Salvation and Seeking God’s Will
A series of questions many ask when seeking God’s will orbits the concept of salvation. This is a rather lengthy answer as it attempts to fully address the question using the whole of scripture. We must begin with the idea of covenant. Most western churches do not teach this concept or misteach it from a lack of understanding, yet the New Testament is quite clear on the importance of covenant. My husband first floated the idea of covenant versus contract with me nearly a year ago. We were thinking in terms of christian marriage. I must have mentioned it to a friend at some point, because we spent the next several months teasing apart those differences. Let’s save the marriage application for a future discussion, and, for now, look at how it applies to salvation.
Because the parts of the Bible that preachers don’t want to talk about are the most fun, why don’t we dive right into one?
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Ephesians 5: 22-33
Profound mystery… Paul was not describing a physical marriage contract. He was describing a covenant relationship and using the marriage covenant to illustrate. When God created humanity, He made us in relationship to Himself. He came to Eden each evening and walked with Adam and Eve. Their physical bodies could literally withstand the very presence of God. They lived in a covenant relationship with their Creator. Sin broke the covenant. Notice the first thing that they did was to hide? The relationship that had been so easy and natural was no more. God replaced that covenant relationship with a covenant of laws. Religion entered the picture. Humanity was under a religious yoke that was never meant to be… in many ways, we still are. What Paul describes in Ephesians is something different… it is a restored relationship rather than a rulebook. This was the entire mission of Jesus of Nazareth- to restore us to a covenant relationship.
Immersion into covenant, not signing onto a contract…
From Contract to Covenant
The author of Hebrews (Apollos, Barnabas, Mark? Someone taught by an apostle and Peter was the apostle to the Jews) further emphasises the change from a contractual covenant of laws to a covenant relationship through Christ.
For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 8: 3-13
See, the religious system of sacrifices, though it was of God, did not reconcile us into a covenant relationship with God. It was a copy, a shadow, of the spiritual realm. Reconciliation back to a relationship with God required a New Covenant, as the Hebrews writer goes on to explain:
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.”
Hebrews 9:15-20
We are heirs of a promise. When do the heirs inherit? God is not blood thirsty. He is just and logical and holy. He came in physical form and physically died to reconcile us back to a spiritual relationship in a way that we could comprehend.
Paul elaborates on this further in his letter to the Galatian church:
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 3:21-29
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:1-5
Religion Made Obsolete
So we were held under the law (contract) as our guardian until Christ came, God incarnate, and fulfilled the terms of the will. He reconciled us full circle back to the original covenant relationship with God. Unfortunately, religion doesn’t much like being made obsolete. Religion still needed to maintain its yoke over humanity imposing its practices between God and His adopted heirs. How did it accomplish this? By hiding some of the contemporary texts, concealing full knowledge of creation, the genetic cleansing we call ‘the flood’, much extraneous information about Jesus. By hijacking our timeline so we no longer know the days, times and seasons that God set up from the very beginning. By preaching doctrines of man instead of the reconciled word of God.
What does that have to do with salvation?
Jesus left us only two ordinances of the covenant: immersion that brings us into covenant and communion which reminds us to stay in covenant. How many modern churches have perverted or completely dismissed these two ordinances? Why?
When we examine the New Testament (New Covenant) we notice that every time someone ‘accepts Christ’ they are immediately immersed. The King James version calls it ‘baptism’. That is because the translators knew that King James believed in sprinkling or pouring and had no desire to lose their heads (literally) over the issue. So, instead of translating the greek word baptizo they simply transliterated it… and the rest is distorted history. Even in the link provided, we see where a doctrine of man comes into direct conflict with the actual meaning of the word. Of course it meant to completely immerse or overwhelm, and in every New Testament example it was immersion into water. No, there is nothing magical about the water. It’s submission to a covenant relationship to God, a walk of obedience and an acceptance of Jesus Christ as the reconciliation back to that relationship. Unless we have submitted to the covenant, we haven’t accepted Christ. Review that Galatians 3 passage… immersion is a physical representation of a spiritual joining in a covenant. My understanding is that there is a water immersion that brings us into a salvation covenant with God. Here we join to Christ (put on Christ) and become a new creation with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There’s also an opportunity to step into an anointing (immersion) of Spirit when we begin to walk in the giftings of the Holy Spirit as described throughout the epistles.
