Becoming: The Goal of Salvation is not Birth But Living Fully
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Christian hope, Discipleship, Faith, Precision Obedience, Salvation
BEING BORN
The Bible is a big book. The Bible is also a complex book. We do not have to know the names of the books of the Bible to become a Christian. In fact there were both “Christians” and even “church” before there was such a thing as “the Bible.” In fact (and it is a fact) 99 percent of Christians never saw, much less owned, a “Bible” for almost 1500 years.
We do not have to know the names of the Twelve apostles to become a Christian. We do not even have to know there is an “Old Testament” and a “New Testament” in order to become a Christian. No first century follower of Jesus had heard of two divisions in the Christian Bible. The term “Old Testament” was invented by Melito of Sardis around AD 180.
We do not have to be able to give a dissertation on baptism in order to become a Christian (the Eunuch knew next to nothing about baptism and never read an iota about it in the epistles they did not exist yet!). We do not have to know the marks of the “one true church” in order to become a Christian (the Ethiopian had only a portion of the Book of Isaiah!).
Becoming a Christian is as easy as being “born.” The baby does nothing to be born, it is the mom that does all the work.
Babies are born. Babies cannot give a dissertation on how she or he was born. Babies born know only the warmth and love of their mother. And babies know they are hungry. That is about it. The baby did not have to pass an exam to be born. Christians are born. But a disciple of Christ is, like that baby, hungry.
Alexander Campbell thought long and hard on this matter of being born. He noted, correctly I believe, that the “New Testament” makes only two conditions for the “birth” of a disciple of Christ.
First, a person must believe that Jesus is the Christ. That is they have “faith” that Jesus is the Messiah, like that Ethiopian.
Second, that person expresses their faith in Jesus the Christ by being baptized into his name. These are the only conditions named in the Great Commission (Matthew 28.18-20; cf. the Long Ending of Mark 16.15-16).
If one has faith in Jesus the Christ and has been baptized in his name then one has been, by God’s gracious promise, “born of God.” Like a literal baby we may not know much but being born was not the work of the baby and did not depend on the knowledge of the baby. The disciple knows the love of God, warmth, and is hungry.
A person does not have to be able to discuss Christology and the doctrine of baptism to have faith that Jesus is the Messiah and be baptized in his name. Mom’s do the work in having babies and it is God who does the work in making baby Christians. I believe Alexander Campbell faithfully follows the Great Commission and the Book of Acts on this matter. Not one person who is baptized in Acts knew the ins and outs of the intricate doctrine of baptism … again whatever the Ethiopian knew was sufficient for his being born in the family of God.
In fact the original readers of Romans, Galatians, Colossians, etc also did not know those letters until they arrived in the mail, after their baptism. They learned, that is they grew. When they received those letters in their understanding of what happened when they were baptized. But they did not know it when the baptism took place. The Ethiopian never heard of Romans 6, Colossians 2.12 and 1 Peter 3.21, Paul was not even a believer himself yet when Acts 8 takes place.
BIRTH IS NOT THE GOAL OF BEING BORN
But being born is not the goal of life. Likewise being born is not the goal of Christianity. Living is the goal of life.
Living is the goal of Christianity. Abundant Life is the Goal. Babies do nothing to get born. But babies must do something to live. They must eat and grow. If a baby does not eat then tragic consequences result.
Some Christians are content with nothing in their life but being “born.” But as with a baby, if they do not grow, if they do not develop, then tragic consequences typically result.
Disciples are to grow. We are to eat. We are to live. We are to Flourish. While knowledge of the Bible is not a prerequisite to being born (knowing the Christ is), for those who want to live, it becomes as necessary as eating and breathing for a baby. The goal of growing is becoming a living and contributing part of the family. One with unique gifts to be shared with the community of faith.
So to live – to grow – we dig in. I confessed Jesus as the Christ/Messiah, what does that mean? I was born – God did the birthing – but now I can reflect on what took place (that is in fact what Romans, Galatians, Colossians, etc actually do in texts like Romans 6; Galatians 3; Colossians 2; etc. The epistles are written to the already baptized, to help the baptized grow, to help the baptized become what they were born to be).
This first question takes us into the Story of Abraham, Moses, Miriam, the Exodus, Deborah, Ruth, David, Hezekiah, Huldah. It takes me into seeing a Story that I am now part of by being born into the family of God.
By being born of God, I have entered a Story, a history, that has been going on long before I was born. I am a part of that story: HIS STORY (history). It tells me who is “Christ.” Christ is the word MESSIAH. Who is the Messiah, well Jesus IS the Messiah/Christ. Christ/Messiah is not a name (Jesus is the name) but a title. It is an “Office.” The Messiah is the King of Israel, the Son of David.
The Messiah had a task, a purpose, a Mission. Baptism does more than “save” me (if our understanding of baptism is limited to a birth moment we have yet to understand the richness of what happened). In fact that is not even remotely Paul’s point to the hungry Gentile babies in Galatia, he wanted them to understand that now since they have faith in Jesus the King of Israel, through baptism they are part of the family story of Abraham. Their baptism is God fulfilling his promises to Abraham that he is the father of many. If we belong to the Messiah “THEN we are are ABRAHAM’S Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.” They “Abraham’s family” (Gal 3.26-29). The climax is verse 29.
I was born, but for what? For what purpose? This is the question of “why?” My previous question about the Christ leads me into the Mission of the Christ (King of Israel). To be baptized is to become part of the Christ’s mission in the world. I have a reason for being that is beyond being born. God wants me (and you) to be his partner in the mission. I was baptized and thus now part of that long before I was born Story (i.e. HIS STORY – history!). To do this I must grow and mature to become who I was born to be.
Growing is, however, a natural thing unless we ourselves get in the way. Children naturally explore. Teenagers naturally ask questions. Growing – living/becoming – disciples of Christ do the very same thing. A sixteen year old simply will not accept the same kind of challenges that are given to a four month old or five year old. Nor will they accept the same answers given to the challenges. They explore.
The sad thing is that many disciples refuse to do in their Christian walk what they do as a preteen and teen: ask questions, explore, and grow. They want formula out of a bottle, even strained bananas are unwelcome.
They get in the way of their own flourishing. They fear questions and think the bottle is the point of being born. The “Bible” does not hide the fact that somethings about faith are hard to explain (in fact it says so multiple times) especially to one who will only drink Similac from a bottle. Interestingly enough the New Testament documents actually chastise those who were born of grace but refuse to hunger and thirst for growth and becoming (cf. Hebrews 5.11-13, etc). Such stunted development exhibits itself in the same behavior as the born but undeveloped infant: they express unhappiness about everything by crying at everything. They are unhealthy. They are, in the Pauline words, “unsound.”
But growing, becoming, is the point of being born. Again we were not born just be born, we were born to Grow, to Become. And growth is its own validation. The growth of a sixteen year old does not invalidate the growth of the four year old. A healthy four year old, if doing what four year old’s do, is exactly where she is supposed to be.
But a sixteen year old who acts like a four year old is an indication that something massively has gone wrong in her life. But four year old’s do not know what a sixteen year old is supposed to know and comprehend. And a sixteen year old does not know and comprehend what a forty five year old is supposed to know and comprehend. But for the forty five year to forty five, she must live not just exist.
She must DO.
She must GROW.
She must LEARN.
We are born into a journey (a Story that is much older than me).
Paul said of the so-called Old Testament that reading it, devouring it, meditating on it, “makes us wise unto salvation.” Isn’t that an odd phrase?
The hearers of 2 Timothy 3.14-17 were already “saved.” They are already “born.” But Paul’s point is that we grow in understanding what salvation actually is and what it is all about.
Salvation is not just about being born. Salvation is about exploring, comprehending, growing, learning, and flourishing. It is about becoming who we were created/born to be in the first place.
Being born is easy. We don’t tell a baby she is not born because she cannot explain the “birth process.” We instead seek nutrition and meals so she becomes.
Growing beyond formula and strained bananas is natural. Learning is necessary. Necessary not to make the birth happen but to experience the life, the mission, we were given. Becoming who I was born to be requires that I let God teach me something new … to become “wise” in the ways of salvation.
Becoming is an Adventure.
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