I’m picking back up on the series “Jesus is Our Reality.”
Smiling Icon believes in:
Tenet 1: A Christ-Centered View of Reality – The Creator and God/human Jesus Christ is the central truth of the cosmos (Col 1:16-17).
Tenet 2: A Christ-Centered Unconditional Love – Jesus Christ has embraced all persons at their worst and rescued and redeemed them for a renewed relationship with God.
Tenet 3: A Christ-Centered Inclusion – We are all implicated in the Second Adam even more than in the first (Rom 5:18).
And in this blog, we’ll discuss Tenet 4:
A Christ-Centered Belonging
- We belong to God by grace alone.
- We belong to Christ not by what we have done, but because of who Christ is and what he has done (Rom 3:23-24).
- Repentance and belief occur inside of belonging (Rom 2:4).
- Jesus Christ is the Savior of all people (1 Tim 4:10) and the Lord of all people (Phil 2:10).
“When Did You Get Saved?”
Perhaps you’ve heard the familiar question many people will ask other Christians: “When did you get saved?”
And the familiar answer is when “I accepted Jesus back in . . . “ whenever they came into an awareness of the Lord and received his love.
But one scholar I’ve come to respect (Karl Barth) had a different answer to the question. He took issue with the question from two standpoints:
- It was about something “he” did to accept Christ
- It was the use of the word “get.”
He saw it as conveying that he got saved by something “he” did—deciding to let Jesus save him.
When in reality (and remember, Christ is our reality), he realized he got saved not at whatever date he became aware of Christ and invited him into his life.
He got saved in 33 A.D. when Christ died on the cross and included him in his saving act of dying for all humanity, all of creation.
Salvation is not about what we’ve done, including our “work” of accepting or deciding to “get” Christ.
We belong to Christ not by what we have done, but because of who Christ is and what he has done. Read this Scripture:
Romans 3:23-24
New International Version
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
We’re justified by his grace, period—not our acceptance or “getting” of something. We’re justified by his redemption, his restoration of humanity, his doing right what Adam did wrong, and his inclusion of us in his Being (Acts 17:28 – In him we live and move and have our being).
Repentance and belief occur inside of belonging.
Romans 2:4
New International Version
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
We belonged to him from the very beginning, from before the very foundation of the world. When we learn of his kindness, it leads us to such an overwhelming awareness of his love, such an overwhelming sense of our inclusion, it makes us want to “repent.” It makes us want to change.
A Parable From a Classic Movie
There’s a classic movie made in the 1950’s (yes, I’m that old) called “The Imitation of Life.” It was one of the first times Hollywood attempted to be honest with racial inequality, and it showed the struggles of a young lady who wanted to deny her black heritage because she looked “white.” Denying her black heritage inevitably meant denying her black mother. And she did everything she could to alienate herself from that mother, including asking her to never acknowledge her, even if she saw her on the street.
Her mother gave her what she wanted. But she also gave her this incredible affirmation of “You’ll always be mine no matter what.”
Rather than me tell it, watch it.
In the end, after her mother’s death, her mother’s love led her to repentance.
God’s love for us and for all has power to do that for all.
A Love That Never Lets Go
Jesus Christ is the Savior of all people.
1 Timothy 4:10
New International Version
10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
He’s the Lord of all.
Philippians 2:10
New International Version
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Take that love into the Marketplace. When people see it, it will change everything.