Doctrine
of Salvation
Introduction
Words
like coins become , in common currency, defaced and indecipherable.[1]Paulraj
feels the word Salvation, due to constant use has become defaced and
indecipherable, requiring re-minting. The word Salvation needs to be understood
in this context. Salvation can be a thoroughly secular concept as well. Russian
writers used to write about Lenin as the savior and African military councils
commonly set up “councils of salvation” after a military coup, aiming at
restoring economic and political stability.[2]
The concept of salvation has also been used time and again as part of the
Christian faith, accumulating sediments of meaning as it flowed down the stream
of history. Therefore this paper is an attempt to understand the doctrine of
Salvation, from various angles. The following concepts will be discussed:
1.Grace; 2. Justification and Sanctification; 3. Salvation and Mukti; 4.
Salvation and Humanisation; 5. Salvation and Liberation; 6. Fullness of life;
7. Salvations in the context of religious pluralism, and finally, 8. The vision
of the redeemed earth in the context of the ecological crisis.
Understanding
the word salvation.
The centre of salvation is found in
the name, person and the work and life of Jesus Christ.[3]
The New Testament uses the word soteria
to denote salvation. Lochman points out certain important aspects of this
concept, which is appropriate to state at the very outset of this paper.
The Bible constantly speaks of salvation in
terms of basic human needs, even material needs; neither ignores the question
of happiness food, justice, and peace and nor minimizes the importance of them
to human well-being.[4]Lochman
also points out that the question of salvation can never be divorced from human
well-being and any such divorce would lead to an abstract concept alien to the
Psalmist and Old Testament as a whole. However, he says, salvation is not to be
equated with well-being or the sum-total of satisfied human needs. The Biblical
view, in his opinion, is opposed not only abstract idealistic views of salvation
but also to any materialistic, pseudo-concrete (i.e. positivistic)
identification of well-being and salvation.
Now let us look at the various concepts of salvation.
1.
Grace
The Old Testament used various
words to denote God’s grace. The closest to its New Testament meaning is Hesed, the loyal or steadfast love of
God. It is that love seen in the context of a relationship, especially the two
sided covenant relationship between God and Israel.
The word grace stands for the New
Testament term charis, the meaning of which can be gleaned through
the synoptic gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles.
By‘grace of God’, the New Testament
means unmerited love toward man which takes the initiative in freely giving and
forgiving, in receiving the sinners and seeking the lost, in restoring the
fallen and the unworthy and in giving comfort and strength to the afflicted and
oppressed. The person and work of Jesus Christ reveals this grace, which is
intimately bound up in him. We can, in other words, say that grace is identical
with Jesus Christ in person, word and
deed.[5]
2.
Mukti and Salvation
The
very meaning of salvation is one’s emancipation (moksha)
. . . an escape from the
impermanence that is an inescapable feature of mundane existence.[6]
Mukti is
considered an alternative form for
liberation from the endless cycle of
birth and rebirth [7],
which is also known as Samsara. This
concept is also widely known as moksha.
Moksha is considered the end of one’s spiritual search. Hinduism believes
that it can be attained by following one of the three Margas or paths to liberation: Karma Yoga (path of action), Jnana Yoga( path of knowledge) and Bhakti Yoga (path of devotion). It is
believed that release from the cycle of birth and death results in a freedom
from all suffering and the enjoyment of the qualities of the Brahman, which is
described to be Satchitanandaor
truth, consciousness and bliss.[8]
The concept of moksha have
variations in the way they are conceived, depending on the various schools of
philosophy, which in turn depends on how they regard the relationship between Brahman, the absolute being and Atman, the eternal in human beings. In
AdvaitaVedantic tradition, it is the realization that the Brahman and Atman are identical.
In the Bhakti tradition, liberation is considered an eternal companionship with
the divine.[9]
Some sects consider liberation/ moksha achievable while alive and others,
believe it is achievable after death.
3.
Justification and Sanctification
Justification is a forensic/
judicial term which means ‘to be declared
righteous or aquitted’. Both its Old Testament
and New Testament variants (Sudeqin
Hebrew and dikaioo in Greek) mean and
imply the same.As a doctrine, it
originated in the Protestant circle, and was a matter of contention with Rome.
According to Tano,
the Roman Catholic Church “teaches that justification includes inner renewal,
the cooperation of man with God (synergism), the infusion of Grace through
baptism ( sacramentalistic) and maintaining
a state of acceptability before God through works (merit system).“ [10]
This deviates from the Pauline teaching on justification.