The ordinance of communion is established not to participate in some unholy cannibalistic blood sacrifice, but to remind us to stay in covenant. To remind us of the sacrifice, the price that was paid, for our reconciliation and adoption.
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
1 Corinthians 11:27-32
This describes a spiritual reflection on the covenant we have entered, not a physical ordinance. And it isn’t, as some churches teach, a redemption of sin or a unifying tradition for the local church group. It is about us and God and the relationship between the two.
Another misrepresentation of many modern churches is the idea of once saved always saved. We often hear people state that they were ‘saved’ in such and such a year or at such and such an age. No they weren’t. If they are still a living, physical human they have not been saved. We are saved from eternal separation (out of relationship) from God through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ because He returned us to covenant. The curtain that had separated humanity from the presence of God in the Holy of Holies was torn in two and, at Pentecost, God’s Spirit, the advocate, the paraclete, Rauch Hakodesh, came to dwell with us and in us… if we submit ourselves to the covenant. We exist in a state of covenant that we can, at any time, choose to walk away from. This is explained in Hebrews:
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
Hebrews 6: 4-8
Outside of Covenant
So what about those who never accept the covenant?
This is where it gets difficult. We don’t really know. We are instructed to ‘work out our own salvation with fear and trembling’. The best we can do is discern God’s plan and will and follow it and trust His grace and mercy to do what is righteous with His creation.
Those who don’t accept the covenant fall into various situations:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18: 1-4
Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away.
Matthew 19:13-15
These folks might want to read the story of Nicodemus.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:1-3
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a teacher of the law. He seems to have been a ‘good’ man by societal standards. Jesus answered a question that he hadn’t actually asked. But it is not about being good. It is not about being right. It is about being righteous.
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
Luke 18: 18-23
Here we see another example of someone who was ‘good’ and what Jesus thought of that. It is only through Jesus that we are made righteous.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Isaiah 64:6
For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Romans 3:9-12
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Though many will cite the ‘thief on the cross’ as an example of this type of obedience, the fallacy is in the lack of understanding of covenant. Jesus had not instituted the covenant while He was on the cross. For someone today to use the idea of a last second “Hail Mary” acceptance of God’s grace and entering into a covenant relationship of obedience seems risky at best. But I am not the judge.
God works in generations…
The fourth category is possibly the most difficult as it doesn’t match our concepts of ‘fair’. We must remember, God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. When we consider people who have never ‘had the opportunity’ to hear the gospel… the question occurs: how do we know this? I have personally spent a decade online talking to people from diverse backgrounds about things of Spirit. Everyone I have ever interacted with has had an opportunity to hear the gospel. I have so many friends who are the same. I am not convinced that God allows anyone to die without opportunity. However, if He does, I can only understand this through one of two paradigms.
And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Genesis 15:16
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me Exodus 20:5
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:7
‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Numbers 14:18
You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. Deuteronomy 5:9
(This was the promise of the LORD that he gave to Jehu, “Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” And so it came to pass.) 2 Kings 15:12
If God visits the iniquities of the fathers to the third and fourth generations, and God is the same yesterday, today and forever, why should we expect Him to have changed His approach? I know, that is a hard concept to reconcile, but it is still a very biblical understanding.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:28-30
The Light of the World
Jesus said of Himself: I am the light of the world. Those God foreknew, He justified and glorified. Ephesians says: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light”. We have a ministry of reconciliation and that begins by reconciling our own understanding of how our relationship to God works. Then we must share our understanding by shining as brightly as possible!