When I asked what people wanted me to talk about, a handful said “Salvation.” What is salvation? Who will be saved? And how? Hugely important questions. Our best approach is to go back into Scripture and see what God would have us read and ponder.
Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated “salvation” in the Old Testament is yeshua’ – identical to Jesus’ Hebrew name! The word means “broadening, enlarging, creating space,” as in safe space to grow and thrive. Salvation is “rescue,” and from real enemies. When God parted the sea, Moses urged the escaping Israelite slaves to “see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13). In such a rescued, safe space, the people were free to be with God (who “is our salvation,” Exodus 15:2), and so set free to follow God’s laws and enjoy God’s blessings, like the healing of fractured relationships with God and others.
The New Testament’s Greek word soteria implies being liberated from an old, worldly life into a whole new life. In Luke 19:9, Jesus tells Zaccheus “Today salvation has come to your house.” It’s not that Zaccheus now could go to heaven. His whole life changed, financially and socially. In John 4:42, the Samaritan woman calls Jesus her savior. She was liberated from the judgment of others, and felt loved and included, finally, after years of isolation and shame.
Paul speaks in similar ways about salvation, although he is also concerned about eternal life. The cross and resurrection of Jesus show us and enact God’s salvation: a new, free, joyful life now and the assurance of God’s intimate presence continuing after death. Salvation is forgiveness, being reconciled to God, and being busy striving for reconciliation with others. Guilt’s stranglehold is broken, and the Spirit bears fruit in those saved from its bondage.
Some American churches have emphasized that salvation is “accepting Christ as your savior,” a phrase that, oddly enough, never appears in the Bible. What we find in the Bible is much better. Eternal life is something we can count on, but God’s salvation extends not just to believers but to all of Creation!
Salvation isn’t earned or earnable; it’s entirely God’s merciful gift. Listen to Paul: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The secret is whether you realize and live into this fantastic, healing mercy or not. You miss out on the joy when you doggedly live as if it’s up to you alone.
At the same time, there’s work to do, even though works won’t save you. I love the paradoxical Philippians 2:12: “Work out your salvation, for God is at work in you.” Did you see it? Work at it! And realize it’s God working in you. God wants your faith, counting on grace not your works. But then, when you let your heart be enraptured by that unconditional love, you’re motivated to live a saved life.
Saved – but from what? Pointlessness. Fear. Hopelessness. Isolation. Weariness. The clutch of malevolent powers that drag you down. The world’s feeble values. Being stuck. Sin. Saved from your self – that is, your turned-in-on-itself self – and thus liberated to be your truest, best self. For our New Testament writers, salvation is to become not just close to God, but like God. “See what love the Father has given us: we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know we shall be like him” (1 John 3:1-3).
My favorite Psalm is the 73rd. Its vision of salvation and grace is simple. “I am with You continually. There is nothing on earth I desire besides You. For me, it is good to be near God.” Salvation isn’t a prize, the reward for being good or believing well. It’s a relationship. It’s closeness to God, love shared with God, a nearness that even death can’t upend.
And this relationship already is. You don’t have to manufacture it, or even “feel” it. God has a relationship with you, beside, before, and around you right now if you believe or sense it or not. It’s fact. So it’s time to realize and delight in it, and to get to work doing all God wants to do in and through you for the relationship and for you to become your truest self.
There are lingering questions, like Who’s saved? Everybody or some? What would it mean not to be saved, or not to enjoy salvation? Another day, another essay! For now, relax and rest in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s ingenious suggestion that we needn’t know who’s saved, or who might not be. We simply hope for all people to be saved. Why would one hope for anything else?