Tano reminds us
that justification is God’s judicial
act/declarative act whereby the
“ungodly” is pardoned or acquitted on the one hand and treated righteous on the
other. It does not originate from the believer’s status, character or merit.[11] God
can declare the sinner righteous because the atoning death of Jesus Christ has
dealt with the problem of guilt. And the righteousness of Christ is imputed to
the believer. The basis of this is I
Corinthians 1: 30: “He is the source your life in Christ Jesus, who became for
us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
In justification, righteousness is not infused;
rather it is imputed or credited to the believers. Thus it is not a matter of
“making the sinner righteous” but “declaring him righteous”.[12]The common understanding of justification stated in the Joint Declaration
on the Doctrine of Justification[13]
(1999) states this in its third section:
Together we
confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of
any merit from our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit,
who renews our hearts while equipping
and calling us to good works.[14]
There are four aspects of justification, as
described by McGrath, quoted by Lane: a. It is a biblical category.
b. Protestant reformers make a careful distinction
between justification and sanctification:
Justification refers to my
status; sanctification, to my state.
Justification is about God’s attitude to me changing, sanctification is about
God changing me. Justification is about Christ dying for my sins on the cross;
sanctification is about Christ at work in me by the Holy Spirit changing my
life. The Reformers distinguished
between the two but did not separate them.[15]
They are inseperable since we receive both from
Christ. Only through Christ Jesus do we receive both justification and
sanctification.
c. One receives salvation by the fact that Christ
has done it all, and one is to simply receive that salvation, by faith.
d. This salvation, by justification is assured to
all. This fourth aspect is characteristic of the Protestant tradition.
According to Calvin (quoted by Lane[16]), “ it
is the acceptance with which God
receives us into his favour as righteous men. And we say that it consists in
the remission of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.” He is also
quoted saying justification is by Christ, Christ alone. Calvin compares faith to an empty vessel with which
we come to receive Christ’s grace. The power of justifying lies not in faith
itself but in the Christ who is received by faith. The central point of
Calvin’s doctrine of Salvation is union
with Christ.
4.
Salvation and Humanisation.
Modern
Origin of the Doctrine
This concept arose during the period of cold war
when human life was threatened by struggles and destructive forces. This led
the 1968 Uppsala assembly of the Word Council of Churches to discuss a “burningly relevant” issue : what
it meant to be human. With its report, the WCC challenged its member churches
to take up this crucial and urgent question:
“We belong to a humanity that cries passionately
and articulately for a full human life.
Yet the very humanity of man and his
societies is threatened by a greater
variety of destructive forces than ever.
And the acutest of moral of problems of all hinge upon the question: What is
man?”[17]
Thus humanization was an attempt to “understand the
gospel in terms of human struggles, and so interpreted mission as an invitation
for the ‘emergence out of inhumanity into New Humanity, and Jesus Christ as the
New Man; Salvation was understood as this
state of full or New Humanity, of perfect peace and prosperity as Shalom.”[18]The
shift of focus from God to man was criticized by many. However, M. M. Thomas,
in his book Salvation and Humanisationmakes clear that by ‘man’ one does
not imply the fallen man but the New Man Jesus Christ; therefore the very
doctrine, in his opinion is Christocentric. For him the decisive question is
how this life is lived out in one’s concrete situation, that is from a ‘concern
for true humanization.’ To M. M. Thomas, “ Salvation is the spiritual
inwardness of true humanization is inherent in the message of salvation in
Christ.”[19]
The two basic presuppositions of the concept of
humanization are: 1. It is possible to live at different levels of humanness,
so that some are more or less human than
others. 2. Man can emerge out of one level to another.
Humanisation
of God
Man’s inadequate self-understanding fails to reveal
him his own nature, God’s revelation is necessary to show what man really is;
Jesus Christ is that God’s view of man.
Thus humanization is a process of conforming man to the image of Jesus Christ,
or in Biblical terms, “to mature
manhood, to the stature of fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13).
Thus humanization is not the outwardness of
salvation (i.e. its fruits), nor is salvation
the inwardness of humanization. But in the Biblical understanding of
man, salvation is humanization. Thus, the Christian mission is to participate
in this humanization of God. God the Father in the power of God the Holy
Spirit, humanizes to the “mature manhood” of God the Son, therefore,
humanization is Trinitarian. [20]
We are not
called to humanize, since God is the one who humanizes. We cannot humanize
ourselves or others except by the power of the Holy Spirit.
