Personal Salvation?

From: Convergence Teaching by CJ on Feb 8 2007

Extra ecclesiam nulla salus (Outside the church there is no salvation)

What is the church’s relationship to salvation?

Presented by Cyprian, argued by Origen, Augustine, Aquinas and others was adopted by the Catholic church as a measure of exclusivity. It has been used in history to keep people out, and to give the church the authority to determine who was "in."

As Christians, our work is to participate in our own salvation, the salvation of our community, and God’s ultimate plan for the salvation of our world. So let's talk about salvation.

PERSONAL SALVATION (a myth?)

Are you are saved? How do you know?

Most of us would point back to a time when we prayed a short sinner’s prayer, and recieved our personal salvation. Who can show me the sinner’s prayer in the Bible? Where did the sinner’s prayer come from? It's actually a condensed version of the basic salvation theology called The Romans road. Eventually, instead of declaring a creed orsomething, we just adapted several scriptures into a prayer and -- Presto! You're saved. Like magic.

So again, how do you know you are saved? Ok, now we can get to the meat - I am saved because I am a disciple of Jesus.

Who is a disciple of Jesus is in the Bible?

First, Jesus talked a lot about the Kingdom. Somehow, those who are his disciples are invostors and representatives of the Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew). BEING IN THE KINGDOM is Both an event of entering, and a process of participation. It's not just the moment of first prayer, it's the process of ongoing participation. We will argue here that if you are missing the latter, you are likely not saved. No participation - no salvation.

Many have entered but never participated. Its like being drunk at an AA meeting. What’s the point of being in an environment of freedom if you bring your bondage with you? You entered, sure, but if you don’t participate, then what good is it to say you go to AA meetings?

The Kingdom is focused on: Ethics (Matt 5-7); Mission (Matt 10); Commitment (Matt 13); Community (Matt 18); and Stewardship (Matt 24-25). There are all about doing stuff, not just believing stuff. And all of this stuff requires community. You can't excersize ethics, stewardship, or commitment in isolation.

Our personal salvation model is a modern concept, introduced at the same time as secularism. Personal salvation is not entirely Biblically sound. Salvation by participating in a community of the saved, and in relationship with Jesus, is the Biblical model.

What does it mean to be in relationship with Jesus? Let’s ask him? John 14:15; John 14:21; John 14:23-24 Lovers are doers! But is this Jesus’ example? 1 John 4:8-12; Rom 5:8; John 15:9-13. What are the elements of love in community here? Can those things be excersized independent of community? nope.

The premodern monks and mystics seem at first glance to be the first “personal-salvationists” in the world. They seem to have isolated themselves outside of the community, but any amount of historical digging will reveal that they played a huge role in the wider community, they were not individualists. They were dialectically influenced, and everything they wrote about was in the context of community. They grew food together, and often provided medical and educational support for the community around them. You (plural) are a royal priesthood, 1 Peter.

I cannot exhibit discipleship, experience love, or even work out repentance independently. I cannot exibit the fruits of the Spirit individually, so what value then is individual / personal salvation?

Remember the Great commission (in Matt 28)? Can this be done outside of community?

I'll add to that The Great Responsibility in Luke 4:18ff (cf. Isaiah 61), this is what Jesus saw as the responsibilities tied to the great commission. Can this be done outside of community?

There seems no Biblical sense in which any isolated individual can be saved outside of community.

But what about what Paul said? The closest argument to individual salvation there is in the New Testament is the case of Abraham. Paul says that he was saved by faith, and James says that he was saved by obedience. I believe they were right.

Paul says that Abraham was declared righteous by faith (Gal 3:6-9), and seems to preach a faith based salvation. But curiously in 1 Cor 3:11-15, it is our works which will be tested. And he seems to entirely contradict himself in Romans 3:31 “Do we then nullify the law through faith? Of course not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” So what's the deal, is Paul lying? Confused?

James clarifies by saying that it was Abraham’s obedience that made him righteous (James 2:14-26). Both authors refer to the exact same text in Leviticus when they make these seemingly opposing claims about Abraham.

So which is it, salvation through faith or works? Neither / both.

Faith AND works is salvation

Let's look at it a different way. Can fruit / works be exercised all by yourself (Galatians 5)?

