"Seeing" Salvation

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life -- Jn. 3:16

 

Today, I had planned to give a background, or history, of the "atonement" explanation of Christ's death---the source of the theory that God's 'justice' demanded a perfect sacrifice--the death of Christ on the cross.  It always helps to know where these ideas originate, even though they do not line up with the experience of Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Israel, and the prophets, not to mention the experience of Mary and of Jesus Himself.  Fortunately, the Bible gives us the stories, the experience, of salvation rather than the theories, or the doctrine.  It is a back-and-forth journey, just like our own, just like that of the apostles, of believing one minute and doubting the next.  That is why Jesus said, "Follow Me; Walk with Me."  If we are not walking with Him, we are like the Pharisees who knew the letter of the law, but still failed to grasp its meaning.

 

Someone once said, "the man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an idea."  I love that, for once we experience, we KNOW; we know with the Biblical meaning of "knowing," which is related to "intimacy," the kind of "knowing" reserved to the sexual intimacy of marriage.  Those who encountered/experienced Jesus, both before but especially after the Resurrection, were not at all swayed by the Pharisees who thought He was a pretender.  The woman at the well KNEW Who He was, no matter what anyone else said to her.  The martyrs were willing to die for their KNOWLEDGE/intimacy with Him, even though all it would take to save their lives was a pinch of incense rendered to Caesar.

 

As I said, my plan was to explain the background of the 'atonement' theory, but today I happened to read a wonderful passage on Beholding Salvation by Abbot Gregory Polan, a passage that so beautifully explains why I keep going back to the book of Isaiah that I thought it better to share some of his ideas today and reserve mine for tomorrow:

 

The Hebrew root for the name Isaiah means "salvation" (yasha).  [In fact, Jesus' name in Hebrew is Yeshua, meaning "God saves."]  The root "yasha" refers to help or deliverance in any perilous situation, whether through a direct act of God or God acting through a human agent.  For example, in the Book of Judges, when God calls Gideon to save the people from the oppressing Midianites, God's own words suggest that divine strength will empower Gideon's own actions: "Go with the strength you possess, and save Israel from the hand of Midian.  Is it not I who send you?"

 

Seeing with the eyes of faith, the OT authors believed that the living God was present and active in their lives, whether directly or through the agency of certain chosen persons.  Thus both the exodus from Egypt and the return from exile in Babylon were considered great acts of salvation and deliverance.  The psalmist (David), freed from an enemy's dominion or oppression, frequently evinces the belief that God's saving hand had brought about this deliverance.  In countless situations, great and small, in which people find escape from a vast array of evils, God's salvation is seen to be at work..... 

 

[Note:  I myself at least twice (and maybe even three times, if I count the lung cancer I had in 2010) in my life have directly experienced God's deliverance from almost certain death -- and of course, I do not know how many times I have been delivered without being conscious of what was happening.]

 

In the Canticle of Simeon, salvation is presented both as the momentous act of God in sending the Messiah and, at the same time, as the proclamation of a humble and devout man.  With eyes of faith, Simeon discerns the hand of God at work through this little child---a revelation that astonishes Mary and Joseph.  God breaks into a world that longs for divine salvation, bringing help to a people in darkness, in need of the "light of revelation" to show the path to peace, hope, mercy....When we give voice to this Canticle, Simeon's words become our own: the affirmation of God's saving help in our own lives.  The words ring true in our hearts: "We have seen God's salvation" in our midst, in great events and in quiet, hidden movements ---both of which manifest God's presence in our lives.  In acts of forgiveness and reconciliation, in experiences of conversion, in answers to prayers, God is forever helping us along on our pilgrim journey to the heavenly kingdom.  Salvation stands before us to behold; we too can see it, if we look with the eyes of faith.  -- (entry in Give Us This Day for Dec. 28).

 

After reading this passage, I turned the page and found Psalm 57, the subject of the message I was listening to on my way to the doctor's on the day I found out I had lung cancer in 2010.  Charles Stanley was preaching on "How to handle a crisis," and his text was v. 2:  In the shadow of your wings I take refuge, til the storms of destruction pass by.  It had taken 45 minutes for me to drive from my house to the doctor in Slidell, and for most of that time, I was listening to this talk.  I have to say that when the doctor told me I had a mass covering the right lung, all I really heard in my spirit was "In the shadow of your wings I take refuge, until the storms of destruction pass by."  The other words never penetrated my spirit, either at that moment or later, through all the tests, through the surgeon's dismissal of me with the words, "I can do nothing for you," through the surgery, and the weeks of recovery.  All that time, I had perfect peace and rest and even joy -- I was taking refuge under the wings of salvation, although I did not know whether I would live or die as a result. 

 

Now Psalm 57 for me is like the Canticle of Simeon: now my eyes have seen the salvation of our God!  Having had these experiences throughout my life, beginning when I was five years old, I cannot ever believe the "doctrine" of an "angry God" waiting to be appeased by a perfect sacrifice.  It just does not line up with my own experience, or the experience that I read about in the Bible, the history of salvation by our God.