Salvation in the Body of Jesus
Salvation is not an individual affair. It is not a direct line from God thrown to the individual soul. Our salvation is located in the body of Jesus, for he worked out our salvation in his body through utter reliance upon the Spirit. And through reliance upon this same Spirit we are incorporated into the body of Jesus: the Church, the sphere of salvation. By pressing into the lives of the other members of the body, according to the pattern of love that Jesus has given, we release the gifts the Spirit has sown into each member of the body, and through this we are all built up into the knowledge and stature of Jesus, the fount of our sonship and salvation.
Wrote the following comment on September 22nd, 2011 at 1:25 pm #
Not so certain I agree with your assertion that “salvation is not an individual affair.”
If you are intending that our relationship to and with each other corporately is a means through which the Almighty works, then I could go along with you. I think it could be expressed more succinctly, if that be the case.
Now, concerning your recent “Toward More Picturesque Speech” style of entry…
The winds of time shine down upon the inner man, darkening the edges, and smooth the rancorous erythematous effluvium.
Wait… that’s synesthetic.
Que çera, çera.
But then, so is “taste and see that the LORD is good.”
We could really do things with that!
Wrote the following comment on September 22nd, 2011 at 2:28 pm #
Perhaps what I should have said is that “Salvation is not an individualistic affair.” However, it is not quite so provocative, and I do love to provoke, but God save me from merely being a provocateur. And, I do at least mean what your saying regarding how the Almighty works, but I am really trying to emphasize that salvation is not a line thrown from heaven but rather an incorporation into a body. Of course one could say that the Spirit functions as a line to incorporate us into the Body of Christ, and I would have to agree to a point. What I am trying to resist is the notion that God merely wants to clean us up as individuals, when really he wants us to relate to himself, one another, and even ourselves in a way that we can’t as sinners who try to live apart from his Grace. Again, I don’t see salvation as God primarily trying to make stronger moral individuals, but rather he is trying to establish us in a relationality that mirrors the relationality of God, a relationality of outpouring, selfgiving love. So, yes, there must be a self to give, but it is a self that becomes in the giving, which is perhaps logically odd, but there it is. Give me a chance, I need to think this through some more, but I know there is something there that I am trying to describe that is too often overlooked in our discourse about the nature of salvation.
Wrote the following comment on September 26th, 2011 at 2:35 am #
well, the argument you, perhaps unintentionally made, is one I have heard before; that salvation isn’t individual, but collective.
maybe we’re all collectively creating our own hell on earth.
off topic, I was wondering about what you thought of the Jehovah’s witnesses’ belief of not saluting the flag, saving the Pledge, serving in the military or voting? sometimes, it makes real sense to me in terms of not being “of the world.”.