The Good Of The Father (By No Other Name) # 2204

 

And there is no salvation in any other one, for neither is there in any other name, given under heaven among men, in which we must be saved

Acts of the Apostles 4: 12, Concordant New Testament Translation 

Growing up in the church, I was taught that salvation was by the grace and mercy of the Father.  However, I was also told that my salvation was something I could earn as well as lose.  If I believed in Jesus, I would be saved.  Yet if I behaved in a way that the Lord did not approve of, I could definitely lose that salvation.  Moreover, there was also that unpardonable sin of not accepting the Lord Jesus which could also keep me out of heaven.  Like many believers, I began to see heaven as a destination.  I was regaled with sermons of a physical description of heaven.  Never once was I introduced to the idea that my salvation is not a destination, but in the person of Christ Jesus Himself.  The physician Luke mentions this within the book of Acts, that there is no other name in which one must be saved {Acts of the Apostles 4:12}.  While those within the church will claim that this passage does not directly tie Jesus to our salvation, I believe that the verse is pretty clear that it does.  For Jesus has also proclaimed that "No one is coming to the Father except through Me" {Johns Account 14:6}.  If we believe that our salvation is defined by being in the presence of God for eternity, then Jesus is definitely the pathway to our salvation.  But is heaven an actual physical destination, or, as I believe, is it found within Jesus?  When we look at the passages describing heaven, we will definitely see that Jesus IS our salvation.  You might say, but isn't there a separation between Jesus and the actual physical description of heaven?  Perhaps, but we're speaking of salvation here.  IS our salvation actually within Christ Jesus?  I believe this to be true.  For it is through Jesus alone by which we come to the Father.  If heaven is a destination in which we will reside in God's presence, then Jesus is our way unto Him.  But wait, Jesus has also proclaimed that our lives are not lived outside of the Fathers presence, but in union with He and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}.  So, if our salvation includes residing within the presence of God for eternity, then Jesus is most assuredly in that conversation.  Remember, Jesus has proclaimed that, "I and the Father, We are one" {Johns Account 14:30}.  Jesus IS our salvation.  

Seeing my salvation as a person and not a destination has been a lot for me to unpack.  This is due to having been told for most of my life that salvation is linked to a physical destination.  I believe that this is where most believers find themselves, seeing salvation as punching their ticket into God's heavenly abode.  Of course, contrary to the warnings given by the apostle Paul that we're saved through the Father's grace and not through works, those within the church continue to speak to the false belief that salvation is somehow earned {Paul to the Ephesians 2:8-9}.  Paul understood that if men were given the opportunity to gain salvation through their own means, that there would be a lot of self-righteous believers out there.  Indeed, I have seen this pride among a lot of believers.  I also understand that these so called believers continue to view salvation through the church narrative as a destination and not in the person of Christ Jesus.  That Jesus is the door to our salvation, that IN Jesus we shall be finding pasture {Johns Account 10:9}.  I believe that one of the keys to understanding the truth that our salvation is indeed a person and not a destination comes from knowing the truth of our life within the love of the Father.  That man is NOT a separate independent self living outside of God.  This is the false teaching of the church based upon the lies of the deceiver spoken in the garden {Genesis 3:4-5}.  For Satan has convinced us that if we were to partake of the fruit which God had commanded not to, that we would "Be like God, knowing good and evil."  Of course, most every believer knows that there is but one God.  The author Norman Grubb, in his book No Independent self, goes so far as to proclaim that, "There is no independent, self-operating self in the universe, except the One who calls Himself the I AM {Exodus 3:14} and says, "I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside Me {Isaiah 45:5}."  So it is that we have never been separated from God, but are an intimate part of who He is.  Therefore, our salvation is not about the destination, but the person of Christ Jesus, the door to our salvation.  

I am the door.  Through Me if anyone should be entering, he shall be saved, and shall be entering and coming out and will be finding pasture

Johns Account 10: 9, Concordant New Testament Translation

~Scott~