This is the second post in a three-part series on the nature and purpose of Salvation.

In part one, I suggested that when asking whether one can lose their salvation, we are asking the wrong question or, at least, that isn’t the question we should begin with. Rather, we must first be clear on what we’re talking about when we’re talking about “salvation.” That is, we must consider the essence and purpose of salvation before we can reason whether it might be “lost” or forfeited.

To be frank, I’m not sure that Scripture intends to provide a direct answer to that question either way. There are passages that affirm that salvation is eternally secured by and in Jesus, alone. Yet, there is no shortage of warning passages that put us back on our heels, thus evoking such questions.

Even considering such warnings, I would argue that nowhere does Scripture imply that salvation is as fragile or slippery as questions of eternal security often imply. Such warnings appeal to repeated behaviors, postures of heart and mind, of a life centered on self and sin rather than God (as we’ll consider further in part three). That is, such passages aren’t concerned with one being disqualified by sinful slip-ups but on one’s persistent refusal to live into the life of God, irrespective of what they profess to “believe“ (James 2:19). I think the nuance here will become clearer as we move toward a consideration of not only what we’ve been saved from but what we’ve been saved into.

In effort to harmonize the truth that our salvation is in ‘Christ, alone,’ yet seemingly entails activity and effort on our part, we must first understand what “salvation” is and what salvation does. That is, to move toward a richer view of salvation that we can do nothing on our own to merit but nevertheless necessitates our participation. Now to circle back to my original question: what is the essential nature and purpose of salvation?

Simply put, the purpose of salvation is to conform us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This is a life-long process beginning with the regeneration of our heart/spirit (John 3:3-8 [cf. Jeremiah 31.31-34; Ezekiel 36.24-38]; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:45) thus making us alive to God (1 Corinthians 15:45 ff.; Romans 8:2). Yet, Scripture both implies and states that this is a process that continues throughout our lives in this world to be consummated when we stand face-to-face with Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:49; Philippians 3:21; 1 John 3:2).

Scripture uses a variety of language to describe what salvation is and does (e.g., redemption; justification; reconciliation; regeneration; sanctification; transformation; conformation; restoration; glorification). Various depictions of salvation often place greater emphasis on certain concepts over and above or even to the exclusion of others, yet Scripture doesn’t seek to dissect and isolate these parts from the whole. Rather, the authors of Scripture utilize such terms to illustrate and convey the multifaceted reality of what is involved in bringing us into the life of God (“eternal life”).

The process of being conformed to the image of Christ occurs through our “knowing” the Father, in Christ, by the Spirit, who is the ground and substance of our salvation (John 17:3; cf. Matthew 7:21-23; Philippians 3:8; Galatians 4:8-9; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; Titus 1:16; 1 John 4:7-8). This is not mere intellectual knowledge nor the affirmation of certain concepts and beliefs but the type of knowledge that comes through an intimate and interactive relationship with another person. It is knowledge acquired through personal experience. More specifically, Scripture captures such knowledge through the language of sexual intimacy shared between man and wife (cf. Genesis 4:25, ESV).

The imagery here should not be taken in a crude way but with the understanding that sexual intimacy was intended as both the deepest of mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual intimacy; and as an analogy of the divine-human relationship, a communion of differents, so to speak. That as male and female are uniquely joined through sexual union, so we are joined to God through our union with Christ by the indwelling (penetration) of God’s Holy Spirit into our being (Ephesians 5:24-33; John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:18-20; cf. Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:33-34).

This is the context and content Jesus speaks to in John 6:53-57,

“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.’”

The symbolism of consuming Jesus’ body and blood is further illuminated in Jesus’ institution of Communion at the final Passover feast he shared with his disciples (Luke 22:14-20). As Baptism speaks to our identification with the death and resurrection of Christ and entrance by the Spirit into his New Covenant community; Communion is a continual reminder of this profound reality. That is, the reality that we have been brought into life-giving fellowship with the Father, Son, and Spirit through the faithfulness of Jesus’ life and death, as vindicated by his resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:19; John 14:6; 1 John 1:1-4; Romans 5:1; 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:26-28; 1 Peter 3:18, 21 [cf. Jeremiah 31.31-34; Ezekiel 36.24-38]).

