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A comment on last week’s post reads:

“If your savior can’t save children from abuse, sickness and starvation, your savior ain’t worth s@&t.”

This scoffing Atheist’s doesn’t realize that her understanding of salvation is similar to that of the religious…both see salvation as evacuation from all that needs healed now. Salvation is ubiquitous with religion…traditional or modern. Each sells their particular path to Heaven, Nirvana, or Enlightenment, insisting they possess the correct path. The problem with understanding salvation, is that once a person “buys in” to any definition, they become constrained by it. If (soterion–salvation, rescue, healing) is deliverance or freedom, then true salvation transcends definition. This is why Paul’s shocking message in the New Testament is that religion has never saved anyone.

Before we unpack Paul’s definition of salvation, let’s consider some common soteriological errors:

1. Conflating salvation with conversion to religion. Evangelicalism has become about “Making Converts to the Christian Religion.” However, the biblical mandate is to “Make Disciples” (Matthew 28:19) or “create students”, “create a thirst” so to speak. Salvation doesn’t put you in the Church as evidenced by Jesus’ own baptism.
2. Exclusivity: If it’s not obvious by Paul’s repeated claims throughout the NT, his Gospel is that salvation is not exclusively for the religious (Jew or otherwise), but includes everyone, sinners, tax collectors, Greeks, heathens, etc… Exclusivity is exponentially problematic due to a common misinterpretation of John 14:6-“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” where Jesus was making a cosmic christological statement, not stating “ONLY Christians go to Heaven.”
3. Saved from what?: Evangelicalism claims salvation delivers us from Hell, claiming everyone goes to Hell unless they convert to Christianity. Some claim we aren’t saved from Hell, but saved from God. This version of salvation is essentially fire insurance, leaving people no more in love with God than before. Merton calls this “The Moral Theology of the Devil”.
4. Personal salvation. Modern belief is almost exclusively personal. “Are you saved?” Biblical salvation comprises both personal and corporate understanding.
5. Evidence of Salvation. Many assumptions are made about people that cannot be known. Purity, church attendance, tongues, evangelizing, tithing, etc… are examples of false benchmarks of salvation.

Paul’s teaching on salvation is none of these.

It’s surprisingly difficult to convince people to trade the salvation of religion for the salvation of the Bible...it’s like confiscating a lollypop from the sticky hands of religious children. When it comes to salvation, our world has been bludgeoned by religious leaders who are unable or unwilling to get off the teat of mother religion. I seek to bring us healing and unity as we access Paul’s mindset. He begins this section with:

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness (dikaiosúnen)that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live(záo) by them. 

Romans 10:5-13 cannot be understood apart from Deuteronomy 30 because Paul quotes Moses’ last words to the people. Paul knows the anchor point of Moses’ speech is verse 6 and 10:

“6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”

“10…when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.“

For Moses, salvation was corporate fidelity to the rules. Salvation meant survival. Personally it was the ability to live...in love of those rules. This is Paul’s point in verse 5, disobedience to God’s law meant personal and corporate death. Salvation was not tied to an afterlife. Salvation was deliverance from (slavery) Egypt, water flowing from a rock, receiving manna, reaching Canaan, defending enemies, etc… God saved “a people” with His word, His law given by God to Moses.

This means salvation is not a single moment, or decision, but an event or process through which a person lives. We don’t “get saved”, we “are saved”…it’s ontological. Theologically, salvation comprises justification, sanctification, and glorification. Salvation is transformation not transaction. It takes time…for Moses it took generations.

Paul contrasts the (dikaosune) based on law (religion) and righteousness by faith.

⁶ But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 

Romans 10:6-7 stand out because of Paul’s additions. He’s quoting Deuteronomy 30: 12-13, but his additions reveal the cosmic aspect of his Christo-centric frame. In(v.8) the(řéma–word, statement, event) of Deuteronomy as the law (which saved people), he’s revealing as Christ Jesus.

