The Error of Earning Christian Salvation
Salvation is the free gift of God lest any man should boast. Let me tell you, folks, I am sick of boasting Christians. You will never be saved because you have a Brooks Brothers suit. You will never be saved because you know Bible verses, and—this is key—you will never be saved by beating your neighbor over the head with your personal interpretation of the Bible.
The gospel is not something to be recited. It is not something to be held under glass as a museum piece. The gospel isn’t even the words in that holy sanctified edition of the Bible that you bought from your local Christian store. The gospel is something that devout Christians live in their daily lives. Your actions are your gospel, and everyone around you gets to read it every minute of every day without regard for your clothes, your claims of piety, or your bumper sticker for the local Christian radio station.
The true gospel—the Word of John 1:1—is the good news that you are already one with Christ. Churches can set up a legal structure all they wish, but it doesn’t change the simple truth that you are already privileged to sit at the right hand of God. You don’t have to perform a great act of service to God. Much ado is made in evangelical churches about the concept of salvation, and this is to be expected from those of us who come out of churches with a strong mystical disposition. In the end, however, salvation is nothing more than the realization that you have the ability to have a personal and direct connection to the universal Truth/Word/God behind the symbols of the universe itself. You don’t have to stop smoking, drinking, and sleeping around. As the Christian hymn goes, you’re already alright just as you are in this moment right now. All you have to do is passively accept a free gift that has already been given to you, the gift that is your birthright as a child of God.
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