5.
Salvation and Liberation
This doctrine in its modern form
arose in the sixties seventies of the twentieth century. The struggle for
freedom from oppression, war, poverty, discrimination based on class and caste,
etc. gave rise to a need to reflect upon theology in the light of human
experiences.
As the name would suggest, this
doctrine has been upheld from the discipline of liberation theology, although
its historical roots are visible in the Bible itself. It is closely connected to the biblical
concept of redemption, the root word of which, in Hebrew also means to release and to liberate. Lochman thinks the reference here is to the concrete
forces and conditions which threaten to enslave human beings: disease, death,
slavery and oppression, calumny[21]
and persecution.[22]
One of the important names called
into our memories, with respect to this theme is of Gustavo Gutierrez who said, “ A broad and deep aspiration for
liberation inflames the history of mankind in our day, liberation from all that
keeps man from self-fulfillment;, liberation from all impediments to the
exercise of freedom.”[23]
Biblical
basis of liberation.
The Old Testament contains the
legacy of the Exodus, one of the greatest and most powerful liberation stories
ever told. There we see Yahweh setting
his people free from servitude and oppression. This story is retold in one of
the oldest creedal statements of Israel found in Deuteronomy 26: 5-9. [24]Lochman
quotes OT scholar Hans Joachim Kraus who wrote in his outline of systematic
theology, ‘Kingdom of God: Kingdom of freedom’: “ The main theme of biblical
and Christian faith is the freedom which is not to be clouded or distorted by servile fundamentalist or
ecclesiastical ways of thinking, speaking and behaving.” Reflecting on that
statement on the basis of soteriology[25] brings up questions not only of relevance but
also identity of Christian faith.[26]
Catholic theologian N. Lohfink
derives three types[27]
of salvation ideas from the Old Testament, especially the Exodus’ liberation
story, which has implications for the contemporary world:
a.
The
blessing of salvation as dwelling in the land and enjoying its fruits unmolested
by its enemies.
b.
Salvation
brought forth by a dynamic movement, a revolution in history that brings about
transformation. Here, God is the subject and agent of transformation includes
the possibility of human beings needing to take the initiative in this
transformation.
c.
Eschatological
salvation: here the vision is of a new society no longer subject to the structures now universally
dominant. One seeks links with human efforts to bring about transformation.
In the New Testament, we encounter
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection which become central to the idea of
liberation as salvation, just as exodus is the centre for the same in the Old
Testament. In the words of Boff&Boff, “At the roots of the theology of
liberation, we find a spirituality, a mysticism: the encounter of the poor with
the Lord.”[28]
Jesus’ Nazareth Manifesto, itself
begins with freedom, healing, etc. ( Luke 4:16-19). When Jesus says that these
words have been fulfilled in its hearing, it signifies that the “final hour of
liberation has struck for the poor and the oppressed, for the humbled and the
excluded.”[29]
Thus in this doctrine, as viewed
from the Bible, we see a political front, material front and a spiritual as
well as religious front. Here we also see a universal participation with all
peoples, and according to Lochman, a definite partisanship towards the poor and
the disadvantaged. This kind of a life
also met with resistance, which is part of
the process in the journey towards salvation.
The Christian story of freedom in
Jesus Christ is based on his life (which met with violence and resistance) as
well as the Easter story: the cross and resurrection. Thus we see our release/
liberation is based the cross. It is
further understood by the resurrection, an undeniable historical fact which
made irreversible changes in the direction of history. The Easter experience of
Jesus was a gift of the power to be free, in a way otherwise quite unknown in
the contemporary world of the disciples with its obsession with coercive forces
and its belief in fate. Paul reinforces this belief in his statement in Rom
8:38.[30]
Thus we see the understanding of Salvation implied
through liberation: Salvation opens the
way to freedom.
6.
Salvation as fullness of life.
An important subscriber of this idea
was former Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru observes: We are
called to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, to create
social and economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and
fullness of life to every man and woman, (Nehru’s Speeches Vol. 1).[31]
While Nehru claimed that the purpose of his ministry to man was ‘fullness of
life to every man and woman,’ we see a similar idea in the teachings of Jesus.
