The first ramble: Salvation:

Before I get started, this blog is for the sole purpose of getting a finer characterization of the concept of salvation in Christian doctrine. If you don't believe in the Christian faith, that is your choice. I request you be respectful to my blog just the same. However, if you do believe and have some disagreement with what I have to say, then let's talk it out. That being said, let's do it!


SALVATION:

First question: Why do we even NEED Salvation?
Well, in the beginning, we didn't. Genesis 1 and 2 was reflective of God's default plan for us. In Genesis 1 and 2, God created the universe and then finished it by creating humanity (Adam and Eve, not named until Genesis 3). God's default plan was (and is) for us to remember that He is the source of all what we have and all what we know. However, while God gave Adam dominion over the land and the animals and told him to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28), Adam got caught up in what he was given by God so much he was bogged down in what was in front of him and forgot what the source was. This has twofold implication; one that Adam himself has failed to implement God's Word, and also because he did this, Eve has not been given the appropriate doctrine from Adam that God initially gave to him. In the very beginning, there was only one rule: "Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat if it you shall surely die. (see Gen 2:16-17, right before God creates Eve). It can be said that Eve was the best gift God gave Adam (a helper, this is an entirely separate argument that ties into Salvation but for sake of the point I'm trying to make I will omit the Doctrine of God's Order and perhaps insert bits and pieces here and there). However, Adam's failure to penetrate Eve's mindset with God's doctrine allows her to be deceived by Satan into believing the fruit will make them like God. And Adam, who received the commandment directly from God, also ate it (to please Eve [as opposed to God]; see Genesis 3). At the end of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden never to return. However, there is a deeper implication. Remember Genesis 2:16-17? Adam ate of that tree, and every single person listed in the Bible since died (as well as everyone who has lived since the Bible). This death however is twofold; it's not only a physical death that is implied but more directly a spiritual death from falling away from God (i.e., Adam losing sight of what the source is and trying to do things his own way). This default nature of our flesh had been handed down from generation to generation and God found it necessary to bring his Son Christ Jesus into the world to be the 2nd Adam. If you read the Old Testament, you'll see that practically every operative person whose story was told fell short of God at some point, and struggled between their default predisposition and their relationship with the Father. Jesus lived a life without sin (if you notice in the Gospel [pick one, they all give a depiction], Jesus did not have this struggle at all-due to sharing his attributed with the Father [and being his Son], a matter of fact....Matt 4 is his direct conflict with Satan but he stood on what he knew and thusly did not indulge in his sin nature, not even a bit!) and took the sins of all (past, present, and future) to the cross with him, per the Father's Will. And when Christ dies on the cross and is resurrected, the mechanism of the Salvation has been completed; Jesus bore the sins of all on the cross and was raised from the dead on the 3rd day (though the fact that he is risen is the important part, not necessarily it being the 3rd day. Jesus beat every trial that came to him, the last of which being death (remember this). Therefore, to answer the base question you have, it is this default sin nature that behooves us to accept Christ and get sealed with the Holy Spirit for our Salvation. However, let's examine this further.

Because of the nature of Salvation (discussed later), we have what is called Positional Righteousness. It means that because Christ took the "whooping" for all of our sins, we are seen by the Father just like his Son. Because Christ took care of this, we are not judged based on anything that happened before our acceptance of Christ and are taken care of for all of sins. Few churches actually express this, but the one sin that sends you to Hell is rejection of Christ.

However, there is another side to this; it is called Practical Righteousness. It ties into spiritual growth and the day-to-day battle with deeds of sin. This has no bearing on whether or not you get into Heaven; Christ took care of that part for those who accepted him. The deeds of sin are things done contrary to what the Bible teaches. That being said, to walk a spiritual walk completely in-line with the Bible, which is why we need Christ. However, we can grow by seeking God through his Son Christ Jesus through his Word and through prayer, thusly developing a relationship with the Father, which it what he wants: uninterrupted fellowship (Deut 6 explains what this entails). Sin is the principal means by which fellowship is interrupted, for when one sins, they lose sight of God being the source (like Adam). The purpose of the sound spiritual walk (one that combats sin[successfully]) itself is to please God. However it does start with the positional righteousness, it goes even deeper than this though, as Salvation can really be separated into 3 parts:
Salvation from the Penalty, Power, and Presence of sin.

Salvation from the Penalty of Sin
This is the basic component of Salvation. The part that many churches (and more Christians) stop at. The idea of Salvation from the Penalty is that Christ has already died for all sins past, present, and future (being the "2nd Adam" where the first Adam failed-not to struggle with sin and staying connected with the Father throughout), and plugging into this will have us taken care of from the penalty of sin. What is the point of being saved from the penalty of sin? Simply that this life in flesh and blood is not the be all and end all of things; there is more beyond this. And Salvation from the Penalty means that we can receive eternal life (see John 3:18; John 3:36; and Col 3:1-4), get to connect to God, and are taken care of in the eternal perspective (going to Heaven when the physical life is through). This ties into the concept of positional righteousness and is called the Doctrine of Justification-as Christ's blood has made us justified in the eyes of the Father. While this is where things end for many Christians, it's not the end of God's plan and and ordainment for the nature of Salvation. There is still the Salvation from the Power of sin to deal with.


