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


Click Here To Follow This BMOC Blog Site

Book Recommendation

If you have read The Shack by William P. Young, then you MUST read this book!
The Shack Revisited by C. Baxter Kruger, his close friend.

The Shack Revisited is the theology behind The Shack.   I read it through and am still reading it!  I keep going back over and over again!

If you have not read The Shack yet, then get both and start a new journey on life! 

May Papas blessings be on all those who read these two great books!

Boyd Merriman


Click Here To Follow This BMOC Blog Site

I am afraid of what others might think!

.
.
I heard that many times in life, and have found myself using it as well. That has stopped many people from enjoying life, moving forward and taking risks. Including me.

But what does this mean when we look at it in the reality of who and what we are in Christ?

I will go over each word individually, but also as part of the whole. For every word spoken in this sentence, adds more problems exponentially.

I: "I" is a big word.  It is all about Me.  Me, myself and I.  MeMeMeeee! The first thing we do is start off with “me” when we should be starting off with the Triune God.  So we say “I” instead of saying “Our Father”.

I am:  Like Adam, we begin to replace God, the Great I AM, with our own version of “I am”.  (Gen. 3:10) We have ideas of what we are outside of who and what we are in Christ. If we start with the true “I AM”, the Trinity, then we would not be so focused on this broken "I am".

Afraid:  Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). So right off the bat, we are not using the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love.  The very first words of Adam to God after he took of that forbidden fruit were, “I was [am] afraid”.   Fear sums up all of the troubles and sins of humanity.  And the first victim of that fear was God.  Adam and Eve found a new fear and hid themselves from God.   But Jesus Christ removed that fear.  So why are we still hiding from God and from each other?  We still hold on to that fear because we are still seeing ourselves as “I am” rather than seeing God.

Of What:  Yes, of what?  What are you afraid of?  An unknown?  “I am afraid of what” is a good question.  We too often don’t even know what we are afraid of, so we lash out against God and everything and everyone else. 

Others:  That committee of others.  Whoever they are. Like the “what”, we don’t even know "who".  We have yet to meet them.  So we just call them “others”.  What is so detrimental about this is that the “others” might be your family, friends and neighbors!  Why are we afraid of them?  What have they done to deserve such a critical view of them?  It shows how critical and accusing we have become.  Again, like Adam who blamed God and Eve for his fears and troubles.

Might: Not will, just “might”. We are not even sure that they will think or not think. We just stop our lives in mid stroke just based on a “might”, a "maybe", a “not sure but just in case”.  There is no reality to this fear except our own.

Think:  Not do, just "think". Now when did the thought of others actually hurt you?  The only way the thoughts of others can hurt you is when they act or speak out those thoughts.  But we have not gotten that far yet. We are still just on “think”.  Maybe they did think these things (whatever it is that we think they thunk), and IF they did, they may have changed their thoughts immediately and started thinking right (called repentance). Or maybe their thoughts were very good towards you (Like God’s thoughts towards Adam and Eve were good), but we are afraid of them anyway, even though they may not have thought them at all.

Put them all together and you are revealing a whole mess of broken theology at work in your lives!

When you really think about it (speaking of which), you will find that our fears are based on selfishness and believing that others are taking their valuable time and concern and negatively placing it towards you and that what they think are actually evil thoughts!   In reality, they are actually our evil thoughts towards them!  How dare we to stop living based on our misconceptions of our family, friends and neighbors. And who said they were thinking about you anyway you selfish “i am”?  They have their own concerns!

Who knows?  The "Others" may want to support you in your mission in life! And if they don't, that is their life, not yours.

“I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 Yes, Jesus said “might” (KVJ), but not because Jesus is holding back, but because we still allow our selfish, paranoid fears to hold us back from the reality of who and what Jesus is and our wonderful relationship we have with God.  We can now live back in His garden, living off of the Tree of Life, who is Jesus.

“I am afraid of what others might think” is so wrong on so many levels!

If Jesus thought like that, he never would have walked on water, or healed on the Sabbath, or picked grain on the Sabbath! He is the real "I AM" and I AM is not afraid of what others might think!

I will admit that some people do have broken relationships with someone thinking negatively towards them, but chances are, they are thinking negatively towards a lot more than just you and the life you are living in Christ. It is them, not you.

Boyd Merriman

Click Here To Follow This BMOC Blog Site