I don’t have a completely definitive definition, but these days I like John Stott’s statement:
“Salvation is a radical transformation in three phases, beginning at our conversion, continuing throughout our earthly life and brought to perfection when Christ comes.”
This fits well with the New Testament’s teaching that — in some mysterious way — we already are saved, we are currently being saved and one day we will eventually be saved.
One of the ways Christians have minimized and trivialized salvation is by separating it from the Kingdom of God. We’ve made it sound sometimes as if the two are different things entirely, but in the Bible it’s not so. In the Bible, Isaiah 52:7 for example, we read that those who declare the good news (i.e., gospel) of peace are also those “who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”
In other words, wherever God reigns (kingdom), God also saves (salvation).
That this was the common understanding during Jesus’ teaching ministry is made obvious when Jesus told his friends, “How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God” and they responded by asking, “Who then can be saved?” (Mark 10:24-26).
They equated entering the kingdom with being saved.
But if salvation means entering into God’s Kingdom, well, that’s a much bigger and broader concept than we tend to discuss during the altar call on Easter Sunday.
So, if salvation means entering into the Kingdom of God, maybe we should talk about exactly what that is. Anyone want to take a shot at that?
What is the Kingdom of God?
