Good
question!
It gets asked lots of different ways:
What is the meaning of life? Am I all alone? Is this all there is?
And it gets answered lots of different
ways, though we can’t cover them all here.
What we can do is share with you how we
answer the question—and it takes more than words and ideas.
It takes a relationship with God, and a
relationship with each other.
In some Christian traditions, the
question is, “Are you saved?”
We think a better question is, “Are you
in a saving relationship?”
We are encouraged to come up with our
own answer –
after all, it is our relationship with God
that we need to figure out.
Below is one way the question has been
organized and answered
(it comes from the Irish Methodists!)
All
people need to be saved.
None of us has a special claim before
God of being worthy of living eternally in heaven.
All of us have relationships with others
that are challenging and less than holy.
That’s what we mean when we say that all
people need to be saved.
We believe it is through the grace of
Jesus Christ that we are saved.
In this grace, we are convicted of our
sins and our need for God.
In this grace, we receive the example of
how to be fully human in Jesus Christ.
In this grace, we receive the strength
and direction of the Holy Spirit
so that what God has begun in us, God can complete in us.
All
people can be saved.
The world wants us to believe that some
people can’t be saved, or are not worthy of being saved.
Even some theologians proclaim that God is
not interested in loving all of us.
Yet over and over again, Jesus reached
out to those the world said were beyond saving.
We believe that God is still at work,
tugging at our hearts and nudging us to recognize our need for God.
We believe that “our hearts are restless
until they rest in God” (Augustine, in his Confessions).
We call this “prevenient”
grace – the grace that comes to us even before we know we need it.
It is this grace that helps us become
aware of our sin, as well as our need for God.
All
people can know they are saved.
Salvation is not a heavenly book-keeping
exercise keeping track of who gets in and who doesn’t.
When we recognize our need for God, God
gives us an assurance that we are loved.
John Wesley called that assurance “a
strangely warmed heart.”
You might call it a sense of confidence
and peace.
It might come quickly and dramatically,
or it may come as a growing awareness,
but we can know that God loves us!
All
people can be saved to the uttermost.
Jesus died for our sins, and he was
raised for our new life.
The life of salvation, the eternal life,
begins when we follow Jesus and live as disciples.
We have been called to love each other
as Christ has loved us.
We are not saints because we believe—we
become saints as we live out our belief.
John Wesley called the life of
discipleship “going on to perfection” in love (Matthew 5:48).
What God has begun in us (the new birth)
God can complete in us (the new life).
By practicing “the means of grace,” we prepare
a place in our lives that only God can fill,
and where God can work through us to bring God’s kingdom on
earth as it is in heaven.
Let’s
walk together in this new life!
You have already made a good start by
visiting this website!
When you are ready to take the next
step, try coming to worship Sunday,
or try a class, or volunteer for a mission, or stop by to
talk with the pastor.
We don’t expect any one to be perfect
when they come to Nelson Memorial
(we certainly
were not, and we are not yet)
but we have a vision that Jesus called “the
that includes all of us living together in
God’s love and grace!
Send an email if you are interested in continuing
this exploration of Christian discipleship
or if you are interested in becoming a member of Nelson
Memorial UMC!