 “…I will be with your mouth”…(Exodus 4:15)

“…the law of the Lord may be in your mouth…” (Exodus 30:19)

“For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians10:4)

Paul is revealing that Christ saved the Hebrew people in the desert. Christ was saving non-Christians, people of another religion, without them accepting Jesus, without them joining a church. Christ was the water, the manna, the law. Christ saves “through” everything.

Do NOT eisegete (read meaning into the text) a heaven/hell afterlife statement here. Deuteronomy 30:4 uses the term “heavens” to refer to people who are very far away. The term for “abyss” is the Greek word to refer to the Jewish term for pit, depth of the sea, not an afterlife. The point both Moses and Paul are making is that “through love” God will gather everyone from all places (near and far, high and low) to be united together and dwell together and prosper….corporate salvation. A single survivor would not be salvation. Paul now quotes Deuteronomy:

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 

Remember in the previous post (Rome 21) Paul said: “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness…”? Now we can see how he transposes the law with faith in this word (řéma) that dwells within us, in our mouth, and our inner being (kardia). Paul organizes the workflow like this:

⁹ “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.^” 

How did religion turn these two verses into a trope about accepting Jesus in our heart? Are we that simple? The term (kardia–heart, inner self) is an ontological term (true self), but our modern interpretation makes “heart” an emotional term. The Greek renders it this way: “because with the inner self it is thought to be true (faithed) unto righteousness, and with the mouth one admits (rescue).”

Despite being written in the Greek indicative, (meaning it’s a description, not a prescription), preachers still make this prayer of confession and belief into a salvation prerequisite. So I ask, which denomination does confessing Jesus as Lord place us into? Clearly it doesn’t. Many in Rome were eye witnesses to the resurrection, so how hard was belief that Jesus rose from the dead for them? This helps us uncover Paul’s salvation.

Salvation is God lovingly answering our cry for help. Just like the Hebrew people. “We are oppressed. We are suffering. We are thirsty. We are hungry. We are dying.” Salvation is God’s answer. Salvation is how God rescues. Salvation was different every time. It’s not a formula, it’s not a pre-condition of religion, it’s God showing up in and as our life.

Using our metaphor. The Governor grants each citizen a home and all that is need to fill it. But we wander off. We start in…then go out (like the Hebrews). Salvation is the moment “we come to ourselves” (Luke 15:17) after we see our mess and return (cry out) to God for help.

Salvation is when we love God back its a return to being “in love” or where God is. Salvation is not evacuation. Salvation is not trying to go to heaven after we die, but living from this loving union each moment. Salvation cannot be the fear of Hell. Salvation contains no threat.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:18)

So why has religion attached fear and threat to salvation? Paul shows us a better way:

For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The Greek renders this: “giving generously to all those asking for help”. Salvation is the Christological thread that ties everything together. Salvation is convergence in and through Christ. This is a clear statement that a religion as a culturally contrived apparatus is not the concern, “it makes difference” “the same Lord is Lord of all. Like Paul, we must stop the “My God can beat up your god.” stuff. Textually, he’s telling Jews that their religion has been coopted by Christ, meaning, Christ is the only power that has ever saved anyone, in any religion, and now that Christ had come, Paul is revealing that faith makes religion optional.

The Greek makes it clearer. “Everyone (épikaléomai-calling for help ), gets an answer (rescue, healed, saved)” Paul is expressly clear here: EVERYONE CALLING IS ANSWERED, i.e. saved IN THEIR OWN LIFE, Uniquely, in God’s time. There is no deadline of death. No religion to buy into. Salvation is trusting (faith) that God hears us, and has eliminated any barrier between us by the work of Christ.

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, ²⁷ that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸ for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.‘”

In Athens, Paul shows this framework to the Greeks. Taking a quote from Epiminedes and applying it to his framework for salvation. If this sounds odd, or even unbelievable, then I’m sorry to tell you that your religion has obscured the Gospel and conflated the salvation of God with religion.

Salvation means God has never been far off, regardless of what we call him, in the end salvation is the discovery that we’ve always been in Christ, it just takes a while before we realize it. Paul’s Christology gives him the freedom quote the Greek poet, even though it was written to Zeus, he can see the cosmic work of Christ in it. That is salvation.

‘In him we live and move and have our being.‘