ve given thought to this question, it occurs to me that perhaps the real question is “What is your response to salvation?” I mean … I can look up a wikipedia response and get [the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc. 2. the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.] but that’s not my personal response. It’s much bigger than that … and yet more subtle. My understanding of salvation is deeper, broader, and different than it was when I was in high school … in fact I think it’s different than it was last week. On the more obvious side – yes, I’ve been saved from my sin – those things, those acts, those thoughts and attitudes, those habits that continue to separate me from GOD – are forgotten – not by me, but by my savior and friend – Jesus. HE has said that HE has separated me from my sin, as far as the East is from the West… and he remembers them … no more.

Read what Paul said in Romans 7:13-25 then answer that question. I/we tend to look at David as ‘a man after GOD’s own heart; Paul as one of the spiritual giants; the apostles as those in the intimate circle of Jesus himself – and yet David committed adultery and then had the woman’s husband killed and then pulled a cover-up scam that would make the Taliban proud. Paul admitted he was the chief of sinners – known for his brutal treatment and imprisonment of Christians and carried a ‘thorn in the flesh’ to his grave. The apostles were so caught up in themselves that they usually missed the point. To me that’s good news! Jesus still loves me – in spite of what has happened previously in my life and who I was and who I am. Nothing … NOTHING … can separate me from the love of Jesus. In his eyes I am as clean as a newborn lamb. Look at Zach – do you think that he could do anything that would make Sarah stop loving him or that she wouldn’t drop everything to welcome him into her arms??? That is a brief glimpse into salvation.

So … my response? From Jackson Browne’s song:

I want to know what became of the changes

We waited for love to bring

Were they only the fitful dreams

Of some greater awakening?

I've been aware of the time going by

They say in the end it's the wink of an eye

When the morning light comes streaming in

You'll get up and do it again

Amen.

That’s right – I probably won’t get it all right today … and I’ll leave a lot undone… and there will be some that is wrong. But I’ll leave it in the Lord’s hands and I’ll keep HIS word on my lips and tomorrow I’ll get up and do it again. That’s my salvation, knowing that each day in the Lord is a new day!

This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24