That pink piggy bank was where I saved
all my coins. I saved for longer than I thought was possible—as an elementary
aged kid. Then, one otherwise ordinary afternoon, we marched up to a giant
green machine and dumped them all out: my savings. My hands were dirty but my
eyes bright after pushing coin after coin into the slots. In the end, I was
handed a few big, but light, crisp bills—everything I had given came to this?
Was it worth it?
“YOU TOO CAN BE SAVED…” bellowed the
preacher on Easter Sunday morning. This time I was older, sitting between my
Jesus following parents and my Buddhist best friend at Easter Sunday
service—the latter was present mostly because the Jonas brothers were
performing. I prayed silently for her to understand, but she was too analytical
for this: “saved? But my life is fine; I do not need some prince charming to
come “save me,” let alone god.” I knew that’s what she was thinking…she just
played games on her phone.
Saved by grace.
Set free from sin.
Saved and free and…now safe?
A Christian: some one saved by grace, released
from the punishment of death (the side effect of sin) and eternal separation
from Christ, brought into a new life, new family, and new identity. Saved: this
language reflects the dramatic shift from old to new, redeemed to restored, and
sinful to righteous—where people who profess belief in Jesus have entered into a
new hope. Accepting the free gift of eternal life by believing that Jesus
unlocks people from the confines of sin they were previously powerless against
enables one to be “saved”. This word reflects the choice we have made to accept
the free, undeserved gift.
The language of saving and safety selects
to promote the magnitude of grace, goodness, and power of God over sin. Alternatively,
it connotes our powerlessness, general weakness, and inability to untangle
ourselves from the bonds of sin that so forcefully enslaves us. It reminds us
the victory has been won—it is finished. Belief in Jesus allows freedom to live
new lives, unhindered. The language of being “saved” by our Savior, fully
acknowledges sin as the problem. Sin is the thing from which we are saved and
made safe!
However, it is this intense focus on sin
that can be problematic for the “good” nonbeliever who does not see their life
as entrenched in inescapable sin from which they need saving. This “saved” language also conjures up images
of knights in shining armor or months worth of pocket change, effectively
deflecting the messiness of life that remains after conversion while
emphasizing the initial moment of rescue. Yes, we are now loosed from the bond
of sin, but we have to now train ourselves (thankfully, with the Holy Spirit’s
help) to consciously avoid temptation and sin—sin that does not just disappear
with one’s acceptance of the gift of grace. As imperfect people, this is a difficult
process filled with failure, backsliding, and the messy effects of residual sin.
The new believer who has been “saved,” may feel guilt or doubt or shame as they
face daily temptations and learn the daily re-commitment to Christ and process
of being saved (sanctification). The
sanctification process is often neglected from the pulpits of fire and brimstone
preaching. For not only did Jesus’s death pay for our sins and save us the
moment we believe in him, but his death also saves us daily, molding us into
his likeness, as we rely on him to guide us in conquering the sin in our lives.
We are already saved, we are in the process of being saved, and, one day when
Jesus returns again, we will be saved and set free from the guilt and shame,
forever.
Biblically, the language of “saved” is
derived from a first century Jewish context—where the politics of the time
utilized “saviors” to create “concrete changes in the lives and the world [and
lives] …of the first century…” people (Watts, 157). These saviors were people
who created economic and political change, they brought peace and created
lasting, effective transformation. They were supportive in transition, firm in
implementing their changes, and faithful in redeeming people from their
alternative ideologies. It is from this concept we derive the characteristic of
Jesus as “Savior,” connoting the in-progress redemption of the world that will
be fully saved upon his second coming. However,
the modern understanding of saved, looses the lasting impact that the first
century’s term implies.
To restore meaning to the saving process,
“redeemed” conveys better terminology. Redeemed reduces the fairy tail
connotations of saved, while imparting the notion of being “bought back” through
Jesus’s sacrifice in the process of being “made good and freed from slavery” (Oxford
English Dictionary: redeem). To be redeemed by the love of God through the gift
of the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ, indicates the power of God’s
ownership of us, our continued need for him, and the process of being made more
like him through sanctification. In being redeemed, we have gained more value,
been cleaned up from our sin, and are in the process of being made fully new.
While “redeemed” is seemingly the more appropriate terminology to draw
nonbelievers to the full, lifelong truth of the power of Christ working in
them, the history of the “redeemed” terminology can be traced only to about the
fourteenth century (as opposed to the first century history of “saved” via the
political “savior”) (OED). As such it seems that both words are employed well
in understanding God’s actions of reconciling us back to him, if “saved” is
understood in its original, first century context.
Upon the second coming and return of
Jesus Christ, we will be ultimately, saved. This will not be unlike the child
watching her hard earned, dirty coins drain away—only to be handed clean,
crisp, cash and an empty bank with which to start fresh.
