Christians have tended to approach...
Illustration
Object:
Christians have tended to approach "salvation" as either a big game or a long season, each yielding a final score. In the big game, victory comes down to a few crucial moments with maybe a sprint at the end. In the long season, we work out our salvation one inning at a time, with the standings always in view.
Either way, we contemplate victory and use sports images like training, coaching, and rules to understand achieving it. We equip ourselves -- knowledge, holiness, right opinion, appropriate companions -- in order to handle the crucial live-performance moments. We obey the rules to avoid disqualification.
Rarely does it occur to us that being "saved" might mean something other than victory in a contest. We hear the question Jesus was asked one way: What will it take to win the big one? Will only a few win the prize? Who will those few be?
Jesus didn't talk much about salvation, especially in its eschatological sense as eternal victory. On the one occasion when he is quoted using the word "salvation," he seemed to mean the here-and-now presence of God's kingdom, not an eternal prize. He used "save" to indicate safety, as in being saved from a storm, or to mean keep, as in not trying to save one's life.
The church would talk about victory and prizes, at least partly because it was in the business of deciding who won. But Jesus himself seemed to view life as neither big game nor long season, but as a journey in which God would be steadfast companion and the aim was oneness with God.
(From Tom Ehrich, "On a Journey" meditation for August 16, 2004, www.onajour-ney.org)
Either way, we contemplate victory and use sports images like training, coaching, and rules to understand achieving it. We equip ourselves -- knowledge, holiness, right opinion, appropriate companions -- in order to handle the crucial live-performance moments. We obey the rules to avoid disqualification.
Rarely does it occur to us that being "saved" might mean something other than victory in a contest. We hear the question Jesus was asked one way: What will it take to win the big one? Will only a few win the prize? Who will those few be?
Jesus didn't talk much about salvation, especially in its eschatological sense as eternal victory. On the one occasion when he is quoted using the word "salvation," he seemed to mean the here-and-now presence of God's kingdom, not an eternal prize. He used "save" to indicate safety, as in being saved from a storm, or to mean keep, as in not trying to save one's life.
The church would talk about victory and prizes, at least partly because it was in the business of deciding who won. But Jesus himself seemed to view life as neither big game nor long season, but as a journey in which God would be steadfast companion and the aim was oneness with God.
(From Tom Ehrich, "On a Journey" meditation for August 16, 2004, www.onajour-ney.org)
