What does "being saved" mean?

It simply never ceases to amaze me how people view salvation. It’s almost like, “I’m saved, but you are going to hell for your sins today!” We really need to grasp the concept of a gracious God who did not have to save us but did everything for us to do just that. We did not deserve even a glance, yet he sent his only Son to die a hideous death on a cross for our sake, so that we, the undeserving, could have eternal life with God.

Ok, that’s the corporate view.

It’s also a forward-looking view. What I mean by that is that we accept some presuppositions, and then we use the bible to determine what is true from that point forward. We accept the basis that man fell into sin, and so, as a response, God put in place a plan to save his creation. If you have read The Origin of Sin on this blog, you’ll know I don’t accept the concept of salvation as a response to sin.

First Cause

There is a philosophical/theological concept called “First Cause.” From the New World Encyclopedia, a fair summarization of First Cause is given:

First Cause is term introduced by Aristotle and used in philosophy and theology. Aristotle noted that things in nature are caused and that these causes in nature exist in a chain, stretching backward. The cause of the cat you see today, for example, was its parent cats, and the cause of those parents were the grandparent cats, and so on. The same for the oak tree you see; it was caused by an acorn from a previous oak tree, which in turn was caused by an acorn tree from a previous oak tree, and so on, stretching back to whenever.

The central question about such causal chains, raised by Aristotle and others, is whether they must have a starting point. Aristotle, and others following him, claim that the answer is yes, i.e., that there must be a First Cause because such causal chains cannot be infinite in length.

Aristotle referred to the First Cause also as the "Prime Mover" that is a deity of "pure form" without any potentiality, but theists such as Thomas Aquinas identify this First Cause with God in Christianity, and use this argument, usually known as the "argument from causation," as an argument for the existence of God. This argument was the second of Aquinas' "Five Ways" of proving (he thought) the existence of God.¹

I’d like to note that some sites on the internet claim that protestantism has rejected the First Cause, but this is an exaggeration. Generally, Calvinism (and John Calvin in particular) rejected it. Calvin rejected the idea of “natural theology,” which means knowing God by observation of nature without relying on divine revelation. Of course, Romans 1:18-20

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.
—Romans 1:18-20

So while Paul is speaking of God’s invisible attributes, he says they can be seen by observing nature and the things around you. He makes no mention of divine revelation in the process. It is obvious to everyone who looks.

Returning to the First Cause, the concept is to follow the string of events or process back to the beginning. In Christianity, according to teachings by men such as Thomas Aquinas, the First Cause would be God—a person who was not created, who has no prior cause for existence, and who has nothing before himself.

Expressing a First Cause for becoming saved

Let us now return to the subject of this post: being saved—or more specifically, becoming saved. We could pursue this in a number of ways. For instance, we could ask, “Why do we need to be saved?” At its simplest, it is because God said we should. The more complex reasoning has to do with the perfection of God and the fact that you, being less than perfect because of sin, cannot be in his perfect presence. Your sin is an abomination to him, and this is why Jesus had to come and remove those sins from you. Your sins are forgiven, and you are wrapped in a robe of righteousness.

There are two concepts here that need to be evaluated. One, how did you get this sin that needed to be removed so that you could be saved? Simple answer: Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was disobedience to God’s command, and sin results. Two, why did Jesus have to come and die to remove our sins (and why does his death do this)? His death is the final and complete act of shedding blood for the remission of sin, as the animals of the Old Testament have done for millennia. Jesus was the one to do this because God the Father predestined him to be the Savior of the world.

So do we conclude that sin was the First Cause (first causation that resulted in) for Jesus being chosen to be our Savior? The answer would be no. Jesus was predestined to be the Savior before this world was created, before there was a thing called sin—at least the sin of a human for whom Jesus died.

You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake.
—1 Peter 1:18-20

For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will…
—Ephesians 1:4-5

The sinful children of God were chosen before they ever existed—before the world existed. The causality of this is that Jesus was chosen to be our Savior, and then, after that, we were created and plunged into sin. That was God’s plan.

This also describes the First Cause of Eve's eating of the fruit. How did she sin? She ate the fruit. How did the fruit become sinful to eat. God defined it that way. If the fruit on the tree was so sinful, how did it get there? God planted the tree in the garden—hand planted it, mind you. It didn’t grow wild.

How did the tree get there? God.

How did Jesus get to be our Savior? God.

First Cause. God.

Parting thoughts

Earlier, I said that people accept a forward-looking viewpoint. Man sinned—unroll the gospel story. Nobody ever asks how we got there. They just accept it. The pulpit never preaches on any of these subjects. They just lead us on by the bit.

Some of the ideas don’t have an answer. Why did God create sin? Or define it if you like (but sin is a thing, and God created all things). Man is said biblically to be like a worm, and he will never desire to do good in and of himself (without the Holy Spirit), thus being carnal and sinful. Why? That’s a creation decision. God made us this way. Why? If our sinfulness is so abhorrent to him, why did he make our primary choice to be sin? Some would say that he didn’t, but rather gave us free will, and we chose the sinful path. Our nature is to choose the sinful path. Until we are saved, we are doomed—oh, that magical “being saved.” It is such a contradiction on the surface. These are the types of things we will be pulling out of the mud, washing off a bit, and discussing to understand the entire worldview of the bible—oh, and not the view from the pulpit where you are coerced into feeling good about your sin because Jesus paid the price for you; pass the bucket and insert your ten-percent tithe.

Buckle up.

1. Used from the New World Encyclopedia under the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0