Salvation

If you're a reader, not a listener, here is a PDF of the talk. Of all the words we've talked about in this series, this word may be the most used (or abused). In fact, of all the words we're exploring in Graffiti, "Salvation" might most fully embody this concept. No other word should sound as beautiful to those who are enslaved to death. And yet this word has become a wall between the Church and the world - evangelists infamous for 'fire and brimstone', threatening people with hellfire if they're not 'saved' and promising that Jesus will save us all from the wrath of an angry God have come to represent all believers in the minds of many in our culture. Especially Evangelicals have been known for telling people they need to "get saved". And the surprising truth about salvation is that our conception of it isn't very far off. The core truth of the Christian confession concerning 'salvation' is hasn't really changed that much. The essence of the concept is that we are in danger of some sort and need to be rescued, saved from it. What we'll see today is that the problem with our picture of 'salvation', the reason it's become such an ugly word to most of the world, is that our picture is too small. Our understanding is too narrow.

What is Salvation? What are we saved FROM? And HOW are we saved?

As we talked about last week, all humanity has sold ourselves into slavery to Sin and Death. And Jesus died in our place, as our Passover Lamb, to rescue us, redeem us, set us free from that slavery. He saves us from Death.  All of these things are true. But that's not the whole picture. Our problem is that we've reduced salvation just to that point, that moment when we pass from death to life, the singular moment when we are liberated. We ask people when they 'got saved'. We treat Salvation as this moment that happened once, in the past. But what if it's more than that?