SALVATION “DANCE”
An exploration of Biblical salvation… I’m not a theologian, but I think about stuff anyway.
God desires a great thing for us. Clearly His goal and hope is not punishment for the guilty, but joy for the willing.
In the 50s through the 80s we had both Bill Bright’s “Four Spiritual Laws,” and an illustrated tract about how Christ made a way to connect us to God called “The Bridge.” Wonderful Christian people put these tracts together with the hope of drawing people to Christ and the church. They succeeded to a degree. Nice idea, really! That the cross is a bridge that crosses the chasm between God and us. Too simplistic but I’m not complaining. However, I have come to believe that salvation is a bit more nuanced (not complicated, merely deeper).
STEP ONE
At issue: Quite simply, these tracts showed how humankind can become “Adam again.” Wipe out the sin of Adam, be forgiven of sin, and you can be right with God. Except this is only the first half of what I call the “Spiritual Two-Step.” It would be wonderful to become Adam again (sinless). I would even admit that this would be enough to draw me to Christ. So let’s call this step “Restoration.” Forgiveness of sins is a “Restoration” to the ways things were before Adam sinned. Adam walked with God in the cool of the day, all was right with creation.
As I said, that would be enough, but God has a greater goal in mind for us. He doesn’t want to make us merely perfect humans. Sociology and Psychology have that goal. Star Trek of the 1960s proclaimed that “we are improving.” But since the 1960s humans have not improved even a little. There are still mass murders, wars, rapes, theft, graft, divorces, lies, and even greed. Nothing has changed. We WISH we were improving as a whole, but we aren’t.
I kinda wish from time to time that I (personal level) could improve. Lots of self-help books proclaim that I can. But improvement is such a tiny goal. It is a nothing-burger. My improvements don’t bring me any closer to God than what God Himself does for me when He forgives my sins when I “take Him at His word.”
STEP TWO
Well! I said God has a deep desire for us. What is that?
God started humankind with Adam and Eve, perfect humans without evil intent and without sin. You know that Genesis 3 story. They were introduced to evil. They took the bite. They lost what they had. From that point until this day humankind has been seeking to get back to Eden. But God has no desire for us to go back there. That’s not His hope. In other words, God does not want or need New Adams and New Eves. That would be Restoration and God provides THAT when He offers the forgiveness of sins. Have your sin forgiven and you are Adam again. Except that’s only part ONE of the Spiritual Two-Step I mentioned. It is the first HALF of what God desires for you and me.
Have I mentioned that God is rich? He could have made 25 species of fish, but there are over 100,000. He could have made 1,000 stars, but there are trillions. He is like that, too, when it comes to salvation. Its bigger than we could possibly imagine.
God’s plan for your life is to be made His child. Stop right there! A dog can never leave dog-kind. A human can never leave humankind, no matter how sinless or good. So God did something incomprehensible…He sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins, and Raised Him from the Dead. Two things really. He died (and we died with him) on the cross in order to make us sinless. But sinless DEAD. For in death sin has no more authority over us. But then Christ did Step Two.
Step Two is Transformation. Christ Raised from the dead. If we rise with him we are no longer humankind, but part of a different group (Transformed). Dog cannot be other than dog. Human cannot be other than human. But dying with Christ on the Cross we became perfectly Restored humans, then Resurrecting with Christ from the tomb we became Transformed (children of God, not children of Adam).
What is this? We are Born New of a different race. Not human. Sons of God and coheirs with Christ. We pray, “Our Father…” God, not Adam, is your father. Step Two…joining a new family of beings with a different heritage.
Of the two, Restoration to perfect Adams is the easiest (and some believers are satisfied to camp right there). But that’s NOT new birth. That’s forgiveness only. We know about restoration. We’ve seen old mansions or old paintings which have been restored. They are old but they look newer. Nice. But I don’t want to go back to Eden, a wonderful natural place on earth with an evil being who wants to tempt us to disobey our creator.
How much better to JOIN God in a place created for Him and His. AND, we can BELONG there.
We certainly celebrate our human birthdays, don’t we!!! Shouldn’t we have greater celebrations for our New Birth? God’s angels rejoice when we are brought into God’s kingdom. “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
Step One: Forgiveness. Being Restored to the best human you can be. Nice, but not enough! There’s a “now what?” involved.
Step Two: New Birth. Transformed into a better being. That’s when we experience God’s actual plan for our lives. Did I mention that there doesn’t have to be a time-lapse between the two steps? Some, however, may not immediately know what God’s will is.
Finally, I have misstated the issue. What I have done here is separate a single dance into steps. There’s a reason for doing that. My fear, and something I have seen before, is that some believers may have only accepted one of the gifts God offers. They don’t have the full salvation God offers. Forgiveness is not Transformation, but TOGETHER the two steps blend into one Holy Dance for those who experience what God wants for us. (I didn’t even get a chance to talk about the Holy Spirit.)
I wish I could explain Salvation.
Copyright 2025 Donald Whelpley
[PLEASE NOTE that Don is always open to discussing the thoughts and opinions he shares here and welcomes comments as shared in the comment section. He doesn’t use other social media platforms and won’t see whatever you’d like to share with him if you post it elsewhere.
ALSO, Don is always open to offer his thoughts on various topics. If you have a specific request, you can let him know in a comment; he reads – and replies to – them all. ~ Sherry]
See more GUEST POSTS from Don!
Comments