Jesus conveys here the symbolic nature of eternal life, not as existing in some far-off ethereal realm but a way of life that begins now and continues into eternity. Here, eternal life is not primarily about a quantity of life (time) but a quality of life (depth; fulness). In short, it’s about a new way of being, living from the life of God as we live life with God.

This is why Scripture speaks of there being no life– true life, apart from life with God. It is a life marked by the way of Christ through the Spirit (Galatians 5:6, 13-14, 16-25), so when such marks are not evident in a person’s life, it is doubtful whether they are truly in communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit (1 John 3:14-15; 4:20).

Here, the Christian life is not about whether you will sin, or to what degree; nor is it about attaining some level of moral perfection. It’s not about meeting a moral threshold for assurance, much less for gaining or maintaining entrance into the family of God.

Rather, it’s about how we respond to our sin and sin in the community of faith. Will it be minimized and tolerated, or confronted with grace and truth? Will we respond with sincere confession and take steps toward genuine repentance? It is less about how ‘good’ we are and more about our posture toward God and others, in both attitude and action. As Jesus elucidates throughout his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

This is in part what it means to be “righteous” throughout Scripture. The concept does not connote moral perfection but living in a ‘right-standing’ (righteous) relationship with others. Broadly, it’s exhibiting a posture of honesty, humility, confession, restitution, repentance, mercy, generosity, compassion, and forgiveness. On a much deeper level, it’s living in covenantal faithfulness to the terms of specific relationships we have committed ourselves to, such as in family, marriage, friendship, and business partnerships; and namely, with God, in whose image we have been created, and whose image we have profaned in pursuing life apart from him (Romans 1:18-32; Ephesians 1:1-3).

Since the Fall (Genesis 3), humanity has been separated from the life of God, incapable of fulfilling our created purpose without divine provision (Covenantal relationship). God’s covenant with Israel provided a wholistic vision (personal, social, and missional) for preserving the presence of God within the community, yet its weakness was in its practical dependence on the human heart/spirit, which is incapable of maintaining covenant faithfulness to God. As Paul writes,

“For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4)

Here, “the flesh” speaks to both the weakness of human autonomy and our propensity toward defying God (Romans 1:18-32). The life we’ve received in Christ is a life “in/by the Spirit,” lived in communion with God, by which we are learning a new way to live. This is Paul’s language of “putting to death” or “putting off the old and putting on the new” or “clothing” ourselves [in the way of] Christ, in learning dependency upon and obedience to God (Romans 8:10-13; 13:11-14; Ephesian 4:22-24; Colossians 3:5-14).

In this way, we might say that salvation is the ground and context in which eternal life is granted, mediated, effected, and experienced through Christ and by the Spirit (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; cf. 1 John 1:5-9). In other words, we cannot have eternal life apart from the redemptive, reconciliatory, and restorative work of Jesus, though the purpose of that work is to bring us into life with God.

During my first year or so in the Navy, I frequently had the opportunity to steer the ship. In doing so, I learned how important it was to stay on course, that being even a few degrees off course, given enough time, could land you several hundred miles off from your destination. Starting points matter. How we understand the nature and purpose of salvation can inform our course and trajectory.

For some, this may have dire ramifications, while for others, it may result in a bumpy path paved with confusion, disillusionment, and despair. That is, for those whose understanding of salvation is grounded in an abstract moral transaction of their conceptual status before God requiring nothing more than mere belief.

Those responding primarily out of fear of eternal damnation will likely move on with little conviction or ultimate impact on how they live. They’ve believed, confessed, and received the assurance they need and, according to the ‘gospel’ they first received, no one can demand otherwise. For those who sincerely placed their hope, trust, and confidence in Jesus, despite their desire to turn from sin and grow in Christlikeness, and in spite of their best efforts to study, pray, and remain in fellowship; repeated failures leave them frustrated and disheartened.

Our vision of salvation must be grounded in a richer understanding of our relationship with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. Salvation is not merely an exchange or transaction related to our moral status, it is an ongoing (eternal) experience of Life With God. Here, a biblical understanding of salvation implies a process of refinement and growth toward Christlikeness, not as something that is done to us but that we are to participate in with God. Not in any way earned or merited but a life that we have been freed up and called to live into by the atoning work of Jesus and the gift of his Spirit who indwells us. We will explore this process further in part three.

FURTHER READING
With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God, by Sky Jethani

Transforming Grace, by Jerry Bridges

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, by Eugene Peterson