ViaCrucis
Confessional Lutheran
- Oct 2, 2011
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See, I'm not trying to earn my way to some place better. I'm not sure that I believe there is a "Heaven" so my good deeds are not for that purpose but for the sole purpose of making others more happy. And in my mind that is a perfectly acceptable reason for doing good.
And this is what I dislike most about religions, that for some reason that's not good enough? I try to do good as much as possible (of course there's always more that could be done) and I'm not doing it as a reason to be "saved", just to create happiness. But also I'm not willing to lie to myself and pretend to believe in something that I'm not sure exists just to be "saved" either. Does this make any sense? I can't just make myself believe something I don't actually believe. Saying I believed it would just be a lie. I believe it could be possible but not for certain.
So I guess in the eyes of a Christian I am damned....but to be honest I feel like if the way I'm living my life isn't good enough for "God" then I don't really want him to save me...(if there even is saving to be needed)
I find it problematic to speak in certain absolutes where I don't think we can do so sufficiently, that is, as far as revelation is concerned.
That was really abstract, but let me put it into a more specific case relevant to what you just said:
Salvation, that is our reconciliation to God, one another, and the rest of creation, is a matter of Divine Grace; it's not something we can accomplish under our own power. By nature, due to the fact that we are fallen and broken creatures, we are sinful. That is we are bound to self-ward inclination to satisfy ourselves for our own purposes. That doesn't mean that every thing we do is intentionally malicious (evil), but it does mean that our modus operandi is to serve ourselves. That's sin. It also means that we our inclination is also to be hostile toward God, when He reaches to us our inclination is to lash out, like a wounded animal. Because of this, Christianity speaks of sin as bondage, which is intricately linked to death. God is Life, death is life's absence, and sin the chains that bound us to death and lifelessness.
As such what is needed isn't personal effort to be better, but external Grace to liberate us and give us new life. That, we say, happens in, by, and through Christ; God's Son and Word made flesh, a real human being. The Incarnation therefore becomes God's profound invasion not only into His creation, His cosmos, but into our humanity. God therefore assumes and takes upon and into Himself the full measure of what it means to be human, that means the full gamut of human existence and the human condition: conception, birth, life, suffering, and likewise death.
Divinity has been assumed into humanity, and that humanity has been assumed into death. Now comes the good part: Jesus Christ rising from the dead. The resurrection is not some sort of whimsical act of divine power, it is the obliteration of death itself. God entered into our humanity, swallowed up by death and Hell, and then ripping these apart at the seams, rendering inert their power and hold over humanity and the world. Christ has risen, and because He has risen, He has overcome death. Humanity itself, in Him, is raised up and freed from death, and death's slavery: Sin.
Now, in Him, that is by our being joined to Him we become intimates, fellow participants and partakers, in what He has accomplished. Such that St. Paul the Apostle can write in his letter to the Christians in Rome:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old humanity was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." - Romans 6:3-11
Thus we say that in Christ alone is salvation, for by Him alone has come resurrection from the dead and the obliteration of sin's power. Therefore in Him and by Him and through Him we are brought into communion with God, joined to God's Life, and look forward to that everlasting life that comes in the Age to Come, when our bodies are raised from the dead and justice and peace reigns over the whole of creation.
Where do the absolutes come in that I mentioned in the beginning? I don't believe we can say, "you will be damned" to anyone. I can say that in Christ alone is salvation, that no salvation can be found anywhere outside of Christ. That beside Christ there is no salvation for anyone. That said, I can't say "You, over there, you are damned." I am not the Eternal Judge who presides over the lives and hearts of men.
That's where absolutes can't be spoken. I can speak truthfully on the one hand that Christ alone is salvation, coming to us by God's Word and Sacraments. I can't speak concerning what isn't revealed.
-CryptoLutheran
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