“Soteria” and How Salvation is NOT a Drivers License

As a child, I used the think salvation, the giving of your heart to Jesus Christ, was kind of like standing in line, raising your hand, then signing on the dotted line, to get your drivers license.

Hearts would be given to Jesus and then you would be part of some club. O.k.

And maybe every now and then, you’d have to “renew” your license (A.k.a. give yourself a check-up to make sure you were driving straight, you didn’t get too many tickets.)

But for the most part, I thought salvation was easy…you’d say a prayer and then toss that license in your back pocket until you actually needed it.

Oh, how wrong I was.

I remember when his Spirit encountered me those days in church many years afterwards. It was like I was blind and now could see, had been driving my life with dark glasses on, and now everything in front, around and behind me seemed real, alive, new again.

Instead of weight and condemnation, life, power and hope prevailed in me. Instead of self-scrutinizing focus, God became sole priority and central in my thinking.

All He had, wanted, cared about suddenly mattered. I became insignificant. His love was all I wanted and needed.

But in life and theology, our understanding of the true gospel can get skewed, time can taint, and the weight of the world can taint you with lies you don’t even realize you have been believing.

I open Scripture this morning. I see the word, “salvation”. (My once thought of driver’s license) I knew it was tucked safely in my perverbial pocket.

But as I read the definition in Greek, I was dumbfounded.

Salvation = “Soteria”, means, “Deliverance, perservation, soundness, prosperity, happiness, rescue, general well-being”.

Did you get that? Happiness, prosperity, soundness, and general well-being.

But what about those doctrines that say knowing Jesus is only suffering? What about that belief system that says we are trapped in darkness, destined for anguish?

What about that teaching that forces, only one day…far far from now….we will be free?

Doesn’t God want us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, here on earth, like it says in Scripture? (Phil 2:12)

Jesus met Zacchaeus in Luke 19. He went into his house, after Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus.

That day Jesus told Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too, is a son og Abraham.” (v. 9)

Jesus goes on, “The Son of man came to seek and save that which is lost.” (Luke 19:10)

“Salvation has come” to Zacchaeus? Past tense. That means, according to the Greek definition of Salvation in that passage, “Soteria”…

“Deliverance, perservation, soundness, prosperity, happiness, rescue, and general well-being” came upon Zacchaeus, the day Jesus entered the threshhold of his home.

Yet, I wonder, how many times do we meet Jesus in a pew, welcome him into our churches, but never let Him set foot amongst our homes or families?

How often do we keep Jesus at a distance, like a driver’s licensed tucked in the back pocket, only showing him to key officials, only when we feel like we need conversion to demonstrate our value or spiritual worth?

And could happiness actually be not just the fruit, but the actual definition of salvation? What about prosperity, and most of all deliverance?

Yet, why are so many walking around us seemingly not even changed by this gospel? Letting Jesus live far from us, but failing to let Him near, welcoming Him close to transform us?

I must be honest, the world “properity” especially in referrence to the gospel, is kind of a trigger for me. I have seen too many abuse their authority, or claim Jesus wants everyone rich or perfect from this teaching.

Yet, the other day, I heard something that changed my thinking. It went something like this…

Suffering is intertwined with glory and a very real part of the gospel. However, suffering was never the primary focus, even in light of the cross. Crucifixion wasn’t the center or the end….the resurrecting power of Jesus was.

Today, the living resurrection power of Jesus should still be the center of the gospel message, just as it was in Jesus time; demonstrated throughout His life and teaching.

At the same time, so many can discount healing, resurrection and power because prosperity and healing has become an idol many resurrect their worship too.

As I began to ask God about this, He showed me 2 Kings 18:4. In the days of Moses, while the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God asked Moses to resurrect a “bronze serpant” as a symbol of God’s healing and goodness.

I find it interesting it wasn’t a gold serpant, but instead bronze.

God said that anyone who was bitten by a snake could look on it and they would be instantly healed.

What a gift. A physical, tangible entity that would heal upon the simple act of God’s people looking on it. Imagine if we had something physical we could still use like that today?

Sadly, in the days of Hezekiah, the people not only began looking to the bronze serpant for healing, but like so many carried away by some teachings, God’s people began to falsely bow down and start burning incense to it.

The physical emblem of healing, because of man’s wicked hearts, slowly twisted man’s focus for worship, displacing the supremacy of God.

The created, when worshipped, eventually always has the temptation to take greater presidence over the worship of the One True God, when offering something to us of worth.

Even today, like in the days of Hezekiah, believers can slip unkowingly into people-worship when leaders carry the gift of healing.

Objects, songs, or emblems God has annointed, can transform to something we can prescribe Lordship to, slowly along the way.

Even teaching can get off, when we hold them with greater authority than what God actually says or called us to in Scripture.

We can start bowing down to people or even songs instead of the Savior who made, created and annointed these things as vehicles and avenues for healing.

The line is so fine, any of our hearts can be led away into carnal or idol worship, when we exhonerate too highly those things/people we can physically see.

Even the elect will be fooled, Scripture teaches, in the last days. (Matt 24:24)

Jesus always wants to be the cneter. He should be the object of our worship. Any good and perfect gift nees to be found in Him….not in anything or anyone else He created.

Man is fallable.

We tend to just naturally drift from the true Biblical definition of Salvation; happiness, prosperity, deliverance, general well-being.

• We can make suffering the center, instead of giving the resurrected power of Jesus our full due honor and respect.
• We so easily can shift our focus from Jesus gospel message, turning saviors from the created, making people the object of our worship.
• We can diefy medicine, lessons, knowledge or even resurrect our own gifts as “bronze serpant” justifying any healing, growth or blessings we eventually get.

Jesus came to save us by grace, through faith. And salvation is not just a one time thing we take like some “driver’s license” of faith, quietly tucking it into our pockets, yet living completely the same.

He came to bring deliverance, healing, prosperity, happiness, soundness of mind and well-being to the very core of our very souls. “Soteria” in Greek is the Biblical definiton of salvation.

In 2 Kings 18:4, Jesus asks Hezekiah to break into pieces the bronze serpant Moses made for healing.

• He won’t allow any other to be praised.
• He grieves carnal saviors.
• He won’t allow any fallable people to rob His name.
• He rose up from the grace to set people free.

He will not be mocked. And we cannot stay captive to a doctrine where suffering takes central stage and Jesus is void of mercy.

He is a resurrected King, so much more than some license or get-out-of-jail-free card easing our guilty consciousness.

He saved a man like Zaccaeus. Will you ask to know him more?