Everybody is out except for those who are ‘one of us’ – sinner’s prayer and all that goes with it… (sub-title: change of status and heart not changed!!! OK sub-title is a little cheeky but it is my take on the absolute separation of justification and sanctification). Really? Everyone out except?
[W]e have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe (1 Tim. 4:10).
The Saviour of ALL? The usual way of responding to this is to say Jesus is potentially the Saviour of all people and the actual Saviour of those who believe, but does that do justice to the language? Let’s see how that works with a few other texts:
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all (especially) the parchments (1 Tim. 4:13).
[L]et us work for the good of all and especially for those of the family of faith (Gal. 6:10).
In all three occasions the same word is used (μάλιστα: malista). Bring the parchments and as many books as possible; do good to those of faith, but don’t stop there and do good also to everyone else; Saviour of all? There is a distinction between those ‘of the household of faith’ and others, but is the distinction so strong that there is a clear ‘in’ and ‘out’?
So a paradigm shift that does not leave me in the camp of ‘all are condemned except…’ nor in the ‘all are saved’ camp, is to suggest a shift from ‘all are lost except those who have received Jesus’ to ‘all are saved except for those who have rejected Jesus’. Or to put the paradigm into two affirmative statements:
- All who receive Jesus are ‘saved’.
- All who reject Jesus are ‘lost’.
Two affirmative statements that do not a) cleanly divide humanity – what about those who have not received nor rejected Jesus? and b) leave any judgement in the hands of God. We could push it further with if to receive Jesus one needs to hear Jesus (Ro. 10:14 ‘whom they have not heard’) what is the situation when someone has simply heard facts about Jesus – and maybe not accurate ones – and then asked to receive that Jesus… have they ‘rejected’ the Jesus of my presentation, but not necessarily rejected the One who truly is Jesus? Evangelising can be easy (and very off-putting to many) but witnessing is so much more challenging – witnessing demands that my life tells a story of the hope that is within me, it touches my life-style, bank account, friendships… the whole of life.
I think only those who reject Jesus whilst knowing his goodness and the real him MAY be excluded in the age to come. However I am hoping that there may be restorative possibilities for their salvation even after death?. I do not know though . I wish I did that eternal conscious separation/torment was not the case but I err on side of hopeful Christian universalist cautiously. I just don’t see how Jesus would or could possibly fail in his mission to save humanity all his promises are yes and amen! There are so many clues in scripture that there are exceptions too like when he talked about those who give just a cup of water to his little ones being saved? And other things. I think about the Muslims and atheists who have been kind to me and given me care and love when they didn’t need to and am pretty sure is a saving act for them so who is in or out goes so much further than the evangelical paradigm of ‘saved’ or ‘unsaved’ I hope and believe too? So challenging thank you Martin.
Thanks Joanna… one has to be ‘on the side of hopeful’…