Salvation Revisted

We have long thought that salvation is about getting us to heaven so we can rest and be out of range of evil. Then we will be able to coast along in perfection because there won't be anyone there to cause us to do wrong. We will no longer need grace because we will not have any evil desires or impulses to resist. But for now, we have to strive hard to hang on to God's strength and by His power resist and overcome evil both within and without until we are safe on that distant shore. We have to fill our minds with lots of truth that will outweigh or expose all the wrong information that may still be in our minds. Or, if we have been in the church long enough some people actually have the audacity to believe that the only job left for them is to convince others of the truths of doctrine so they can come into line with what we know to be true. Since there is very little truth that we haven't heard repeatedly from the pulpit or in our writings, then our emphasis shifts from learning to teaching (or arguing) to spread the “gospel” to all the world. Pretty much the outline of the good, solid left-brain religion I was brought up in.

As I read My Utmost yesterday morning the realization began to deepen that our dependence on God will not cease when we get to heaven as we have subtly assumed but not necessarily taught. In fact, salvation is the relationship itself of learning constant dependence and enjoying continuous intimacy with our Creator and Lover. Our preparation for heaven is not achieving perfection of behavior and outward conformity or even a perfectly disciplined imagination. We are not using the plan of salvation just to get us out of the mess of sin so we can be independently wealthy and happy in the new earth in fellowship with other like-minded saints. Salvation is the experience of living in a vital connection with the Source of life which results in the symptoms of life growing naturally out of our lives. This process is called Salvation and the condition itself is called eternal life. That's why Jesus said we would enter into life eternal NOW when we believed in Him. (see John 6:54 & 17:3) Our intimate relationship with Jesus, our continual surrender to be governed by an outside Source of authority in that relationship is the essence of eternal life. It begins to reconnect us to the Tree of Life that we have been deprived of for millenia. And the same relationship that we experience and enter into here is the one that will continue for all of eternity while strengthening in deeper and deeper surrender, being swallowed up in the identity of God Himself.

All throughout the Bible there are indications that the people of God are being formed into a united “dwelling” place, a building, a sanctuary for God to dwell in. Salvation is not turning us into gods who will take over heaven. Salvation restores us into eternal life which is being swallowed up into the body of Christ that God is assembling to be fully revealed at the great wedding day at the end of the millenium. (see the Great Controversy overview)