Before I type out my next thoughts I should offer a few disclaimers:
The first - I seldom have time to go back over my posts and do any sort of detailed editing. I try and clean them up quickly and often a bit sloppily, but I just don't often have enough time to edit as I would like, so forgive any grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors that you will find.
The second - I am still investigating this doctrine of salvation. I'm blogging about it as I try and sort through, in light of scripture, all that has been presented to me. I am studying scripture and reading books by authors who have very different opinions on this doctrine of salvation. I really do want to understand this issue more fully, and so in my quest to find answers, I will likely say some things in error.
My first thought, in a way, goes with my first soteriology post. Once I understood the polymorphic nature of words, I began to realize that "salvation" does not always mean, "saved from hell" in scripture. Some examples:
-Justification (to declare righteous) Salvation addressed in John, and Romans 1-4.
-Sanctification (to make holy) Salvation: addressed in James.
-Others (which we did not study in depth in class, and I have not yet looked into on my own) Glorification Salvation (discussed in Hebrews) and Salvation of the Soul, Matthew 16, Mark 8 and Luke 9.
As an aside, the definitions for Salvation in Hebrew and Greek can be found below:
Salvation in Hebrew (yasha) in the Old Testament means, "freedom, liberation.
Salvation in Greek (soteria) in the New Testament means to deliver, rescue, preserve.
To sum up this thought, I have begun to see "salvation" as a picture of my life in total not just the moment when I believed in Christ as the Son of God and my Savior I began the race when I believed in Christ, "Justification Salvation." As I run the race I struggle with sin and need "Sanctification Salvation" on my journey. As I run the race and am faithful, there are rewards which ties into "Glorification Salvation" I believe. The doctrine of rewards is something that is high on my list to search out. I used to think that God was holding every sin against me and when I reached His judgement seat He'd go over each one (even though forgiven) and humiliate me in front of everyone. I am happy to be able to say that I don't see this in scripture! More on this in another post.
My second thought today is a point that was addressed in my class which I have also found it to be very helpful in study of the Bible. We were encouraged to try and find a thematic statement or purpose of each book of the Bible read. In many churches I grew up and also just in personal study and instruction at home, selected verses would be picked out and used to address certain sins or hot button topics, and I can think of many occasions when verses were taken out of context in this way to try to convince me of something that the Bible wasn't even saying. There are many steps to good study of the Bible; I think trying to find a theme and/or purpose is a very good early step. I helps to establish context which can clear up other confusion later on. This is easier said than done, and right now I'm trying to do that with 1st John. I'm currently trying to read the book once per day to try and grasp the purpose of the book. I'll let you know what I find when I find it!
In our class we were directed to what would appear to be a thematic statement in the Gospel of John. Many books in the Bible don't have such a clear statement, but John, through God's direction, clearly gives us a statement of purpose. It's found in John 20:30-31. "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." The Gospel of John is the only book in the Bible with this stated purpose which reveals that John's gospel is evangelistic in nature.
I must close for now. I'm trying to organize my thoughts, but there are many interruptions and many thoughts. I apologize if this comes across in a confusing jumble!
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