Spiritual Warfare Chapter 2: Salvation from God's Perspective

Spiritual Warfare in the 21st Century

My natural tendency in all things is me-centric, so whenever I think about my salvation, my first thoughts are always from a me centered perspective.  I am saved so that I will go to be with Jesus in paradise after I die and of course, I want to avoid hell at all costs.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.  It clearly is a strong motivator and most evangelist use that as leverage to persuade people to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  The problem is that it would be convenient for me to stop there.  If my sole motivation is to be in heaven and avoid hell then I am accepting Jesus as my Savior, but not necessarily as my Lord. I think Satan’s strategy is for humanity to (1) not accept Jesus in any capacity but failing that it would be (2) to stop anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Savior from submitting to him as Lord.  For all of us, the battle must not stop at point (1) but must be pursued through point (2) if we are going to be victorious.

But what if we all took a step back and ask the question: What is God’s purpose for our salvation?  What I want and get from this deal with God is pretty clear.  But what is God getting out of it?  God paid an extreme ransom that cost him the death of his only begotten Son through a torturous death on a Roman cross to buy humanity back from slavery to sin under the dominion of Satan. If I truly understand the magnitude of this sacrificial gift, I know that there is no way I can repay him for what he has done, but I do want to know how I may honor him with my life. How about you? In order to know how to please or honor God, I have to make a conscious decision to shift my focus and think from God’s perspective.  I have to look at salvation from a God-centric perspective – a Fatherly love centric perspective.   In order to do that, I needed to look at the entirety of scripture as a unified story of God and his plan for humanity.  So, let’s start at the beginning.

Gen 1:26-28

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, a and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

²⁸God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God created us in his image to rule over all creation.  As his image bearers, we were designed to be in relationship with him and to partner with him as we brought his glory and his order unto all his creation.  That was, and still is his desire. 

But something terrible happened.  Adam and Eve were destined to become like God, as that is what it means to be God’s image bearers, but rather than being nurtured by him, they were seduced by Satan to take a short-cut.   By eating from the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil their disobedience brought sin into their hearts and into the heart of all of humanity.  The perfect image of God was broken.  All creation was cursed, subject to decay and chaos.

God’s original design and purpose was for humanity to rule over all creation – that drive is still present in our hearts.  The problem is that sin corrupted our hearts and the drive to rule, to create order in all creation resulted in aggression, violence and depravity.  We live in a shared space, and when one person’s sense of order conflicts with someone else’s, tensions rise.  Competitiveness and jealousy sprinkled with sin makes for a volatile mixture which can erupt into brutality and bloodshed.  The history of humanity is replete with violent deaths, wars and oppression dating all the way back to Cain and Able.  Peace is never lasting – only a temporary pause in violence while below the surface of the apparent calm, hidden in the hearts of humanity frustration, anger, vengeance and jealousy percolates until something ignites it and violence breaks out again and again.  That’s the problem in a me-centric story.

But God had a plan to redeem humanity. God selected faithful individuals and made covenants or promises to them.  Some of these promises were unconditional but others came with warnings.  God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that he would become a great nation – and out of Abraham’s lineage God chose Israel to be his people and promised that they would ultimately be a blessing to all nations.  God made a covenant with Moses and provided Israel with the Mosaic Law.  God made a covenant with David and promised an eternal and everlasting Kingdom.  But time and time again the Israelites were unfaithful in keeping the Mosaic covenant.  As they were warned, God withdraw from his chosen people, the Israelites, and they were ultimately conquered, exiled and their temple destroyed. However, God did not break his covenant with them.  God spoke to the Israelites exiled in Babylon through prophets encouraging them of his faithfulness even through their disobedience.

Daniel saw a figure described as “one like a son of man” receiving dominion, glory, and an everlasting kingdom from God—one that would outlast and replace all human empires (Daniel 7).

Ezekiel promised that God would restore a ruler from the line of David and in this future Kingdom, he would rule faithfully and peacefully.  In this Kingdom, God would give the people a new heart and a new spirit, enabling everlasting faithfulness (Ezekiel 36–37).

Jeremiah spoke of a coming “righteous Branch” from David who would rule wisely and execute justice, restoring safety and righteousness to Israel (Jeremiah 23:5–6).

