A Movement on Fire:
Salvation – It’s Not What You Think!

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany • February 2, 2020
Readings:  Philippians 12:1-8, 12-13 (adapted from the NRSV)
An excerpt adapted from John Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation” (1765)

“What is salvation?” asks John Wesley. And he answered, in essence, “It’s not what you think!” It is not, said Wesley, about “going to heaven” or “eternal happiness.” Salvation is not about the hereafter – it is about the here and now. 

Don’t get me wrong. I believe there is another existence that awaits us. I just have no idea what it will look and feel like. But I am trusting God to make it joyful, peaceful, and interesting! Who wants a boring afterlife for all eternity!  

My point here is the concept of “salvation” has been often twisted, especially in evangelical Christian theology, to mean “saving souls” for heaven, while ignoring our constant need and God’s deep desire to save human lives, relationships, and communities. Salvation has been distorted to focus on what happens to us after we die, rather than seeing it as an expression of the fullness and abundance God intends for all in this life. The immediate and burning question is not “Is there life after death,” but “is there life worth living before death?” [1]

So, if salvation is not what many of us were taught, what is it? From what do we need to be saved? Toward what is our salvation directed? How are we saved? And what might that actually look and feel like? I want to provide some responses both from Wesley’s own theology and from some Methodist theologians who have extended Wesley’s thinking. 

First, Wesley’s says, we need to be saved from our inclination to “miss the mark” – that’s one definition of “sin” – to fall short of the high standard for love and justice that God desires for and from us. Sin is a distortion of our relationships with God and one another. God’s grace works to reset our compasses and lead us in the direction of restored, loving relationships. 

Wesley tended to think of salvation as a personal, individual process. So when reading Wesley, we need to be conscious of that limitation. Yet, while he did not speak explicitly of “social sins,” but he did draw a close connection between personal sin and social evils. And he made clear that there can be no separation between personal piety and our work toward undermining exploitation, oppression, and economic injustice. Many modern Wesleyan theologians have built upon the foundation Wesley laid to make clear that God also calls us to work for “social salvation.”

Not only is salvation not just about us as individuals, I assert that it is not even primarily about individuals. Our personal salvation is inextricably intertwined like a net with the salvation of all of humanity. God’s deep desire, and what God is constantly leading us toward, is the goal of fullness of being for every human person. That’s what Jesus meant by abundant life. That is necessarily a communal endeavor. God’s grace is focused on moving us toward relationships, communities, and societies organized around self-giving love and compassion, rather than selfishness and greed. Ultimately, the mark we are missing is the complete elimination of all inequity, exploitation, abuse, hatred, and oppression. That is what salvation aims for. 

We might say that the opposite of being “saved” is not “un-saved,” it is being lost. What afflicts human beings so often is not knowing our true and intended place in the world. We suffer from not knowing you we are loved. We feel alienated, disaffected, and alone. Sometimes these afflictions come from the ways we have been harmed by systems of oppression, exploitation, abuse, and prejudice. There are also ways that we are lost due to the ways we have harmed ourselves or harmed others. So, we might conceive of salvation as helping every human being find their intended place, to help each person know they are loved, and to invite them to participate in the outpouring of God’s grace.

All of this has nothing to do with being saved from God’s wrath or from being condemned to eternal damnation. That horrible theology does not square at all with the God of grace and love who I experience. Unfortunately, it is found in parts of the Hebrew and Christian scripture and has, therefore, been promoted by those who want to use the scriptures as a religious club to instill fear and rigid discipline. While Wesley believed there was a hell, he was not a “hellfire and damnation preacher like many of his contemporaries. His theology emphasizes God’s love and grace. He leaned toward the idea that God offers salvation to every human person, even those who had never heard of Jesus. Extending that idea, our Wesleyan theology in the progressive church says that the God we experience is a God of mercy, who forgives the ways we miss the mark and relentlessly invites us to grow and be transformed for our own personal salvation and that of all of creation. 

How are we saved? The apostle Paul wrote that we have to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” [What is the “fear and trembling” about, if not fear of God?] In the first part of the lesson, he described what he meant. Practice love, share in the Spirit, express compassion and sympathy. Don’t be selfish or conceited. Be humble as Jesus was humble. Following his model, be attentive to the needs and interests of others. 

