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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The Freedom to NOT Sin

Gwin (my wife) and I spoke at a small group recently, and the theme was Freedom in Christ.

One of the freedoms Gwin discussed was "freedom from sin" or "freedom to not sin".  That second one sounds a little strange since God told us to not sin in the first place. So how can freedom to not sin be an option?

Sin, once it entered into the world, into man, was stuck there until Christ.  All the sacrifices and law (Torah) keeping and such, will not do us a bit of good outside of our relationship in the Trinity.  Sin has kept us prisoners and any attempt to do otherwise will only cause us to be "sinless" outside of God (Trinity).  And any attempt at that is a sin.

 Yes.   That is a sin.  Sin is living our lives outside of who and what we are as God created us. Once man chose that path, all that he does is tainted with sin.  Our works are tainted with sin, our prayers, our fastings, our sacrifices and traditions are all tainted with sin. Even our repentance has a sin attached to it like a virus or a "Trojan horse" in an email.

 The story of what we call "The Prodigal Son" (though the story was about the Father) showed our sinful state inside the repentance.  The young man didn't truly repent until after he met up again with the Father.  The son went back because though he knew he did wrong, came back because he could get three meals a day, a clean place to live and a bath once in a while!  Think about this: If he had these things while slopping hogs, would  he have really returned?  Maybe, maybe not. Most likely not.  His "repentance" was to get him into a better place.  But he still would have accepted the position of a servant and relinquished his right as a son!  But the Father would not have that!  He did not even hear his request, his prayer (ever feel like God is not hearing your prayer?) He grabbed his son while his son was trying to give his little penance of a prayer, again, tainted with more sin of being other than who he is, and grabbed him in his filthy, dirty, pig smelling state and thew his own coat of authority as well as the family ring of authority on him and demanded a party for him!   THAT is what this story is all about!  It's about the Father and how MUCH he Love us!  How much He LOVES YOU!!!

The young man lived in sin because that is what he was in Adam! How could he be otherwise?

BUT....that was BEFORE Christ. What Churches today don't get is that Christ forgave that Sin of Adam, man.  He took humanity BACK into the realm of his Kingdom and righteousness "while we were yet sinners", or slopping hogs so to speak.  That doesn't mean we don't sin, nor does it mean we don't need to repent.  Of course we do. But NOW...we have an opportunity to live righteous lives, NOT because we did good stuff and God forgave us when we did these good works, but because of JESUS (Yeshua) who gave himself for our sins!  We are no longer stuck in the post Adamic/pre Christ world of Sin.   We are freed from that prison! Death no longer has us in it's grip unless we allow it!  We are freed from that Sin of Adam!

The belief and repentance factor comes in when we realize that and come to understand our freedom to live and rejoice inside the Trinity!  To dance in the Trinity. Just as the young man who came home didn't fully know the Father or what he would do until the Father showed him and took him unto himself. That was when repentance had it's full affect!  Forgiveness was there before the young man repented (while we were still in our sins)!  We come to the Father, not because we did good stuff to get there, but because of the goodness of Jesus Christ that brought us to repentance before the Father in His train of glory!

But if you don't believe, you will still be in the trinity, but miserable because you insist on trying to be someone you are not.  Like being at a wedding party and refusing to enjoy it because you hate the groom!  You are still at the party,  you are still free to choose either to rejoice or to be miserable. Or it's like being in prison, or hell itself, and refusing to come out. You lock the gates of hell from the inside.

You have FREEDOM, not TO sin, but to actually NOT sin!  Before, in Adam, you had no choice. No matter what you did, you were a sinner, you were under the curse of Adam, under the law, the curse of the Law.  But NOW, in the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, you are FREE from that curse, you are FREE from that world of Adamic Sin, you are FREE to actually live a life of no sin!  Why? Because of  the works of  Jesus, not our good works!

Rejoice in the LORD, Rejoice because you ARE in freedom of the LORD!
Blessings and Freedom to all!

Boyd Merriman

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