Faith RethinkFaith RethinkFaith RethinkFaith Rethink
  • About Peter
    • About Peter’s Blog
  • Blog
    • Follow
  • Media
  • Store
  • Contact

Personal Salvation or Good News for All

    Home Uncategorized Personal Salvation or Good News for All
    NextPrevious

    Personal Salvation or Good News for All

    By Peter Watts | Uncategorized | 1 comment | 3 May, 2020 | 5

    Have you ever noticed that Jesus never asked people to pray “the sinner’s prayer?”

    Nor did he ever go through “the Roman’s Road” or Steps to peace with God in order to compel someone into the fold.

    This of course doesn’t mean that the sinner’s prayer is wrong and shouldn’t be prayed, nor does this mean that the Roman’s Road and Steps to Peace with God lack value altogether. I see some value in them.

    They are methods or guides in helping people connect with God. They include important Bible passages worth considering for those who may not be Christians in hopes of compelling them to consider how faith in Jesus might transform their life.

    The problem I see about those guides is that they are often the byproducts of an overarching mindset that places personal salvation as the primary focus of the gospel of Jesus Chris to the exclusion of anything else. What do I mean?

    Personal salvation is how the gospel affects your relationship with God, how you get peace with God, how Jesus has changed your life, forgiven you of your sins, set your life on a better path, secured your future.

    Look, I believe in personal salvation.

    I am so grateful for what Jesus has done in my life personally. And he has done a lot.

    But the gospel (or good news) of Jesus is an announcement about what God has done in and through Jesus for the whole world. More than that, it’s about what God has done for all creation.

    So while personal salvation is a priority, it is not the primary or only focus of the gospel. The gospel does change my life personally, but it does much more than that. It affects much more than me. It calls me to much more than having or maintaining my peace with God.

    Have you ever noticed that mindsets and ways of framing the gospel that overemphasize personal salvation (an inner and individual reality) often neglect the outward and forward leaning focus of the gospel. The outward focus is that the good news is for the whole world and all creation. And this focus comes about through movement. By going. By connecting. By making a difference in this world of ours.

    Gospel presentations that focus more on personal salvation are much more likely to have an other worldly vibe to them. What do I mean? I mean that God is more concerned about the afterlife, not about life here and now on planet earth. More to the point, God is more concerned with what happens to me in the afterlife rather than what happens to everyone here and now.

    So when our Christian faith is primarily about our personal salvation, we are often less concerned with things that matter on earth: things like systemic racism, rampant social and economic inequalities, or growing worldwide environmental concerns. Have you noticed that in your life too?

    Making my (or your) personal salvation the priority of salvation often means turning a blind eye to other people’s needs both in the church and outside. It’s as if the priority of personal salvation has been an excuse to not take responsibility for how our life does (and should) affect other people. It has been implied for far too long by some Christian leaders and institutions that it doesn’t really matter what we do after we become Christians. What matters is being right with God (as if one had little or nothing to do with the other).

    I hear Paul’s words loud and clear saying, “The only the thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” What we do does matter.

    The beauty and power of the gospel of Jesus is that it is outwardly focused; it’s not just about us.

    The announcement of what God has done for all the world in and through (and as) Jesus is intimately attached to Jesus’ great commission to go into all the world and invite people to follow Jesus and his way of life.

    We do this of course because it’s Jesus’ life and power and grace that continues transforming and enabling us to make a very real difference in this world and in the lives of people.

    Today’s a reminder for me that the gospel is an all creation, whole world kind of announcement. It’s not just about what Jesus has and is doing for me. It’s not just about my personal salvation. It’s about what Jesus has done and is doing for the whole world.

    So let’s be intentional about how we live out the priority of the good news of Jesus.

    It’s not just about you.

    No tags.

    Peter Watts

    More posts by Peter Watts

    Related Post

    • Hijacking the Biblical Story of the Atonement

      By Peter Watts | 0 comment

      What if I was to tell you that many of the most popular atonement theories developed over the last two-thousand years of church history (especially those following the third century AD/CE), have been deeply influencedRead more

    • 7 atonement theories from church history

      By Peter Watts | 0 comment

      For the last two-thousand years, one of the central tenants of the Christian faith has been the assertion that Jesus Christ died on a cross for sin. What Christians have not always agreed on areRead more

    • The irony of Christians asserting our rights

      By Peter Watts | 1 comment

      Rights Rights are a beautiful thing. But what if clinging to those rights puts you in opposition to the way of Jesus? And what if the very one you call Lord is asking you to layRead more

    • When Christians become human (part 2)

      By Peter Watts | 0 comment

      Becoming More Human, Not Less The irony, of course, as we’ve seen in this book so far, is that Jesus did affirm and value our material world. Crack open the first four books of theRead more

    • Transparency

      By Peter Watts | 0 comment

      Transparency Matters “When I was in middle school and high school, none of my teachers had used presentation software like PowerPoint or Keynote. That wouldn’t happen until I got to college. Not because my teachersRead more

    1 comment

    • Rachel vermaas Reply July 16, 2020 at 10:55 pm

      The Gospel is for the whole world! Very true. It isn’t just about us. But salvation is very personal and individual. Some people take it in the wrong direction. Both getting saved and what we do afterward matters. The first step is becoming a Christian, accepting what Christ has done for us and asking to become one of his children. But that is not the end. After salvation, comes living the Christian life. Sharing the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Sharing the Gospel is majorly important. But let’s be sure to put our priorities in order. Salvation, and then the Christian life.

    Leave a Comment

    Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    NextPrevious

    Recent Posts

    • A Hanukkah Story: Discovering it’s Meaning, Beauty & History
    • Questions and answers about the atonement
    • Cruciform atonement: How the death of Jesus on a Roman cross changes everything
    • 7 Bible stories you think you know but don’t
    • Reengaging with the Bible’s Biggest Themes

    Archives

    • December 2022
    • June 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • February 2019
    • November 2018
    • September 2018

    Categories

    • American history
    • Asking questions
    • Authentic Christianity
    • Bible
    • Biblical inerrancy
    • Biblical violence
    • Christian hope
    • Escapist theologies
    • Evangelicalism
    • Evolving faith
    • Following Jesus
    • Forgiveness
    • God in the face of Jesus
    • God in the questions
    • God who risks
    • Jesus
    • Learning and growing
    • New humanity
    • Open theism
    • Power & authority
    • Religious tolerance
    • Risk theology
    • Roman crucifixion
    • Sacrifice
    • Self-made project
    • Servant project
    • Spiritual journey
    • Stories
    • Uncategorized

    Menu

    • About Peter
    • Blog
    • Media
    • Store
    • Contact

    Recent Posts

    • A Hanukkah Story: Discovering it’s Meaning, Beauty & History

      Imagine you are a Hebrew living in the 2nd century BCE in

      25 December, 2022

    Search

    Copyright 2020 Peter E. Watts | Faith Rethink LLC | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
    • About Peter
    • About Peter’s Blog
    • Blog
    • Checkout
    • Contact Peter
    • Follow
    • Media
    • Newest Blog Post
    • Older Posts
    • Order Confirmation
    • Order Failed
    • Privacy Policy
    • Speaking
    • Store
    • Home
    Faith Rethink