The Truth and Myth of Salvation

If you were to ask a Christian who refers to themselves as “saved” what they are saved from, you are likely to get the response of hell. And when asked what Christ gave them when He died on the cross they will tell you that He gave them eternal life in heaven. I know they will say this, because that is the misconception that I believed for the longest time – that Christ freed us from hell and gave us heaven. Well, I am here to tell you that that is not true. In John 8:34, Jesus told the believers that “truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin,” but follows up in verse 36 with “So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” So we see that we were indeed slaves to sin. We were actually helplessly bound to sin with no means for escape from it, but Jesus makes this claim that the Son (Himself) is going to set us free from sin. We were not saved from hell primarily, but we were saved from our own sinful nature! Sure, we got to get out of hell as a bonus, but more importantly according to Christ, we got the key to our chains of sin. So He died that we might me “saved” from sin. So what did He die to give us besides this salvation from sin? Well, John 3:16 says that He died that those who believe on Him will have eternal life. So what is this eternal life? Once again, many will say heaven. Heck it’s what I told people it meant when I was witnessing. Boy was I dead wrong. The Bible actually has the definition of eternal life tucked neatly within a prayer from God the Son to God the Father in the garden. John 17:3 says “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternal life is to know God? Yes! Christ came to this earth and died on a cross so that we might have a relationship with God! God created us for the purpose of having someone to love and having someone to love Him back. He created Adam to have someone to hang out with. That is why He always went on walks with Adam, so that they could have fellowship. Then Adam and Eve sinned, and since God cannot be in the presence of sin, that fellowship was destroyed and a huge canyon was put between God and man (heck, it’s the picture on every tract ever produced…). But Jesus Christ came to this earth and died to be the propitiation of all our sin so that we could be spotless and pure enough to have a relationship with God again and go on walks with Him. Jesus died to restore the fellowship with God that we screwed up. If we live our lives in such a way that our goal is heaven and to not go to hell, not only are our lives pointless, but our salvation is meaningless. That is right, if you do not fulfill the point of your salvation (to have eternal life – a relationship with God) then your salvation is meaningless. Let our salvation not be meaningless and our lives have purpose – to know and have a relationship with God.