Student Questions: What is the nature of salvation?

Jun 11, 2024

One of the many benefits of engaging students and bearing concerns and care for other people is that the gravity of our needs keeps pressing us more deeply into the green arc of God's truth and grace. Most recently I have been pressed into thinking about how Christianity and salvation can be thought about in several different ways. The Bible uses many different terms for those who are saved. In my experience, people restrict theology and salvation to matters of the head. The common idea is that a person is saved when the correct information is placed before them and the person decides how to respond as a matter of the intellect.

But what if salvation is more nutritional than intellectual? Is it possible for a person who knows all about nutrition to die from not eating? Compare that to an infant who doesn’t know anything about how nutrition works, but eats well, grows, and thrives.

Actually, there are several categories to think about and the whole idea is a great conversation starter. Here is what I have so far.

Is salvation mainly:

• Intellectual – Is the Bible information to decide on OR an antidote for what we think we know and for what we insist we are capable of?
• Emotional – Does our emontional state determine our salvation OR does salvation determine (even override) our emotional state?
• Volitional – Is salvation a product of our will OR is salvation a remedy for our will, such as it is (Jn 15)?
• Geographical – Is salvation a result of what you do (or don’t do) OR is salvation a result of where you live (Jn 17; Rm 8.1; Phil 3)?
• Relational – Is salvation a result of what we are connected to (Jn 15 vine and branches)
• Dispositional – What does a person’s disposition have to do with salvation: inquisitive vs critical; humble vs proud; penitent vs arrogant (look for various ways the Bible describes those who are saved – not just by saying those who have “faith”)?
• Nutritional – Does nutrition accomplish what God created it to do in the people He has created? Why are Jn 8:31-32 and Dt 6:4ff so widely ignored and unpracticed? (See also Jn 4, 6!!!!, 8)