Christianese - Salvation

Salvation is an easy word to figure out. It means simply being saved from something, presumably something bad. That's accurate. For a long time when I was young Christians would ask people, "Are you saved?" Assuming that "saved" simply means "being safe" or "being rescued from something bad", the question is mindless. So obviously it has a point in Christianese -- a particular "bad" from which you need to be rescued. When I was young, it was our "shibboleth", our code word for finding out if you were a genuine Christian or not. Before long, of course, it got to be old hat and we progressed from there, but what was the code?

In Christianese the term "salvation" is meant to represent a specific saving, a particular "bad" from which you are saved. It is death. Of course, to the Christian "death" is much more than simple "termination of this life". Far more important is eternal death and eternal life. Thus, in Christianese the term "salvation" is used to refer to the concept of being saved from eternal death to eternal life.

This idea carries several properties. For instance, why is there a threat of eternal death? Well, humans are sinners guilty of overthrowing God and deserve punishment. If treason is an offense punishable by death, Cosmic Treason would be an offense punishable by eternal death. All humans have that judgment hanging over their heads. Enter "the Gospel". Now we have Christ dying to pay for our Treason and rising again. In this Gospel, we have payment for offense and promise of life. So this salvation removes the penalty and replaces eternal death with eternal life. We are saved, quite literally, from God's wrath, from eternal damnation. A second aspect of this concept of salvation is that it carries with it implications for life. Not just eternal life, but life here and now. Jesus said that "he who is forgiven little, loves little." Being forgiven for Cosmic Treason produces great love. You can see that. Your gratitude for someone who saves you from tripping on the sidewalk is not the same as your gratitude for someone who pulls you out of the way of a speeding bus. The prime ethic of the Christian life is this gratitude, the natural response of someone who has been saved from ultimate disaster. Further, being saved from death to life includes (quite obviously) life. That is, the first step of salvation in this sense is the new life. We understand, for instance, that we will have life eternal -- in the future -- but there is a sure sense in which it is now. John wrote, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life" (John 3:36). There is a new spirit, a new life, a "new man" involved where before there was only spiritual death. So while "salvation" is essentially "saved from eternal death to eternal life", it includes a new kind of daily existence. In fact, according to Scripture salvation is for this purpose. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:10). Paul wrote that Jesus "gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14). Of course, the ultimate purpose of those good works is "so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven", but "to be conformed to the image of His Son" is indeed a primary goal.

On one hand, salvation is a simple concept. Saved from bad things. We get that. In Christianese it takes up on one side a much narrower perspective -- saved from eternal death to eternal life -- and on the other side a much broader perspective with ramifications that effect everyday living. Too often we use the term "saved" lackadaisically. We forget to consider "Saved from what?" or "How?" or "Why?" In so doing we forget the abyss from which we are saved, the marvel of the Gospel by which we are saved, and the Christ-reflecting life to which we are saved. It's a big concept in a simple word.