IS Jesus your personal savior?

Will Christ save us, or will he be the entrance to our salvation?

Today I heard someone say, “Get ready to be saved. Christ our savior will save us from our sins!” But Jesus said “I am the Way.” And he said “Unless you follow me, you cannot enter the Kingdom.” When asked if he was King by a soldier/governor, Jesus responded, “YOU said it.” And “My kingdom is not of this world.”

 

I believe that Jesus came to be flesh not to rescue me as a maiden is rescued from the ogre’s tower, but as a teacher and leader to point the way to salvation that God provides. Using images, I believe Jesus does not scoop the drowning man out of the water, but instead throws a lifeline. The drowning man still has to pull himself up.  Is Jesus my personal savior? Will he rescue me? To the drowning man, the one who throws the rope is his savior.

 

Yet another image arises:  Jesus is the gate. He will not carry me into the sheepfold; I must go in on my own feet.  What does that mean? Knowing that my salvation is assured; knowing that I am forgiven, I must act as one who is saved. Not “fake it ‘til you make it;” not “earning one’s salvation.”  I must take on the mindset of a saved person. I must act as a member of Christ’s body. I do not ask ‘what would Jesus do?” I ask what a saved person would do.

 

I do not have to do anything to be saved or to be a member of the Church Universal. It is there like a ripe fruit on a tree, waiting to be picked and eaten and be nutritious. It is up to me to make the decision, to pick it, to eat it. But, having eaten it, it becomes a part of me. By nourishing me, it has become me. I am changed into “that person who ate that fruit.”  Most importantly, I cannot, nor can anyone, divide what was once apart and is now together. If I sin, if I give up, if I fail, that fruit is with me in that failure. If I grow, if I love, if I shine, that fruit is with me in my joy.

 

Those who do not eat, those who refuse to grasp the rope; they will continue to be offered the rope, offered more fruit. God continues to wait for us to accept His salvation. Jesus continues to hold open the gate.