Such Were Some of You

Salvation is such a tricky thing….let the masses tell it. Some profess to be saved while professing that nothing has changed. Some profess to be saved while professing that the only thing that has changed is their Sunday morning attendance. Some profess to be saved while professing a total lifestyle change. And my favorite is some professing to be saved while eschewing this jedi-mind trick, I am spiritual but not religious.

Salvation can be described as God, in his sovereignty through the penal substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross by the power of the Spirit, making a spiritually dead person alive in Jesus. This is also known as being born-again, new humanity, and being a new creation. Language like a new creation mandates there being an old creation, right? Right. So how does this common talk about salvation square with being a new creation? I’m glad you asked. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote more about this than any other writer, and he was very clear about this very subject in Romans.

In Romans 1:18-32 and 12:1-2, Paul juxtaposes old humanity and new humanity. Romans 1 tells of every person from the moment of birth; Romans 12 tells of that same person after salvation. It is clear and extremely helpful to help us understand once and for all what salvation means biblically despite what the masses have to say.

The old humanity, according to 1:18-32, 1) is under God’s wrath, 18a; 2) worships the creature, 18b-20; 3) conforms to the ways of the world, 21-23; and 4) lives a (vain) perverted lifestyle The new humanity, according to 12:1-2, 1) is under God’s mercy, 1a; 2) worships God as their sacrificial service, 1c; 3) does not conform to the world but transforms to Christ, 2; and 4) lives a holy lifestyle.

This should change the common speech used, but sadly it does not. There are those who like to find loopholes or present-day explanations to justify why they do and don’t do what they want to do just so they can call themselves by the same biblical term with a totally different description.

They may say things like, hey I let Jesus into my heart and now he’s gonna give me the desires of my heart. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard such filth like that. God saves you and identifies you with Jesus so that you can look like Jesus and honor Jesus in every single thing you do through submitting to Jesus. There is no such thing as Jesus giving you some salvation ticket and then allowing you to bottle him up like some genie in order to please you before a watching world, while you give little to no thought of making disciples. ARE YOU MAD?

There is a clear distinction between old humanity and new humanity. One is separate from the other, hence the word, holiness. May the church learn to speak about salvation in ways that are accurate to what the Bible says.

#humanity #newcreation #romans #salvation