Salvation, soteriology, vicarious

what do these words mean?

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What is Salvation?

salvation: [ Latin salvatus, past part. (to save); fr. assumed Indo-European solu- (to make whole or complete again) ]

The core Biblical meaning of 'salvation' has to do with being rescued from danger or death. Indeed, that is what the name Yeshua (Jesus) means : 'he rescues'. It is what the crowd shouts as Jesus entered Jerusalem that last time before death: hoshi'annah, 'save us!' (in this case, from the Romans).

Christ rescues us from:

• sin (our broken relationship with God, shown mostly in our broken relationships with each other);
• death (we die because we are kept apart from God because there is something in us that rebels against God -- Christ addresses that, overcomes it, transcended it, and is working to complete it in the future);
• captivity (we are set free from all that shackles and hinders us);
• the Devil ("deliver us from evil");
• the wrath that is to come (when Time ends).

Christ rescues us for:

• a restored relationship with God (reconciliation) and life with Christ without end;
• new wholeness or completeness of being;
• citizenship in Christ's Kingdom;
• new realms of possibility beyond what we can now imagine.

You are rescued by Christ's work, the work of one who knows what we're going through because He went through it Himself. You didn't make it happen; it is only God's doing. We are saved not because we want to be saved (we don't want to be saved), but only because God wants to save us. God needs no help from us. God wants and intends that we are all saved. Salvation is a gift given because God favors us even though we don't and can't merit it. (That is what is meant by grace.) God will not force it on us; God's gift is lost on those who spurn it through wanton sin and rejection of Christ. It works in us .

Salvation has already been done (by Jesus on the cross). It is happening now (in each believer), and it will come to fruition in the future (when Christ returns). Salvation is also power in life: saved people have the fruit of the Spirit developing in them, and the support of the Spirit in doing what the Spirit leads and empowers them to do.

Most of today's Christian writers and pastors choose to express this slightly differently than in the past. They're re-stating and re-balancing their soteriology. From about the fourth century AD on, the main theme of salvation-talk in Christian thought and in sermons has been about what we are saved from. But people have heard that part of it non-stop for centuries; they're so used to hearing about it that it goes in one ear and out the other. Now, everyday Christians and Christian thinkers are talking a lot more about what Jesus has saved us for. Salvation is, in part, about being restored to wholeness, which was a part of the early Christian view that was neglected for so long. And, salvation is being described more often as being a part of a larger work: God at work saving all of creation, to make a new world. Or, to speak more 'theologically': the salvation of each person is a microcosm (a small version) of Christ's work in rebirthing all of creation. And the rebirth of the universe is a macrocosm (a huge version) of what Christ did in us and for us. The important thing is to keep in mind the only One whom we are saved by. All this talk is dung unless we trust Jesus.

"Not the labors of my hands
could fulfill thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone.
Thou must save, and Thou alone."
--- "Rock of Ages", by A.M. Toplady.

What is Soteriology?

soteriology : God-talk about salvation (Greek soteria ), dealing with core questions about Jesus and what he did. Jesus saves -- it's even in the meaning of his name, Yeshua ('he saves') -- but what does that mean? How? Saving from what, for what? And what does that have to do with me, as a saved person and as part of a saved people? How can each of us sinners enjoy in our lives what Jesus won for us? Those are questions of soteriology.

"Soter" (Saviour) was a Roman term used by many of the Mediterranean nationalities to describe their human heroes, the ones who would save them from various calamities. (For instance, Caesar Augustus was often called 'soter'.) Because of that, the earliest churches rarely used the term. But as caesar-worship petered out and the old paganisms faded away, the Church felt free to use it more often.

What's Vicarious?

vicarious: someone else did it, and you got the benefit. Christians believe that whatever 'it' was that keeps you apart from God (orthodox Christians call 'it' by the name of sin, but some also use other words to describe it), 'it' was decisively dealt with by Jesus the Christ. He took care of it. None of us were around then, and none of us took part in the deed, but we sure reap the benefit of a new relationship with our Creator. This is called the "vicarious atonement" by those who speak theologese. While what Jesus did is fully vicarious for you, that does not mean God will allow you to sit back and mooch off of it. Now that Christ gave you your salvation, he calls on you to serve and to spread the good news. That's two things which are not meant to be vicarious; you're to do them in person.

And just in case you're thinking it: "vicarious" does not mean 'something done by a vicar'. Yet, the two words have the same source. A vicar was, originally, a substitute for a higher-level minister. Christ was a substitute too, for us when we are sentenced for sin, and for the animal in ancient animal sacrifices for sin.