If life on earth is a race, then salvation must be a PROCESS and not an INSTANCE in time - i.e. are we really "saved" at the point of accepting Christ as saviour and Lord? Personally, I don't subscribe to the concept of "once saved always saved" - i.e. the concept that once I accept Christ, I don't need to worry about losing my salvation for the rest of my life. It simply does not gel with God's tremendous sacrifice just to give us free will/choice, neither does it gel with what the scriptures say. I see salvation as a PROCESS and not a point in time - hence when I accepted Christ as my Lord and saviour, my sins are forgiven and the PROCESS of changing me and saving me has started (and will come to completion as promised in Philippians 1:6), but WE ARE NOT THERE YET.
I guess the crux lies in the definition of "salvation". According to David Pawson (whose VCD on "The Normal Christian Birth" my Care Group watched last month), if we limit salvation to "saved from hell", instead of the broader process of "BEING saved into the fullness of God's Kingdom (to serve)", we may have missed the point of Christians being Disciples of Christ. We may also be missing all the wonderful blessings that the Lord has for us when we intentionally run the race as disciples. In the words of David Pawson, when we accept Christ we are JUSTIFIED (through forgiveness of sins) to have a relationship with God and to serve Him, and we will reach the point of SALVATION when Jesus comes again and restores our physical and spiritual bodies.
"What? We are not saved yet?!?!". But the beauty here is that us Tri-Bloggers understand what it means to ENJOY the training/race, and I suspect even my boys do too. Every Sat, I bring R1 and R2 for a bike ride (to the nearby club for a swim) which invariably ends up in a race between R1 and myself/R2(passenger on my bike). The prize is usually ice cream or some other treat, but look how serious R1 is when he is racing - he clearly enjoys the race itself (and of course the ice cream when he invariably wins). ;) Seen in that context, if life is a race then it is a beautiful and joyful thing to race for the Lord.Sorry, pretty heavy stuff for a Triathlon Blog, so I betta stop. ;) More coming in Part II. Meanwhile, train well, keep safe and God Speed!
8 comments:
Love this post, Kewl! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for the encouragement. :)
While I'm not a Christian, I do like the concept of James 2:20: "Faith without works is dead."
So if it's a race, faith, training, and a lot of hard work get you to the finish line. :-)
Great thoughts. No matter if we run slow or fast, when we run with and for the Lord, we win. Looking forward to reading Part Deux.
Kewl,
I guess this is from a newbie Christian thinking..but sometimes i just think...
What if we don't become closer to Christ, we still be save? Will u and me act any differently? That is if God tell us.."ok guys...u just accept once and u are save"...will we just be complacent in our spiritual growth? Just slack off??
I don't like that idea. I mean I look at everything in the world...the way that God created it. Everything that is worthy takes blood, sweat and tears. That's what I learn before Christ, that's what i see after accepting Christ.
In comparison to training for tri..i mean u really can bail on a long run and still finish the distance. But would u? I think by refusing and keep training, we streghten our mentality. Same way we streghten our spirituality.
Your son is so cute..have u consider getting some aerobars for him? :D
it's all about being in the moment and letting everything else go. surrendering.
Great post - but you do have some non-tri bloggers here - hello? :)
Sad news about the recent deaths.
Your son is adorable.
no way man, keep it up. More sermons.
Hello Brother,
Just wanted to drop a line. Keep up the good work looking forward to part II!
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