So, is that it? Is it all up to us, then? May God have mercy on us if that were so but, no! – we do not save ourselves on our own. We cannot do it alone. We need God’s strength, encouragement, inspiration, and leading to resist “the evil powers of this world,” as our baptismal vows state it. In the very last sentence we heard from Paul says that God is at work in us, enabling us to exercise our free will and to work toward what God has called us to. Yet, neither are we saved by grace alone or by faith alone. I have long been a fan of the lines in chapter 2 of the Letter to the Ephesians that says,

By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. [2]

But I think now that is too one-sided. Yes, God initiates this process and God is at work in us, but we need to respond by opening ourselves to grace and actively working for our own transformation and liberation. Working out our salvation means practicing faith working through love. Thus, I am convinced that salvation is the mutual interaction of God’s boundless grace with our willing response, leading to the growth and transformation of our hearts, minds, spirits, and the quality of our relationships and communities.

In his sermon, Wesley says the biblical declarations, “You are saved” and “You have been saved” mean this is “a present thing” – implying that we are already saved. Because God is merciful, says, Wesley, we are already in possession of the blessing of salvation. In Wesley’s theology of grace, he calls this “justification.” That term carried unfortunate connotations of judgment. But most expressions of Progressive Christian theology assert that we are not “saved” by Jesus’ death on a cross. Yes, Jesus’ willingness to die for the sake of humanity was a profound expression of sacrificial love and an example for us of self-giving, but his death was not demanded by an angry God who required that someone die for our sins. Yes, God forgives us for the ways we miss the mark. As Wesley states in elsewhere in his sermon, “Justification is another word for pardon.” And I am so grateful for God’s pardon. But from the perspective of 21st century progressive theology, I do not believe God ever condemns us or demands retribution for our sins. In this way, our emphasis differs from Wesley. Rather, as the Bible states repeatedly, God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. I believe God is also unbelievably patient with us. And God intended from the beginning to work in us for our transformation and liberation no matter how long it takes.

Wesley argued that we are justified and sanctified by faith. That is all that is required of us. He argued that repentance and good works are not essential. Yet, in the same sermon, he asserted, 

It is incumbent on all that are justified to be zealous of good works. And these are so necessary, that if a [person] willingly neglect them, [they] cannot reasonably expect that [they] shall ever be sanctified; [they] cannot grow in grace, in the image of God, the mind which was in Christ Jesus….

Later, he also seems to contradict himself when he says repentance and good works “are necessary to full salvation.” He does not explain the distinction between “salvation” and “full salvation.” It seems to me a false distinction. It is faith that leads us to put faith into action, which results in our growth in personal and social holiness. And we do all of this with God’s loving guidance. It is all one beautiful, mutual whole. 

Wesley asserts that we are already “justified” and even “sanctified.” He means that God, in her mercy, has declared it – has decided that our relationship with God is restored, it is made right, despite the ways we still fall short. But that cannot mean that our salvation (or “full salvation” in Wesley’s terminology) is already accomplished. And, clearly, the salvation of humanity and the world has not been consummated. I am glad that God thinks “we are saved,” but I think we are better off saying, “we are being saved.” Because if Salvation includes sanctification, then it is not a moment of rebirth, it is a process of transformation over time! It is a process of us working out our own salvation – individually, yes, but mostly in community with others. That work cannot be done except with God’s help. The process of sanctification – being made holy and whole – is bathed in God’s grace and focused and informed by God’s inspiration and guidance. Wesley put it this way: 

“We go on from grace to grace, while we are careful to “abstain from all appearance of evil,” and are “zealous of good works,” as we have opportunity, doing good to all [people]; while we walk in all God’s ordinances blameless, therein worshipping God in spirit and in truth.” 

Here at the Church of the Village, we don’t talk explicitly about salvation often. But so much of what we do together is directed at opening ourselves to God’s grace and fostering the process of sanctification over time. We are “going on from grace to grace,” seeking to work out our salvation together in spiritual community. We are learning how to love, to practice and promote justice, the care with deep compassion for one another. We are learning how to resist systems of oppression and exploitation and counter the effects of these systems on our lives and the lives of people we seek to love, especially the most marginalized and oppressed. We often refer to God’s ultimate goal and ours as, “the kin-dom of God.” Together in this place – Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Christian, and seekers –  all of us are kin-dom sibling and children of God. I thank God for the opportunity to grow with you and transform not only ourselves but the world in the process.

Copyright © 2019 by Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.

[1]  Joerg Rieger, No Religion But Social Religion: Liberating Wesleyan Theology (Nashville: General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, 2018), 51.

[2]  Ephesians 2:8-10 (NRSV)

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