Can I be loving, patient, kind, etc, outside of relationship with othr people? nope. I can't even excersize the fruit of the Spirit in isloation, so I too am not saved independently of my relationship to others. Again, there seems to be no such thing as individual salvation. My faith can only produce actions, the fruit of the spirit, and the beatitudes, in community. In other words, MY personal faith is useless, it is not even enough to be saved. Faith in Christ requires involvement in community. Not only that, but Jesus says that our love is not holistic until it is expressed for our enemies. That’s a communal gospel.

In fact, of all of the times in Paul’s writings when he refers to salvation or being saved, there is only 1 time when it is in an individualistic context (1 Tim 4:16). Look them up! There are a ton of references to salvation in Paul's writings, but they are instructions to groups, not to individuals.

As we saw a couple of weeks ago, you can neither know who you are nor invest in your own character outside of community. In light of the fact that you can't be saved outside of community, this makes a lot of sense.

Individual IN community is saved

ASIDE: There are times of isolation for the sake of relationship with God that are important in a believer’s life (desert experiences, the dark night of the soul, garden of Gethsemane) but those are properly and always: in response to calling; never out of rejection of the community; and without exception, involve a return to community.

The real question is, If we can prove Biblically the case for both Individual and Communal salvation, what Godly motive would there be to defend individual over and against communal salvation?

We've done this for a couple of hundred years because of the individualism in teh wider society. We the Church have made deep consessions to the world in the area of individualism to the point that we have allowed it to hijack the Biblical model of salvationin community.

Salvation is participation with Jesus in the community of the church, in bringing his Kingdom to bear in the world.

COMMUNAL SALVATION IN PRACTICE

Why do you come to Convergence? Let’s look at the Missional works (that is, faith that leads to action) of Convergence:

How many are involved in risky missional outreach or community service in the areas of social justice? Are we doing the Luke 4 stuff? If the Bible says that you must be involved in those things in order to be a Christian, what happens to your sinner’s prayer? How about the groups that we all laid out last week, how many of us now see them as missional works.

Our corporate mission is to bring the gospel into our culture to form faith communities. So what kinds of communities are we involved in? Are we taking responsibility for spiritual growth and social justice in those communities?

Let’s have a look at two the two exit ramps of Convergence:

Because we are transient, we must have strategic exits from this group. Because salvation is only in community, at Convergence we intend for long-term community participation in these two things:

1. The Peaceful Takeover of Broadway: Our mission to revitalize our inter-dependant lazy older brother, Broadway Church. How are we reaching out to Broadway? (Or if you go to another church, how are you reaching out there?) What is our long term intention for Broadway as a conglomerant of churches? MEMBERSHIP at Broadway is a necessary part of the strategy if you want influence in a modern church. We need to learn the language of modern church just long enough to be influencial . We can rewrite that language later.
2. Lifelong A-Proximate Communities: We must be active in working out our salvation in participation with others who are doing the same. By doing this, we can build relationships that will be with us forever, no matter where we live or what we are doing in 10 years from now. Location is helpful, but not necessary for relationship.

So extra ecclesiam nulla salus is what we’re still dealing with. And where the Catholic church interpreted it as their right to deny or grant salvation (exclusive), at Convergence we have an inclusive definition: Anyone who is participating in the global Church, by participating in obedience to Christ in community, is saved. Instead of being the keepers of salvation, demanding allegiance to the institution, and keeping those out of the church (and salvation) that we don’t want, Convergence reinterprets this phrase, not to identify who is out, but to give back to Jesus the right to decide who is truly in. What does this mean for those who call themselves Christians but are not actively participating in community? Can that faith truly save them?

What does this mean for those we lead to Christ? For those who have walked away from communities of which we are a part?

So here's what we've come up with:

1. Faith and works are intrinsically tied. Faith without works is dead, works without faith are as filthy rags.

2. Individual salvation and communal salvation are tied. You can’t be saved in isolation, as the fruit of the spirit and acts of obedience require community. Likewise, you can’t just be saved in community with no individual conviction of Christ’s Lordship.

3. Jesus is both Savior AND Lord. For a long time the individualistic church has sold him as savior THEN lord. You can’t have half of Jesus. He is called Savior 16 times in the New Testament, he is called Lord 420 times. Obedience is not optional.

4. Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. – GK Chesterton.