1 Corinthians 14:33 states that God IS NOT the author of confusion but of peace. Therefore, doesn't it seem appropriate to state that if confusion is present then we or the enemy created it? How else can we explain the differing views? How could we take something as simple as salvation (which is a pretty big ticket item in the church) and make it so complicated?
What my friend termed as schematics actually goes much deeper. The technical term is soteriology. Soteriology is the study & application of salvation. It is how we view & accept the redemptive work of Christ. If you look into all the denominations you will discover that this is an area of disagreement/division. Some of the questions you could ask are:
1) Is salvation by faith alone or is there work involved?
2) What role (if any) does baptism play in salvation?
3) Once saved always saved, or can we lose it?
4) How does the death, burial, resurrection, & ascension of Jesus affect the world?
5) What about repentance?
This is not an exhaustive list of questions, but it gives us a starting point for reflection. Depending on your church background you may have grown up to believe that a person is only saved through baptism. Maybe you grew up believing that you could lose your salvation. You may have been involved in a church culture that stressed repentance as necessary for salvation & they gave you a clear presentation of what that looked like. So the question remains, are we divided over schematics or does soteriology play a much larger role?
Let's go a little deeper. I have been involved in denominational life on an executive level. I have heard how pastors think. I can tell you, at least for the majority of them, this discussion has greater ramifications. Listen to some of these statements:
Those who are baptized as a means of salvation aren't really saved.
Those who believe you can lose your salvation can't be genuinely saved because they a placing their works above the Cross.
If you didn't pray the "sinners prayer" then I seriously doubt that you have been born again.
I don't know if you noticed it or not, but these guys have lost their focus on the real means of salvation. We get caught up on our schemes and man made dogmas that we neglect the 1 thing the Bible declares to be the salvation of all men.
My question (and only question) is, what do you believe about Jesus?
It's salvation discussion like this that always draw me back to the Cross. It's there that I find a criminal hanging beside of Jesus. In the midst of all the confusion, all the yelling, and all the hostility toward Jesus; this man believes Him to be the only hope that he possesses. "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom." Those were his only words. No repentance. No baptism. No "sinners prayer." Just a simple request. Jesus response: "Today you will be with me in Paradise."
How many times does Jesus have to blow our paradigms out of the water? How many obstacles to true & genuine faith does He have to knock over?
He forgives - Not because people followed the right steps but simply because it is His nature.
He loves - Not because someone has jumped through all the hoops but simply because it is the expression of His Father.
He heals. He restores. He provides. All as a means of proving the Father's desire for His creation.
Regardless of how you apply Jesus' work of salvation, it seems to me that most Christians understand one vital truth. We believe that Jesus came for us. We believe He died on our behalf. We see in Him the love of God fully demonstrated. We know that His death, burial, & resurrection was the vehicle that God used to bring us out of darkness. You see, what gets lost in our schematics, our soteriology, and our dogmas is the unquestionable love of God for humanity. We confuse the grace of God in our lives and demand that people believe in our system more so than the finished work of Christ. This is where our troubles begin.
We start throwing around biblical terms like "heresy" or "false teaching" as a way of moving people out of the differing opinions and into our own. And what we fail to realize is that the Apostles used these terms do describe any teaching that stripped Christ of His deity or His humanity. They used these terms to warn the church of anything that would be used to add to or take away from simple faith in Christ. In the wake of our confusion are hundreds, thousands, and maybe even millions of people who struggle to believe in the love of God found in Jesus. Paul declared in Romans 10 that the word of faith was in each & every one of us. He said that if we would believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead & confess Him as Lord that we would be saved. He said it was WITH THE HEART that man believed unto righteousness. He said it was WITH THE MOUTH that confession was made unto salvation. It doesn't get any easier than that.
This is God cutting through our religious demands.
This is God demonstrating that He doesn't need a sacrificial system or a set of legal rules.
This is God coming into our darkness, setting things straight, & reconciling the world to Himself.
The only question I have to ask is: Do you believe?
Your belief, or lack thereof, will determine how you experience the abundant life of Christ.
"HE SAVED US, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to HIS OWN MERCY, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom HE POURED OUT on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by HIS GRACE we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." [Titus 3:5-7]
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