Saved?
We have all seen the images of a sign-wearing-person beckoning the masses to “turn from their sins and be saved”. The approach is seldom well received and typically less than effective. As a matter of fact, the terminology of ‘being saved” to express an understanding of the forgiveness of sins that is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ seems to be somewhat antiquated (or at the very least it has fallen out of favor).
What I find interesting about this image and the way that our culture typically reacts to it, is the dichotomy that seems to exist the public persona that says’ “saved from what?” and the personal, private cries for help that can be found just below the surface. On the one hand, we want to appear as though salvation is unnecessary and on the other there is a constant, underlying sense of desperation. We want to be saved but we don’t want people to know that we want to be saved. You get the gist.
In TREK last week we began to study the book of I Peter. Peter is addressing an audience that is experiencing suffering in large part because they have identified themselves with Christ. Peter seeks to instruct this group of disenfranchised believers on how to “stand fast” in the true grace of God (5:12). He does so by first teaching (or reminding) them about their salvation. For Peter and for the early church, their lives going forward would have to based on and motivated by their awareness of their own salvation.
I Peter 1: 3-12 have a great deal to say about what it means to “be saved”. What has continued to ring in my head after teaching these verses in TREK last week is, “how aware am I of my own salvation and how does that awareness affect the way that I live my every day life?” According to Peter, it is at the core of every life lived for God.
