Friday, December 5, 2008

You Are Here

Many times in Christian circles we talk about salvation.  But I think there is not a lot of focus into what that tangibly means.  To most, I think the word has become christianized... a word that has lost it's meaning.  For me, I used to simply equate it with saying the sinner's prayer and getting my "get out of Hell free card".  But recently in a heated discussion, the topic of salvation came up and many were not sure what the basis of salvation was.  Is it just a prayer, or is it more?

I think that most agree that there isn't anything we can do to save ourselves.  It is God alone that provides salvation.  But this begs the question, what must I do to be saved?  What constitutes salvation?

Some in the church have watered down salvation to a simple sinner's prayer.  It is tempting to think that just saying an incantation that we are saved, or that simply calling on the Lord brings salvation.  Some point to Joel 2:32 as the basis of this salvation.  However, it is important to note that Jesus in said...

Matthew 7:21-23
Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS."

The discrepancy we find between this verse and Joel is interesting.

Joel 2:32a
"Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved"

But I believe that it is these Biblical "glitches" where the truth of God dwells!  So I determined it was important to go back to Joel, and assume that I was missing something.  After all, I always heard just a fragment of a verse in this prophetic book.  I read the entirety of Joel (a whole three chapters) and found a striking pattern that I believe we should follow in our evangelism efforts.  Not only that, but I believe we can apply this in our own live as well.

I found that salvation is not a binary decision.  It's not that you say a word or two and find yourself a lifetime member of the Jesus club.  The sinner's prayer may get you heading in the right direction yes, but I believe that salvation is achieved by our continual response to God and his grace granted us through Christ Jesus.  At any point in our journey we must stop and ask ourselves "where am I?", to make a stop on our spiritual and look at the map.

I believe that Joel outlines four phases.  I also feel that salvation can only be truly achieved if we do these phases in order: repent, believe and receive.

1) Destruction
The first half chapter of Joel (1:1-12) and the first half of the second chapter (2:1-11) goes into great detail a story of devastation and invasion. This I believe represents our default position in this world as sinners.  We all know that the "wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).  At any point in our life's journey we may find ourselves on a path to death, or perhaps we are being pursued by the enemy.

In my youth group I find kids who cut themselves, smoke pot, or engage in sexual immorality.  I can see clearly that they are on this road to death.  Our first step is to help them understand that this road is bad, and that God wants to bless them!  If we never realize this, we cannot move onto the second phase.

2) Repent
The second half of the first chapter of Joel (1:13-20) talks of repentance.  This is the next step we need to take in order to see the salvation of the Lord.  This means surrendering to the Lord and crying out to Him.  This is a change of position of our heart.  It must be a 180º turn.  To quote an ancient Turkish proverb:

"No matter how far down the wrong path you have gone, turn back"

We must first realize that we are on the wrong path, and then we can't suffer under the delusion that things will get better, or that we can fix things on our own.  Instead, we must turn to God and cry out to Him. 

Mark 1:15
Jesus said... "The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

3) Believe
The story of Joel starts to get exciting midway through chapter two (2:12-17).  Here we begin to see something miraculous.  The people of God start to BELIEVE.  I especially love verse 14 because it is so human!  You can see the formation of "maybe" and then "perhaps" and then "we believe!"  This is also seen in John 3:16 (who ever believes in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life)

The next part of the chapter (2:18-27) that God responds to our belief!  He begins to help us out and get us out of our situation.  But I think this is often times where we end the story.  We receive the blessing of God and worship him, but that's where we leave things.  If we dare to read on, we will find there's one more step.

4) Receive
We had talked about spiritual gifts.  We want to see miracles.  I believe that this last step is crucial so we can see the salvation of our God.  Jesus tells us to "receive the Holy Spirit" - John 20:22.  This of course parallels what Joel is talking about and that we are to receive the Holy Spirit.  It's only then that we get to the verse "everyone who calls on my name will be saved"  It is also important to read the last chapter because we see that salvation is more than having today's needs taken care of by God, but rather it is having your needs taken care of in abundance! We will never thirst again after receiving true salvation.

Summary
The last part of Joel makes it obvious that this is a prophetic book speaking of the end times.  It's actually really a good read, especially given our modern sociopolitical state.  I also think an excellent study is to compare the illustrations of Joel (wine, figs, vines, ripe harvest) with teachings of Jesus.  I think there is something to that!

No comments: