"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2Today, for any person, the first step of faith is grasping what Saint Peter, told the people on the "Day of Pentecost" that Jesus is "both Lord and Christ." But that "belief" is just the first step. Read all of Acts 2 for context.
Acts 2:37ff Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Firstly, Conversion is the same today as it was on that very first day of Saint Peter and the other Apostles' ministry. It requires belief in God and God's Son, repentance and submission to Baptism and receiving the seal of the Holy Spirit. Conversion means to Turn Around. So no matter where you are, or who you are, conversion means Turning Around and facing the True God, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Conversion and SOZO/Healing/salvation, are two different things. Conversion is the first step, upon The Way, the entrance to The Way, but even as this story of the first day of the "ministry of the Church" shows, there was more to it than repentance, baptism and being sealed in the Holy Spirit. There was further teaching from the apostles, and Koinonia (Communion) and Eucharist (The Breaking of the Bread). In other words entering upon the way, was entering into the teaching of the Apostles and participating in a New form of Worship. AS we pointed out in Lesson One, when we are converted we enter God's good will, but there is a lot about us that is not yet acceptable to God, not yet conformed to his will. That process of conforming, goodly, acceptably, and finally, perfectly, to God's will, is the processes of SOZO, i.e. Healing, most times translated into English, as save, saved and saving.
Some people who make of salvation a legal contract, and talk about our relationship to God in false legal terms that were introduced by Roman Catholicism; they will say "But Jesus Christ paid the price and all we have to do is accept Him. That's it, it is over, we are saved!" And they are right and wrong. The Romans did not mean to introduce error into the story and means of salvation, but they had to of necessity, because of the primitive and barbaric language of Latin. A great bit of the errors and "truncations" of modern Protestantism and Evangelicalism is due to the fact that the rich, organic story of LIFE filled healing (SOZO - salvation) in Greek, is strained through the limitations of Latin legal language and concepts. In Latin, there was no way to tell the story of Jesus Christ's sacrifice other than in Legal Terms. Other words and means simply did not exist. You see this reflected in the Roman Catholic doctrine of "merits" where the virtue of the saints is told in LEGAL and contractual economic terms. I don't ever want a Merit from God, the idea is legalistic and silly, and lacks Organic Reality.
Healing Salvation is REAL. We may speak of it in conceptual language, indeed because of the limitation of human language in general, we have to speak of it in conceptual terms, but it is, in fact, ALIVE; it is organic; it is part of our living and our life; it is lived in our members; like all organic things it is growth in time. And here is where the organic concept fails, because this LIFE does not begin to wither and die as organic life does. This life is ETERNAL.
Salvation is NOT an acceptance of an abstract legal concept. (I believe in Jesus Christ, therefore I am saved - the demons share this belief and they are not saved). Salvation is ORGANIC, it is LIFE in Christ Jesus, of Jesus Christ's WHOLE Person, of HIS Divine and Human organic (metaphysical) reality; we "commune" with our WHOLE Person, in his whole person, joining our Humanity to his Divine Humanity becoming Divine IN Him.
The scientific term in biology "symbiosis" perfectly fits this "process" of becoming fully Christ. I hate the term "Christ-like" as if our goal is to imitate him, to become Christ "ish." No we are called to become HIM, to be his very Body, in a mystery we cannot comprehend, part of him, yet remain who we are holding our full personality, our creativity, our identity, melded with HIS power, HIS Eternal LIFE, HIS perfect will for us, which represent our Perfect Health, our completeness.
Do you realize that it would be true to say, that fallen humanity isn't quite human, isn't completely and fully human? There is something missing in us robbed from us, by sin. Salvation is first and foremost becoming Truly Human, Completely Human. We are NOT supposed to become "spiritual gurus" but rather simply REAL, holding in our members that which is REAL, WHO is REAL, whose reality can never fail, cannot die, cannot diminish, cannot be separated from us and were all things to disappear, to vaporize into nothingness in a cataclysm or an instant, we would remain, REAL, and IN HIM.
One of the Holy Fathers said this of those who have repented and been Baptized:
We are called to live Jesus Christ's life:
If we have suffered with Him, we will reign with Him.
If we have died with Him, we will live with Him.
If we deny Him, He will deny us.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny Himself.
Conversion is repentance and accepting Baptism for the remission of our sins, and accepting the seal of the Holy Spirit. Salvation then is the LIFE of The Way, living our life in the LIFE OF CHRIST. This is a concrete thing, coming to live our life in the LIFE OF CHRIST. That life is spiritually and physically present to us, accessible to us IF we are properly instructed and carry through, respecting our instruction.
You see, upon The Way, there are specific ways we experience and gain greater and greater degrees of this life in Christ and Saint Luke describing the first days of the Ministry of the Church, throws us a big hint. "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." You will remember from lesson one, I explained how "The Way" was presented by Saint Paul in the first verses of Romans the 12th chapter, he was describing one of the means that the People of the Way, continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine (not plural) that is in Liturgical Worship as Paul described it, communion and eucharist, fellowship and thanksgiving and prayers.
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