Faith VI - Salvation ...

Wednesday, Sept 3, 2014. Do you need salvation? Perhaps you have no idea what it is you need to be saved from. That would not be surprising - most of us have no particular idea about that. Let us have a look at what we need to be saved from …

Salvation needed …

Perhaps, we have some illness, and we hope to recover. We need to be saved from illness. Perhaps we are victims of war, and we need to be saved from the threats and suffering of our environment. That is clear to us - but when we live in a quite environment and when we are not ill - what is it we need to be saved from? Perhaps from other people, who have their particular ideas about what they want and what we should do. It is always good when you have the freedom to live your way!

But the bible talks about salvation! It even talks about personal salvation, about a salvation which comes through faith. And it is not a salvation from illness or war in the first place. The bible talks about ourselves, about our personality, about what we did and what we do, what we want and what we hope for. It talks about the whole framework, purpose and goals of our life. But let us listen to these statements about salvation first. The apostle Paul writes:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1, 16)

My Righteousness …

Here, the key question is “righteousness before God”. In our time currently, righeousness is not an important question. The philosophy of our time is rather: everyone is ok, as long as he or she does not hurt others. God has to justify himself, not men before God. I would even think that we have completely lost an understanding of what this righteousness means. Why should we be “righteous” before God? Why does he have any claim on our own life? It is ours!

For me personally, the understanding of righteousness starts with meeting the Lord, with meeting God himself. In him I meet someone who is completely truthful, who rests in himself, who is reliable and without any deceitfulness. The claim that “God is good” is the starting point of what I feel to be my own lack of righteousness. Compared to his pure character, I am bound too many things which do not make me righteous before him. His acceptance and wisdom, his wide and peaceful view, the ability to forget himself and live for the others, abundant love … there are so many things which make Jesus exceptional - and which make God exceptional.

Perhaps the question of righteousness cannot be answered in general. (That would be the view of the relativism of our time. But even with this view you can reach the important things!) Perhaps the righteousness cannot be imposed unto you by others, but it will turn out to be crucial when it comes to your personal relationship to the Lord. You can only discover it yourself. And then you will find out, that you either believe - you are given the righeousness you need before him by and in Jesus, or you do not believe, and you find that you do not have the righeousness which is needed to be with him. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts