LOOKING FOR SALVATION

“At the time of Jesus’ birth, there was a deep longing for salvation throughout the length and breadth of the ancient world. The politician, the thinker, the man of religion, the man in the street, and supremely the Jew, all alike were looking for salvation.” (Michael Green, The Meaning of Salvation, p.72)

What is there a deep longing for in our day? Where are people looking for salvation today? Is there a hunger in our hearts for wholeness, emotional release, security in this world and the next? To many salvation means primarily deliverance from the tyranny of an oppressive and capricious Fate which can quench life at a moment’s notice through accidents, disease, natural disasters or economic calamities. To others it means the promise of a better life beyond the grave to those who are suffering in this life because of disabilities or disadvantages. To those who do not believe in the hereafter salvation lies within yourself, in self-control, in pursuing your own goals and being devoted to success in this life.

It is possible to go through life ignorant of the kingdom of God, indifferent to salvation, and confident in your own virtue. You simply cannot see the life of the kingdom of God. We have to become like little children to see the kingdom of God. “Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:2,3)

You cannot even see the kingdom of God, unless within you is the heart of childhood, and all things are mysterious to the child. The children’s world is full of spiritual presences; they never think of God as far away. I do not think that any child would be much surprised if it met God out in the green fields. Flowers speak to them in voices we have lost, the night winds cry to them, the clouds are still peopled countries…Now Jesus wants no disciple to be childish: when we become men we put away childish things. But the childlike spirit, that believes in possibilities, that hungers for a world behind the world, that cannot touch a flower or hear an echo but there comes some suggestion of things mystical, that spirit is the spirit of the Christian. (George H. Morrison, The Incomparable Christ, p.36)

Mark Bauerlein tells how his son helped to save him from atheism.

I had a four-year-old son who posed big questions to me such as “Daddy, where is God?” and something inside stopped me from answering, “Nowhere.” One day in late 2010, I took him to Catholic services at the chapel on the Princeton campus. I wanted him to experience the Church as part of his education in history and culture. The chapel is an imposing building modeled on the fourteenth-century English Gothic style, and the architecture did its work that day. So did the Catholic ritual. My son’s eyes kept rising up the columns to the vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows. When the priest and servers with their robes and candles passed by, he turned his head slowly to follow the procession step by step. When people lined up for Communion, he shed his customary shyness and pleaded to join them. At that moment, my atheism turned into a sorry lack of sensibility, a lack that I refused to pass along to my son. (My Failed Atheism, First Things, May 2012)

To go back to our initial question – what is there a deep longing for in our day? Where are people looking for salvation today? Is there a hunger in your heart for wholeness, emotional release, security in this world and the next? Does salvation lie within yourself, in self-control, in pursuing your own goals and being devoted to success in this life alone?

Jesus said that salvation lies in the kingdom of God. Eternal life, eternal salvation, is to be found in the kingdom of God. We cannot be saved by ourselves. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man (that is all of us) to enter the kingdom of God. It is impossible for us but possible for God. He comes in Jesus to give us new life, the new life of the Spirit, so, that like children, simply and trustingly, we can enter the kingdom of God. We repent of our pride and self-confidence, and humbly accept the claims of God on our loyalty and obedience. “For the kingdom of God…is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) Isn’t this what we deeply long for?