SALVATION FROM THE DIVINE AND HUMAN PERSPECTIVES

SALVATION FROM THE DIVINE AND HUMAN PERSPECTIVES

If one were to ask what it means to follow Jesus, most people, Christians, and non-Christians alike, would likely answer, ‘it’s the way to get saved.’ The concept of salvation is one that is not lost in our modern culture. Attend any Christian church or listen to a televangelist spouting his or her message of prosperity, and one will likely hear the word salvation. Maybe more than once. The need to be saved, or experience salvation is a need that all humans have. However, of themselves alone, humans are incapable of seeing that need. Though many people, in the church and out of it, use the word salvation, their concept of the term is often amiss. Human perspective is shaped by human understanding. Understanding that is tarnished by a lost nature that is separated from God. It must be argued that the human perspective of salvation is far different than that of the Divine. God sees the full scope of what salvation is, and what it means to be saved.

First, it seems fitting to offer an explanation of why these two perspectives on salvation, God’s and that of humans, may be different. “To be saved is to be delivered from bondage, brought into freedom, rescued from death, given a new lease on life.”[1] A concept that the lost human mind is, unfortunately, unable to understand. Human beings are not capable of truly seeing their need for salvation alone. But there is an added issue, the concept of salvation that is mostly espoused in the church today, is a form of cheap grace. Humans like things cheap and easy. Whatever tickles their fancy and offers an easy way to get what they want, a get out of hell free card, is a real draw for human beings. “Regrettably the term salvation has been cheapened by an extensive history of misuse.”[2] Misuse that only brings confusion and likely keeps many from a true saving knowledge of Christ, and from living an “abundant life,” (John 10:10) in Him. Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10, ESV). And it is that “abundant life,” (John 10:10) that is at the heart of salvation. Something that the lost mind cannot comprehend. Even those, who by God’s grace, hear of salvation, often receive a cheapened version instead of the real thing.

It is this lostness that prevents humanity from truly grasping the concept of salvation. It is this lostness that tarnishes the human perspective of what salvation really is. Selfish people seek selfish ends. And these selfish ends distort every part of our existence. But it was not always this way. Human beings were created to share in the full life of God. “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7, ESV). God breathed His life into mankind who was created by God is His image (Genesis 1:27). People were created in the image of God to share in the full life of God. Humans would reflect God’s image back to Him. This perichoresis, is the same as that which is shared by God the Father and God the Son.

Jesus is “begotten” (John 3:16) of the Father. Christ shares the life of God the Father, and He reflects the life of God back to the Father. Jesus would put it this way, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). This circulation of life between Father and Son begets the third Person of the Trinitarian God, the Holy Spirit. God imparts His Spirit to the Son, and in turn, the Son reflects that life back to the Father. “Let us consider the Spirit as One who bonds the loving fellowship that God is and creates access to the Father through the Son.” [3] It is this same relationship which mankind was created to share in. God breathed his life into Adam (Genesis 2:7), and humanity was created to reflect the life of God back to the Father through the Son. This may seem confusing, and it is. But to begin to understand salvation one must first understand that it is a work of the One God existing as three persons. It is a result of the relational God who created human beings to share in that relationship.

A relationship that humankind allowed to be distorted by sin (Genesis 3). “But if they went astray and became vile, throwing away their birthright of beauty, then they would come under the natural of death and no longer live in paradise, but, dying outside of it, continue in death and corruption”[4] The life of God that was breathed into man at his creation was replaced by death. Because of sin a now lost humanity was eternally separated from the life of God. But God! God in His grace determined to restore the relationship that man once had with Him (Genesis 3:15). God decided to restore the life that He had given humanity. To share His life once again with fallen man. That is true salvation, that God would restore what was lost. The relationship that humans once enjoyed with the Father, sharing in the very life of God (Romans 8). This is true salvation. “That which is reclaimed by God’s saving action is human life as intended to be – abundant life, eternal life, life in the Spirit (John 5, 6; Romans 8:1-10; 1 John 5).”[5] God’s salvation is not a get out of hell free card, but it is a restoration of the life of God in man. This is the Divine perspective, a sharing of God’s life with man. It is far greater that the perspective of selfish man.

But the restoration of life could not come without a great cost. God sent Jesus (John 17:5; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 12:2) to be a “propitiation” (Romans 3:25), to atone for the sins of humanity. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the life of God could once again be restored in humanity. Mankind was given an opportunity to be in right relationship with God and share in His life. But, without the Holy Spirit’s work, a lost humanity could never see it’s desperate need to be saved in the first place. A relational God, by has grace, allows a lost humanity to be saved. And by the saving work of God, mankind will live again, even though he dies (Romans 8). The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead (Luke 24) will raise those who have accepted the life of God and reflect that life to him.

In conclusion, while it can be argued that the human and Divine perspectives of salvation are different. Man seeks forgiveness to go to heaven, while God seeks to restore His life in humanity. There must come an understanding by man of the difference in his perspective on salvation and that of the Divine. When a lost people come to realize, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that they are to reflect the life of God back to Him. They are to be in relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and from this relationship “abundant life” (John 10:10), not only in this life, but also in the life to come is found. The work of man’s salvation was completed by the only one able to restore that life. God is the source and from the source His life flows out. “The shorthand conventional question, ‘Are you saved?’ may intend to be an intense personalizing of the question of salvation, yet it may inadvertently neglect the broader scope of salvation history (Luke 1:69; Rom. 13:11; 1 Pet. 1:3-9).”[6] When the human perspective of salvation begins to line up with the perspective of the Divine, humanity may truly realize the enormity of God’s love for them. The relational Triune God longs to be in a relationship with the people He Created and moved heaven and earth to save.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pinnock, Clark H., and Daniel Castelo. Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. Downers

            Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022. 17

St. Athanasius: On the Incarnation of the Word - Christian Classics Ethereal Library, n.d.

             https://ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation/incarnation.ii.html. 

Oden, Thomas C. Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology. New York: HarperOne, 2009. 

[1] Oden, Thomas C. Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology. New York: HarperOne, 2009. 562

[2] Oden, Thomas C. Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology. New York: HarperOne, 2009. 562

[3] Pinnock, Clark H., and Daniel Castelo. Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022. 17

[4] St. Athanasius: On the Incarnation of the Word - Christian Classics Ethereal Library, n.d. https://ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation/incarnation.ii.html. 

[5] Oden, Thomas C. Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology. New York: HarperOne, 2009. 562

[6] Oden, Thomas C. Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology. New York: HarperOne, 2009. 562