Salvation from the Power of Sin
While being Saved from the Penalty of Sin is enough to get you into Heaven, that's where the work begins. Although the only sin that separates from God and sends us to the boogaman (as my grandmother so eloquently put it) is rejection of Christ, accepting Christ doesn't eliminate sin from our lives. While Christ's sacrifice and Resurrection give us the means to be saved from what sin can ultimately do to us, it doesn't make it go away altogether, and because of the default sin nature we inherited from Adam, we struggle with it like everyone else (but Christ) did. Being saved allows us to go to Heaven, but we get the mind of Christ, which allows us the tools to grow spiritually and be closer to God. However, most of us upon the onset of our spiritual walks have not the means to utilize these tools effectively (but that's a slightly different talk). The Bible says walk in the Spirit, well our own spirits are at constant war with our flesh and our sin predisposition struggle with our disposition to please God (Gal 5:16-17). Galatians 5:22-23 shows the nature of walking a good spiritual walk; the good things that allow us to walk a sound spiritual walk with God. This is re-iterated in Philippians 4:6-8 where the attributes to focus on to connect with God are displayed again. Paul (illuminated by the Holy Spirit) wrote both the letters to the Galatians and the Philippians. The connection with God comes from his Word (the Bible) yes...and these are the things we should be abiding by. However, through prayer on top of the diligence in the Word do we get the connection with God and get the wisdom we need to appropriately implement his Truth. The Word is a good tool, but knowing the words in the book are secondary to putting the Word on our hearts, and seeking God...explained in James 1 (particularly verse 5). The nature of the spiritual walk is also explained in Philippians 2:12-13, where it is explained that one has to work out salvation through fear and trembling for God is at work in us, which starts when we get saved from the Penalty. Therefore, we get the attributes from the Word, but must seek God in order to get the empowerment and Filling of the Holy Spirit to implement them. And when it is not implemented we get some interim whoopings from the Father...however even these are done in love and are done in lieu of the eternal whooping and are for us to grow Hebrews 10:26 explains that there will be no reward after continuous conscientious sin...but even this is an invisible line between God's mercy and God's justice that no one can see but the Father (so it is best not to sin at all and if it does, to ask forgiveness with the 1 John 1:9 principle)


To step out of this for a minute: 1 John 1 is probably the best chapter that explains the "Why I have to be a sinner if I have God?" principle. Tied into our unfortunate inheritance of sin nature from Adam and our struggle with it through our dichotomy of spirit and flesh. 1 John 1 essentially explains that we have sin and must therefore seek God on our way to conquer sin...but though we won't be going to the boogaman, sin is still out there and in us (because of Genesis 3), and those who say they have no sin call God out to be a liar and his Word is not in us. However the Father is able to cleanse all sin committed during our spiritual walks (1 John 1:9) through confession and forthcomingness. Some corners of Christianity, use 1 John 1:9 as a safety net and forget all about Hebrews 10:26, and God eventually gets with those folk (though it's still in love...TOUGH love, but love just the same)


This implementation, once a daily part of our lives, is the benefit of Salvation from the Power of sin; spiritual maturity/positive spiritual growth. This is called the Doctrine of Sanctification. There is still one aspect to Salvation we need to discuss: The Salvation from the Presence of Sin.


Salvation from the Presence of Sin
Although being saved from the Penalty of sin gets us out of the eternal spiritual whooping, sin is around us and in us. So what's God going to do about it? Well, Jesus is eventually going to come back and fix that whole deal. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 alludes to the second coming of Christ and what will happen when we go to be with the Lord once and for all (to get glorified bodies). Jesus is to reign for 1,000 years and then turn over the Kingdom over to God...the creation of another (new) Heaven and Earth...where we all get new glorified bodies. Why a new body? This current body we have has the sin nature in it; it is not equipped to being with God so we must get a new body (analogous to our physical bodies we have now needing space suits to survive in space or scuba gear to dive underwater). Folk who die between now and the 2nd Coming of Christ get an "intermediate body", which has the same attributes as the glorified body but differs only in that the 2nd Coming hasn't come yet...the 1,000-yr Kingdom to be established by Christ before he turns over the entire Kingdom (those who believe/serve/etc.) over to the Father so the Father can be all in all is how we escape sin. Basically neither our current bodies nor the world we live in our suited for eternity, so a new Heaven and Earth must be created (Revelations 21 chronicles this). This is called the Doctrine of Glorification.

Introduction

Greetings, I'm Nelson.

I figured what I'd do is simply introduce myself. Some days I'm going to have time for this, and some days I'm not. Stay tuned in...sometimes I may have something to say you can use, and other days I'll be saying stuff that may polarize you or behoove you to distance yourself from me. I will pull very few punches just the same. That being said...here we go!