Two minute read.
Is Salvation primarily a matter of Intellectual assent?
Religious belief tends to be defined as Intellectual assent to a set of theological propositions. Our culture allows us to claim belief without validating faith by actions.
“I believe”, has become more accurately substituted for “I agree” or “That makes sense to me.”
“Jesus did not call us to the static posture of intellectual assent; he did not die so that we could choose to agree to a statement of faith, He called us to follow, to experience life like never before, to share with others in the life of faith.”
This Adventurous Life of Faith opens up a Full Life, not a new set of moral standards or a longer list of religious requirements.
“I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10
What do you Imagine a Full Life to be?
What would that kind of life look like to you?
How about trading a life of:
- Confusion for Clarity
- Doubt for Trust
- Conflict for Resolution
- Darkness for Light
- Woundedness for Healing
- Brokenness for Wholeness
You and I cannot see that kind of Life unless:
You and I can IMAGINE it.
You and I can’t IMAGINE it unless:
You and I give ourselves Permission.
You and I can’t give ourselves Permission unless:
You and I CHANGE the Paradigm
That Paradigm Shift is accepting that my problem Isn’t my behavior, it’s my BEING! Salvation exists in a Relational Paradigm. It requires our Trust in a Person.
What we lost can only be restored when we place our Trust in Jesus Christ as the Solution to relational dilemmas with God, Others, and Ourselves.
I want to wrap this up by suggesting a possible answer to that last statement. Let’s begin by looking at an analogy of the experience of LOVE!
When we love someone, we are no longer the Center of the Universe!
We forget ourselves, deny ourselves, and give ourselves so that by mathematical logic there is less of US.
Yet through a curious paradox there is actually MORE! Somehow, we begin to feel at last that we are truly becoming ourselves
Have we ever been able to say these 6 Letters – I Am Free To Be ME?
The authentic experience of Salvation involves a paradox. And we find that from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 10:39 – “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.“
The reason Freedom scares us is because our struggle is always Surrender (or our lack at times to surrender).
Salvation delivers Relational Freedom and the cost for us is a CHANGED LIFE!
And in closing these 3 blog posts, the Good News is we don’t have to live a life of allusion anymore.
God’s Peace – MC
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