I often struggle with the concept of salvation... what is it really? - have we relativised it in our western context to make it fit into our mediocre middle class lifestyles? Is it really just a simple decision that can be made when we walk to the front of a church, or does it go deeper? and if it does how deep... it is called the narrow path in scripture - the path seldom traveled- it must be harder than all that, but how hard? I pray it is not too hard, or if it is that Jesus will wake up his church in the west to realise their slumber before it is too late... or are we the 5 virgins without oil for our lamps? I hope and pray that we are not...
there is a classic bible verse that is splashed around in tracts and evangelistic crusades and stuff that says...
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. (Rom 10:9)
That sounds very simple & that's probably why evangelists love it so much... but have you ever thought about the term "Jesus is Lord"? I think that this phrase is the key to it all. We have no concept today what the word Lord entails. Even if it is explained, there is nothing in our experience that we can really relate it to, and as a result I think we just ignore it's significance - using it as a simple placard, that sounds good.
When we think of the term Lord, I think we could probably think of something like a Master/slave relationship, where the slave is the property of the master, he has no rights, he lives to do the will of the Master. In medieval times there was the concept of a serf, that was the subject of their Lord, and owned by them, the serf lived on the Lord's land and farmed or toiled for basically enough to get by in a subsistence type lifestyle. They were very much regarded as sub-human...
Of course, following a loving God, our relationship to him will never be like that, but the concept of our rights to live our own life in relationship to our Lord & Master, must be remembered - WE HAVE NONE!!! ...
Does this mean that we are saved only when we learn to surrender our entire life over to his will????
I don't think so & I think that this is where the title of this blog entry comes in... God is the Master of the Slow Reveal... Think about it... what does the entire bible show us? It shows us that God had a plan, a plan that took thousands of years to come about and we have been waiting about 2000 years more to see its completion. Throughout the bible, we see the nature and person of God develop into the God of the New Testament, a God of love and forgiveness. I am not suggesting that God has changed over time, that would stand in direct opposition to what the scripture itself says. but what we do have is a God that took his time to reveal himself in his fullness... Why? maybe if he revealed himself in one hit (and lets face it he still hasn't revealed himself entirely), our brains would turn to mush, or we would run away and hide screaming "There's no place like home, there's no place like home" or something like that.
I think that our private walk with God works in very much the same way, it takes time for God to reveal himself to us, & it takes time for us to submit to him as Lord of our lives. This is why salvation (or Christianity if you prefer) is a journey, not a decision. We are constantly being called to go deeper, to surrender more... some times we go through cruisy times, but then He tightens the screws, and reminds us that He is there, if we don't respond to this call, to this challenge to step up and continue the journey, then he is not Lord of our lives, because if he is Lord, we have no right to say no...
Having said that, can we say that comfortable, Sunday Christianity is Christianity at all?
........ if we cruise around praying for car parks and not a whole lot more;
............. if we pray that the Lord returns soon but do not get out there and help
..............see his Kingdom come;
....................if we perceive that Jesus is there only to bless us and fulfill our needs;
there is a classic bible verse that is splashed around in tracts and evangelistic crusades and stuff that says...
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. (Rom 10:9)
That sounds very simple & that's probably why evangelists love it so much... but have you ever thought about the term "Jesus is Lord"? I think that this phrase is the key to it all. We have no concept today what the word Lord entails. Even if it is explained, there is nothing in our experience that we can really relate it to, and as a result I think we just ignore it's significance - using it as a simple placard, that sounds good.
When we think of the term Lord, I think we could probably think of something like a Master/slave relationship, where the slave is the property of the master, he has no rights, he lives to do the will of the Master. In medieval times there was the concept of a serf, that was the subject of their Lord, and owned by them, the serf lived on the Lord's land and farmed or toiled for basically enough to get by in a subsistence type lifestyle. They were very much regarded as sub-human...
Of course, following a loving God, our relationship to him will never be like that, but the concept of our rights to live our own life in relationship to our Lord & Master, must be remembered - WE HAVE NONE!!! ...
Does this mean that we are saved only when we learn to surrender our entire life over to his will????
I don't think so & I think that this is where the title of this blog entry comes in... God is the Master of the Slow Reveal... Think about it... what does the entire bible show us? It shows us that God had a plan, a plan that took thousands of years to come about and we have been waiting about 2000 years more to see its completion. Throughout the bible, we see the nature and person of God develop into the God of the New Testament, a God of love and forgiveness. I am not suggesting that God has changed over time, that would stand in direct opposition to what the scripture itself says. but what we do have is a God that took his time to reveal himself in his fullness... Why? maybe if he revealed himself in one hit (and lets face it he still hasn't revealed himself entirely), our brains would turn to mush, or we would run away and hide screaming "There's no place like home, there's no place like home" or something like that.
I think that our private walk with God works in very much the same way, it takes time for God to reveal himself to us, & it takes time for us to submit to him as Lord of our lives. This is why salvation (or Christianity if you prefer) is a journey, not a decision. We are constantly being called to go deeper, to surrender more... some times we go through cruisy times, but then He tightens the screws, and reminds us that He is there, if we don't respond to this call, to this challenge to step up and continue the journey, then he is not Lord of our lives, because if he is Lord, we have no right to say no...
Having said that, can we say that comfortable, Sunday Christianity is Christianity at all?
........ if we cruise around praying for car parks and not a whole lot more;
............. if we pray that the Lord returns soon but do not get out there and help
..............see his Kingdom come;
....................if we perceive that Jesus is there only to bless us and fulfill our needs;
can we really confess that Jesus is Lord??? And if you cannot confess that, then are you really saved???
2 comments:
Love it Peter. I know in my heart that the reality of His Lordship in my life should be a whole lot more than it is. I know that it is easier to rely on self and things known than to hand it over in faith. "Why do you call me Lord, but do not the things that I say?"
We all must agree He says plenty which we do not do.
Thanks for that dad, great input...
I am signing in anonymously because people are saying they are having problems leaving comments so this is a bit of a test...
Peter
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