Sword of Peace

Lord,

May we remember everyone who has died because of war; everyone who has died in war, everyone who was a victim of war. 

We pray for peace to reign. Turn our swords into plowshares so that we may no longer know war.

You are the only answer and your way is love. May we love our neighbor and our enemy. In this we will see who you truly are.

Let’s stop the fighting and killing. This is false redemption. Jesus is true redemption.

Amen

Howard and I both agreed to give up posting a review of each chapter of Surprised by Hope. I am about 2/3 of the way through the book and I just read a section on salvation. This is an interesting topic and worth discussing.

For the last 2 years or so I have constantly been asking myself what does salvation mean? Growing up I learned about the need for people to be saved. But what exactly does saved mean? Saved from what? How is one saved? I believe this question is deeper than the surface level answers we usually get from people:

“The world is full of sin and if we believe that Jesus died for our sins, we are saved from this world”

or

“Salvation guarantees us a place with Jesus in heaven”

Is this what it’s all about? This type of thinking can lead people to a type of evangelism that’s out to rescue people from hell (or something like that) and can steer us off course from the mission of loving others and bringing the Gospel of Jesus to people. When we look at evangelism in this type of systematic way, we are clearly missing the point.

But is this the type of salvation that the Bible speaks of?

Wright argues that salvation is about the present as much as it is of the future. In previous chapters, he argued against a heaven where the soul rests in a timeless place with God. Wright also discussed the importance of the bodily resurrection that we are to await for. he calls this life after life after death. 

Wright claims that we are saved by Jesus’ death on the cross. What that means is that through Christ’s resurrection we are chosen to be God’s instruments in bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. If we can truly experience the hope in resurrection we will understand that Jesus didn’t just die for a salvation that is personal. He arose from the grave and conquered death and we are part of the story! That to me is salvation.

How is one saved exactly? that is a question for a different post.