Salvation Begins Now

Luke 2:25-33
 
Salvation is a complicated and loaded concept in theology and in the Bible. This is quite natural, of course, since salvation stands at the center of God’s activity in Jesus Christ. A central pillar ought to be big and weighty, holding up many other things. Despite this, Christians often simplify salvation to mean “erasing my sins so that I get into heaven one day.” Certainly this is part of salvation, but there is so much more to it than that. The salvation of God is much richer because the problems which salvation corrects are much more far-reaching than an individual’s sins. Sin may have started it all, but the damage which it left in its wake requires correction too. Enter God’s salvation.
In this short passage here, I believe we get a glimpse of the “more” of salvation in two ways. Jesus has been born, and his parents take him to the Temple for the time of purification. As they are there, a man with the Holy Spirit, Simeon, takes the child in his arms and praises God that his eyes “have seen your salvation” (2:30). It is a curious phrase because we tend to think of salvation happening when Jesus died on the cross. We could understand this as prolepsis (referring to a future reality as if it already has happened), but I think Simeon rightly sees that God’s salvation was beginning to take root merely because Jesus was born into this world. The “more” of salvation here is that Jesus’ birth was the beginning of God’s salvation; and that salvation would continue to grow, reaching a climax in Jesus’ death even as we still wait for the fullness of God’s salvation someday.
The second thing which we learn about the “more” of salvation comes in Simeon’s words immediately before: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace” (2:29). There is a sense in which Simeon claims that he now has peace because God’s salvation has come to him in this seminal form. By “peace,” Simeon likely means that his soul is at rest because that for which he has waited—God’s salvation—is coming to pass. The promise is being fulfilled, and though Simeon won’t see the fullness of it in his lifetime, at least he knows that God was faithful to his word. Of course, this peace which comes from salvation is much more than that as well since we know that salvation brings peace between God and man in our conflict initiated by sin. Salvation also brings peace between human beings who were separated by sin in the Garden. Though strife has infiltrated relationships from the personal level to the ethnic level all the way up to the level of national governments, God’s salvation brings peace to those relationships. It may not always seem like this is true, but the fact that people of all sorts of backgrounds can worship the same God together is a testament to this peace at work in the world now.
As you think about God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, I challenge you to think about how it is at work in your life today. Are there ways in which it has brought peace into your life, peace between you and God, peace between you and a fellow human being, or just peace in your soul? How else has salvation been at work in you, preparing you for that time when the fullness of salvation will be wrought? After you answer these questions, I encourage you to take a moment like Simeon did to praise God for this wondrous gift which he has given to you and to all of us. -TL

Popular posts from this blog

The Lord Giveth…and Giveth

2 Samuel 7:1-14 This is a famous passage in the history of the Church because it is where we see the promise of the Messiah to David. God will establish David’s lineage, and one of his own shall sit on the throne of his kingdom forever. We even are treated to such words as “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me” (7:14). If you have wondered what is with all of the connections to David in the Gospel accounts and why it is so important that Jesus is referred to as God’s “Son,” then this is the answer to those questions. This passage is, perhaps, the crown jewel of christological prophecies. That is why it is so easy for us to overlook other aspects of this passage which also bear significance for us. You see, this passage began with David being at peace because of all that God had done for him, so he wanted to do something great for God in return. What a wonderful impulse! Surely, we ought to give thanks to God (Luke 17:11-19), and such thanks might even take the ...
Read more

To Live or To Die?

1 Kings 19:4-8 This passage is a little startling because we do not expect prophets to act like this. Here is Elijah giving up and asking to die because he feels worthless. It is even more surprising considering what has just happened (1 Kings 18). Elijah just had the showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He showed the people who is the true God, he destroyed the prophets of the false god, and then he announced the sending of rain which was three years in the making. What power! What goodness! Why does he now feel that it would be best for him to curl up and die? Is this how prophets act? In our Wednesday night class this week, we encountered another prophet of God (if you will) who also faced death. In Philippians 1, Paul seems to be facing some sort of dilemma. Does he live or does he give into death? It is a tough choice for Paul because he knows that dying means going to be with Christ in heaven; but living means advancing the Gospel even more and encouraging ...
Read more

That We May Know the Lord

Exodus 16:1-15 As you know, Beth and I are in the midst of raising our first child, and being in this position invites an endless wave of advice. Some of the advice is good, and some of it does not align with what we want to do as parents. That is fine because parents are different and children are different, there is more than one way to raise a child, and who knows what will be useful and what will not. Well, as I read this passage, I was reminded of a particular kind of advice which takes different forms: Do not give into your children when they whine, or it will just teach them that they can get what they want by whining. It is a fair bit of advice, and one which we try to use in different ways. It is curious that God does not seem to know this trick. Here the Israelites are in the wilderness, just having finished celebrating God’s deliverance of them from Egypt, and they start complaining that things were better in Egypt. Back there, they could eat as much as they wanted w...
Read more