Why we are saved
I came across a great podcast yesterday, which was an interview with Rob Bell who wrote Velvet Elvis and is behind the Nooma dvds. He was talking about some of his ideas, and one being that the church exists, and we are saved, to do good works. It's not the entirity of of why we're saved and we're not saved just because we do good works, but it seems that it should be a natural result of surrendering our lives to Jesus.Check out Hebrews 10:23-25. It's the classic verse used when people say that they don't want to go to church. "Well, you know Hebrews says don't forsake meeting together ..." However I think there's more to what the writer is saying then that. It says:
23 Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.
That portion seems to be talking about more then just gathering together. Instead it hints to the reason behind our gathering. And that is to encourage each other to do good, and love others. There is so much to this whole idea, that I feel like it's going to take me some time to put it all together. But, I find the idea refreshing. I was saved, in part, in order to do good to others. Simple. Beautiful.
posted by Jesse @ 12:19 p.m.
2 Comments:
There's another familiar passage that is often missed in this way: Eph 2:8-10 (we usually stop at verse 9)...
"For it is by grace you have been saved...not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
It's true, we have been saved to do good works. We can't just stop with grace as our means for salvation, it is also our means for accomplishing what God has designed us to do.
Further, Acts 10:38 fills us in with this description of what Jesus did:
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and...he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him."
Now, I would expect that healing those under that power of the devil was a good work, wouldn't you? Why is the distinction made? The "good works" refer to philanthropic acts. Jesus was out feeding people, helping people, giving cups of cold water to people, etc. It's interesting that God anointed him with the Spirit and power to be a philanthropist.
Hmmm...I guess that's what we're to do as well, not just lust after the opportunity to do the zoomy supernatural stuff.
There is a definte place for us to work out our salvation...
Post a Comment
<< Home