Thursday, September 12, 2013

Jesus + "----------" = Salvation



Here is a formula that has been nagging humanity for centuries:  Jesus + ______ = Salvation.

Nature hates a vacuum
.  When a void is made, whether its oxygen or water or a hole in the ground, nature tends to want to fill it with something.   So this blank in the above equation is annoying and we want to fill it with something. Good, bad or otherwise.  So what do we fill it with?  Good works? Holiness? Sinless life?  That is the question theologians have been asking for millennia.


And the reason theologians have been asking this question is because this formula, “Jesus + ________ = salvation” has a lot of assumptions with it.  And that prompted the question “with what?”
So I ask this question, what is this article about? Filling the hole in the ground or asking “why the question in the first place?”.  And that is what I want to talk about. Why ask that question in the first place. Why that formula?
In making this formula, we are making two assumptions, aside the fact that Jesus is responsible for our salvation in the first place. That assumption we’ll keep for now.  Not that I am planning on changing that particular assumption. I’m not.
But the rest of the formula bothers me.  For centuries since Christ, mankind has struggled with this formula some poor forgotten soul has made for us to contemplate and hopefully fill.
The first assumption is the blank.  What can we do to add to what Jesus has done, to equal or result in salvation (or eternal life or other goal we have in mind)?  If we leave it blank, making the supposedly correct answer as “nothing”, then we have a void yet to be filled. True, there is nothing we can add to this for salvation in Jesus Christ, though many believe there is something we need to do.  But if we leave it there, someone will focus on that void in their lives and forget either the goal (what it equals to) or the first part of the equation, which is Jesus.  So our focus is now on what we can do to fill that blank, not on Jesus or the result. It becomes our focus in life, our god so to speak. Like a sore we pick at or something in the room that is not just right.
So let’s remove this horrid blank altogether (thus removing the need for the plus sign) and see what we have now.

Jesus = Salvation

There, isn't that is much better?  But I did say there were two assumptions we have to make and the first one has been removed.
The second assumption is the equal sign.  If we continue this thought, then we will have to make an assumption that there is something outside of Jesus that is equal to him (other than the Father) that if we go through Jesus, then we can reach this goal.  Again, we have to go back to the addition sign to make this fully happen.  That is what caused the poor forgotten soul to write the formula to begin with, he had an equal sign to deal with. Therefore, we will have to remove the idea that something other than Jesus is equal to Jesus.
Should we remove the goal then?  No!  Salvation is what we need and should seek.  But how do we seek or achieve salvation and not have this formula to guide us by?  Simple: change the formula.
So now let’s look at the formula this way, removing the equality of anything outside of Christ.

Jesus Is Salvation

Isn’t that much better?  When we seek true Salvation, are we not then automatically seeking Jesus?  When we seek Jesus, are we then seeking Salvation?  You may put any major theological sounding word there you want; Kingdom for example.  Instead of saying “Jesus + ___________ = Kingdom of God”, why not say “Jesus IS The Kingdom of God”?  So when you are living your life IN Jesus, you are   saying that you are IN the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God is in you!   If Jesus IS Salvation and Jesus is in you, then has salvation already come in our lives?
See how much simpler life can be when you see yourself in Jesus Christ and Jesus in you? You see yourself already in the Kingdom of God instead of just seeking it out in some unforeseen future event all the time.  You can start living in Christ now, thus living in the Kingdom, in Salvation, in Glory, being fully baptized in Jesus because Jesus IS our baptism, our hope, our life, in whom we live, move and have our being!
Know that the vacuum in our lives are not real, it does not exist in our formula for success.  Know that Jesus IS the fulfillment of all things in heaven and on earth, now. 
Boyd Merriman


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2 comments:

  1. On one level, I agree, but on another I disagree. Yes, he believed, but it was Jesus' belief (which is still required) to be saved. Being baptized does not forgive sins, yes, you are right. But we are still baptized as a symbol OF our forgiveness (be baptized FOR the forgiveness of sins, meaning, Be baptized into the new life of forgiveness). The paraletic was saved, but there are two savings: One is physical, mental and emotional, the other is spiritual. He was saved in a physical way, but that led to salvation in Christ when he understood his relationship with God Through Jesus Christ (not outside of Christ). It still required a faith in Christ and no other. Not of your friends, but of Christ, the ultimate friend.

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