A Soul Seeking...Mining the Meaning of Salvation

My seminary professor charged us with the responsibility of doing an assignment... go figure!

This specific course is the study of soteriology. Come again?! I know, right, I had to look it up too..LOL!

It is the study of or doctrine of salvation. For those of us who have chose the life of Christianity, salvation is a pretty BIG DEAL! It is the gift that rescues us from death, keeps us from paying the ultimate price for our endless mistakes, and secures our eternal position in relationship with a God who loves us unconditional. Pretty sweet if you ask me! But...yeah there is a but! Always a but!

This gift was NOT free. It was pretty costly. As a matter of fact, or a matter of truth, it cost someone His life and status (temporarily). Jesus is the someone who loving and sacrificially decided to give His life in exchange for my life. This life exchange was gift wrapped in a thing we Christians call GRACE. If I had to make the definition of grace plain (which I should for the sake of all readers)... I would call it FREE FAVOR! Grace is something I didn't earn and something I don't deserve but it sure benefits me and I'm sure glad it does. 

So how did we get on gifts and grace? Well as stated before...HOMEWORK!

My seminary professor wanted me to set my expectations for her course, of course. But the specific question was way deeper than that, she wanted me to set expectations for God. That is a tall order! The specific question was, "What do you expect God to do in you as you anticipate the journey of examining soteriology?" Doesn't that sound like homework!

Well, I stepped up to the plate or iPad mini in this case and this is what I had to say in response...

    When attempting to answer a question about placing expectations on God, I have learned to

lean in with prayer. It is through prayer that my capacity to grasp the scope of God’s movement

in my life is refined. This process of fine tuning my awareness of the activity of God in my life is

faith formation also known as spiritual formation. The point of initiation of my faith formation

was salvation. What I am coming to discover is that salvation is not merely a moment but the

catalytic movement that carries me forward with and within God to the distant shores of

glorification in eternity.

    My orienting questions or concerns are rooted in my personal spiritual formation journey. My

questions are how do I successfully journey from salvation to glorification? And who will I

become along the way? This course is strategically exposing me to the concept of spiritual

formation through the life and lens of John Wesley. Wesley’s life was methodical and so was his

approach to God in his own spiritual formation journey. I have learned that his time at Oxford

defined his methodical approach to God and resulted in the name that would shape the

movement, that would then change the trajectory for the Christian faith for generations. This

name was “Methodists.” It is important to acknowledge that a practice, became a method, and

this method became a movement because this is how change happens.

    My hope is that I will be able to follow this same pathway this semester to change, grow and

form spiritually. That through the course materials and discussions I will learn new practices for

spiritual formation. That as I utilize these practices, they will position me to both discover and

develop methods for consistently exercising the means of grace. These means of grace will thus

position me in God’s presence where change and transformation can take place and I can

experience the holiness in heart and life that Wesley so dearly valued.

    Wesley’s way of viewing soteriology or the theology of salvation was as evolutionary as his

journey of spiritual formation. His emphasis on a Christian’s participation in the pursuit of

holiness in the early stages of his faith journey in the Anglican Church were balanced by his

later experiences with the power of God’s transformative grace through his encounters with

the German Moravians. Wesley believed in the primacy of God’s grace in the context of the

necessity of our holiness. Randy Maddox presents Wesleys’ orienting concern about the vital

tension between the dual truths of grace. On the behalf of Wesley, Maddox asserts that

without grace we cannot be saved, but without our participation God’s grace will not save. We

have a responsibility to participate in our experience with God’s grace, as God assumes His

responsibility to extend His grace. My response to gaining an understanding of “responsible

grace” is to dive head-first into this experience, wading through the waters of uncertainty,

floating in the security of my salvation, and swimming with the current of His Spirit as He calls

me into the deep knowledge of His transformative grace.

Come along the journey with me!