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly ( fullness of life), as
seen in John 10:10. He not only came to give life, but he was the bread of life
(sustainer) and life itself ( “I am the way, the truth, and the life” – John
6:35 ). Paulraj sees a common ground between secular humanist teaching and
Christian principles, in this doctrine.
7.
Salvations in the context of religious pluralism
India is a country of diversities
and paradoxes. Amidst that, discussing salvation is a sensitive issue. According
to K. Manoharan a former finance minister of Tamil Nadu, belonging to the DMK
(DravidaMunnetraKazhakam) party, Salvation is “ liberation of people from fear
and ignorance; salvation is freedom from social, economic and political
oppression.”
Secular humanists define salvation
as “ liberation from all kinds of oppression in this life; salvation is
humanization; salvation is fulfillment of human needs in this life and solution
to human problems in this world. They believe that they can bring salvation
through human efforts and reason and with the help of education, science and
technology.”[32]
Secular humanism stresses on salvation in this life, saving the society from
oppression and involve themselves to bring about this salvation through direct
social and political participation. Salvation, here is related to preset day
life and sufferings.
8.
Vision of the redeemed earth in the context of ecological crisis.
George Zacharia gives us insights into this area
through his book Alternatives
Unincorporated: Earth Ethics from the Grassroots (London/ Oakville
:Equinox, 2011).
According to him the current theological
discussions on ecology are universalistic, hegemonic and overlook the
grassroots and specific contexts. So he constructs a vision of the redeemed
earth from the sub-altern point of view, from the stand point of the Narmada
BachaoAndolan.
The new vision of redeemed earth rejects the anthropocentric
view of the world, which has led to
greed as well as manipulation and destruction of the environment. The
creation narrative in Genesis, especially the ‘J source’ picturises man as
being wrought from adama or arable soil. According to Theodore Hiebert,
this symbolizes the relationality of human beings with the community of
creation. The breath of life which God
blows into Adam’s nostrils is the very breathe shared by all creation, thus man
cannot claim any superiority in having a soul or spiritual nature different
from non-human being. The vision of a farming community, one in which there is
relational solidarity and communion is also antithetical to the dominant system
and its logic, which seeks to exploit.
The human vocation, given by God is to till the
land, which is a reminder that man must live in dependence of earth, which is
not an understanding of domination over it. “It proclaims the subaltern wisdom
that, as dependent creatures, the welfare of the earth and each member of the
ecosystem are integral to the flourishing of all.”[33]It is
understood as a challenge against the wisdom of “the colonial invading spirit
inherent in contemporary systemic projects.”[34]
In this light we can see Sallie McFague’s
non-anthropocentric idea of God as embodied radical relationality, in intimate
relationship with everything. God, thus, is seen as the source, sustainer, and
goal of every scrap, every quark, of creation” providing a sense of being a new
human, a new creation in the world .She sees the world as God’s body, and all
creation as God’s spread out and God incarnate. Our task thus is to live in
intimate relationship with all manifestation of divine embodiment. Thus sin and
evil, in her view is an unwillingness to reflect the image of God in us through
our interrelatedness. And the life story
of Jesus tells us how to do that – that is an experience of incarnation; a new
creation.[35] This vision of humans as
related beings by virtue of being one among God’s manifold creation, will spark the beginning of a new heaven and
new earth, a redeemed earth. This process has begun in Jesus Christ and ought
to be taken up by the Disciples of Christ, the Christians.
Conclusion
Thus far we have seen various perspectives of the
doctrine of Salvation. By now, we have learnt that salvation concerns all human
beings who carry a deep longing for as well as a lifelong search on the meaning
of life and its goal. The various concepts have a the power to construct selves
and have practical implications in the world around us. We also see that time
and again the Christian understanding of salvation comes into dialogue with
various ideologies, experiences, natural phenomena and human challenges. As for Christians, the contemporary situations
ought to be reflected in the light of the Bible to live and enrich their
understanding of salvation, especially in dialogue with opposing points of
view, and systemic forces.
Bibliography.
Boff,
Leonardo &Clodovis. Salvation and Liberation.In Search of a
Balance between Faith and Politics.Translated by Robert R. Barr.Maryknoll/
Australia: Orbis/ Dove, 1988.
Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions. 2006.
Ditmason,
Harold H. Grace: In Experience and Theology.
Minnesotta: Augsburg Publishing House, 1977.
Geaves, Ron.
Continuum Glossary of Religious Terms.London/
New York: Continuum, 2002.
Gnanakan,
Ken. Salvation: Some Asian Perspectives.
Bangalore: Asia Theological Association, 1992.
Lane,
Anthony N. S. Justification byFaith in
Catholic-Protestant Dialogue: An Evangelical Assessment. London: T&T
Clark, 2002.
Lochman, Jan
Milič.Reconciliation and Liberation.Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1977.
McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
Paulraj, R. Salvation and Secular Humanists in India.Madras:
CLS, 1988.
Warfield,
Benjamin B. The Plan of Salvation.
Michigan: W.B. Eerdmans, 1983.
Zacharia,
George. Alternatives Unincorporated.Earth
Ethics from the Grassroots.London/ Oakville: Equinox, 2011.
[1]Pauline Webb, Salvation
Today (London: SCM Press, 1974), 1, cited by Paulraj R., Salvation and Secular Humanists in India
(Madras: CLS, 1988), 1.
[2]Alister
E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An
Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), 406.
[3]Jan MiličLochman,Reconciliation and Liberation (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1977), 30.
[4]Ibid. 20.
[5] Harold H. Ditmason, Grace: In Experience and Theology (Minnesotta : Augsburg Publishing
House, 1977), 46.
[6]”Hinduism,” Britannica
Encyclopedia of World Religions (Chicago, 2006), 438.
[7] “Mukti,” in Ron Geaves, Continuum Glossary of Religious Terms
(London/ New York: Continuum, 2002), 257.
[8]Ibid., 251.
[9]Ibid.
[10] Rodrigo D. Tano, “Biblical Salvation: Justification
by Faith” in Salvation: Some Asian
Perspectives, edited by Ken Gnanakan (Bangalore: Asia Theological
Association, 1992), 68.
[11]Ibid.,67.
[12]Ibid., 68.
[13] A joint statement by the Lutheran World Federation
and the Roman Catholic Church in 1999 in Anthony N. S. Lane, Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant Dialogue: An
Evangelical Assessment ( London: T&T Clark, 2002), 119.
[14]§15 Joint Declaration on Justification.
[15]Anthony N. S. Lane, Justification by Faith in
Catholic-Protestant Dialogue: An Evangelical Assessment ( London: T&T
Clark, 2002), 18.
[16]Ibid.,19.
[17] M. M. Thomas, Salvation
and Humanisation (Bangalore: CLS/ CISRS, 1971), 3, cited by SunandSumitra,
“Salvation and Humanisation,” in Salvation:
Some Asian Perspectives, edited by Ken Gnanakan (Bangalore: Asia
Theological Association, 1992), 75.
[18]SunandSumitra, “Salvation and Humanisation,” in Salvation: Some Asian Perspectives, edited
by Ken Gnanakan (Bangalore: Asia Theological Association, 1992), 77.
[19] Ibid., 77.
[20]Ibid., 86.
[21] Calumny: A
false statement about a person that is made to damage their reputation.
[22]Jan MiličLochman,Reconciliation and Liberation (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1977), 113.
[23] Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation:
History, Politics and Salvation, translated by Inda&Eagleson
(Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1973), 6-7, cited by Jan MiličLochman,Reconciliation
and Liberation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1977), 115.
[24]"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he
went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he
became a great nation, mighty and populous./ When the Egyptians treated us harshly and
afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,/ we cried to the LORD, the God of
our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and
our oppression. The LORD brought us out
of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display
of power, and with signs and wonders;/
and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing
with milk and honey. (NRSV)
[25]Study of salvation.
[26]Lochman, op. cit., 120.
[27]Ibid.,129-32.
[28]Leonardo
&ClodovisBoff, Salvation and Liberation. In Search of a
Balance between Faith and Politics.Translated by Robert R. Barr (Maryknoll/
Australia: Orbis/ Dove, 1988), 2.
[29]Lochman, op. cit.,133.
[30]For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,/ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. (NRSV)
[31]Paulraj R., Salvation
and Secular Humanists in India (Madras: CLS, 1988), 175.
[32]Ibid.,208.
[33]George
Zacharia, Alternatives Unincorporated.
Earth Ethics from the Grassroots.(London/ Oakville: Equinox, 2011), 124.
[34]Ibid.,
124.
[35]Ibid.
123-29.