Isaiah the most prolific messianic prophet described a coming ruler whose authority would be marked by justice, faithfulness, and righteousness rather than oppression (Isaiah 42:1–4).

Isaiah envisioned the coming King, the Messiah and the coming kingdom as a light to all the nations, not Israel alone (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6) fulfilling the earlier promises to Abraham.

This kingdom would bring peace and stability that would be everlasting.  In the Messiah’s reign, God’s would bring his order and restoration to all creation.

What you may not realize is that Israel’s disobedience and exile to Babylon was an echo of Adam and Eve’s sin and their banishment or exile from the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve’s exile, humanity settled in land of Shinar where the Tower of Babel was built. And where was this?  In Babylon – the same place the Israelites were exiled. This is not a coincidence. God’s promises of restoration was not only to the Israelite exiles, but to all of humanity who had been exiled from the Garden of Eden. God’s restoration of creation is the restoration of the Garden of Eden. Isaiah paints a word picture for this restored creation in Isaiah 11:6-9

Isaiah 11:6-9

⁶The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

⁷The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

⁸The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

⁹They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

This word picture is the order that God intends to bring about from the chaos that is the world we live in.  This is God’s peace, God’s Shalom, and God intends to partner with us for his order to be established here on earth.  We pray for this whenever we recite the Lord’s prayer – His Kingdom come; His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Remember God’s directive to Adam and Eve from Genesis 1 – to rule over creation.   God’s intent was to partner with Adam and Eve in bringing order to the world’s chaos, and that directive still stands today, but not by the means of this world. Not by political pressure, oppression and violence.

Isaiah describes the Messiah, the divine leader who will bring about the Godly order as a shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1).  Jesse was the father of David, but the line of David was cut down when the Babylonians conquered Judah – the last remnant of Israel, therefore the shoot came from the stump.  This Messiah was described by Isaiah as the suffering servant, a man of sorrows, rejected and despised, a lamb who was led to slaughter (Isaiah 53).

Paul declares that the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the righteous King that Isaiah describes is Jesus (Rom 15:12). Jesus, the suffering servant is the fulfillment of the prophetic words of Isaiah.  It is the reason that Paul says this:

Romans 12:1-2

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ²Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We are compelled to bring order to the chaos of this world but not through violence, oppression and bloodshed.  We do not follow the pattern of this world but follow the pattern of the suffering servant. Jesus says to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him.  That is what Paul means when he says to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”.  This is the call to discipleship. The path of discipleship is through the narrow gate and Jesus is that gate. It is the narrow path that leads to life and shalom over all of creation. Paul says this about creation: 

Romans 8:19-22

¹⁹For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

What Paul is proclaiming is the picture of God’s order described in Isaiah 11.  In a mysterious way, the redemption of creation is tied to our walking the narrow path of discipleship rather than taking the wider path that leads to destruction – that is the path of conformity to the repetitive violent and oppressive pattern of this world.

God’s purpose and desire for our salvation is not to enter heaven just so that we can avoid hell.  The purpose is stated clearly by Paul in his letter to the Ephesian church:

Eph 2:8-10

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

What Paul is saying – in other words, is that our broken nature from Adam is being restored into the image of Jesus by God’s handiwork so that we can do the works of Jesus. That is the reason God is saving us. That is his desire.  And our grateful response is to learn how to be with Jesus, to become like him and to do the things he did.  And as we grow into more and more Christlikeness through discipleship and as we introduce and produce others (making disciples from all nations) into Christlikeness, all of creation is somehow mysteriously being healed and restored.

Reflection Questions:

1. How is a God-centric view of salvation similar or different from your personal view of salvation?

2. How have you responded to God’s grace in saving you?

3. What if anything is holding you back from embracing a God-centric view of salvation?

Prayer:

Dear Father help me to understand my role in your story.  Help me to become like Jesus and to do the things he did.  Give me joy and the fullness of life that comes from dwelling in Christ.  Give me wisdom and the assurance that what you have promised will not fail to happen and to trust in you for things that I cannot understand.  Be with me so that I may persevere through the trials of life and reject the seduction of worldly or carnal living and be willingly give up things that I cannot keep for an eternal inheritance as a child of God which I stand to gain.