Seeking to Understand Salvation

Here is my 1,001^st blog post—and I have been wanting to write this since making the Dec. 26 post that was largely based on Habakkuk 3:17. This article begins with Hab. 3:18—and focuses on just one word in that verse: salvation (or Savior, depending on the translation). 

What is the meaning of salvation in Habakkuk 3:18? That is the first matter to be clarified. In evangelical Christianity, salvation is primarily thought to be the future gift of “eternal life” in Heaven that we humans can receive through the forgiveness of our sins by faith in Jesus Christ.

That, obviously, was not what Habakkuk meant in referring to “God of my salvation” (NRSV) or “God my Savior” (NIV). Habakkuk lived 600 years before Jesus was born, and the context is about being “saved” from the effects of crop failure.

As in much of the Old Testament, salvation here primarily means deliverance from physical hardships in the present, not salvation from the punishment of sin and blissful life after death.

Salvation in the OT usually means deliverance from some physical calamity or liberation from bondage. Of course, even in modern times, we sometimes use that same terminology. For example, a child is saved from death in a burning building, or a company is saved from bankruptcy with a large loan.

So in spite of the fig tree not budding and there being no fruit on the vine, the song of Habakkuk 3:17-19 rejoices in the God who the prophet expects to deliver God’s people from doom. At the very least, the people’s faith in God delivers them from worry and frees them from fear of the future.

What did Jesus say about salvation? Jesus didn’t talk much about salvation or people being saved—although there was certainly much about that in the New Testament after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

One of the very few times Jesus used the word salvation was in the story about Zacchaeus as recorded in the 19^th chapter of Luke. After Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’s house, treating him as a person worth respect rather than an enemy of the people, Zacchaeus said,

Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.

Jesus responded by declaring, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham” (vv. 8-9, NRSV).

Was the salvation Jesus was referring to here the gift of eternal life in Heaven? No, Zacchaeus’s promise to generously share his possessions was not him buying a ticket to Heaven.

Jesus was most likely thinking of salvation in the ways the Jewish people of his time, and for centuries before, had generally thought of salvation. It was deliverance or liberation for the present, not for some future state of existence. But from what was Zacchaeus saved/delivered?

He was saved/liberated from his alienation from his own people by his working as a hated tax collector for the Romans. By releasing much of his ill-gotten wealth, he was freed from allegiance to Rome and became, again, a member of his Jewish community. He became, again, “a son of Abraham.”

Concurrently, Zacchaeus was saved/freed from his greed, his love of riches, his self-centeredness. He committed himself to boldly helping others, not lining his own pockets as tax collectors then regularly did.

Because of Zacchaeus’s repentance (=180^o change of direction in his way of living), salvation came to his house that day.

What does salvation mean for us today? Certainly, I am not disparaging what the followers of Jesus later said about “eternal salvation,” even though there are, undoubtedly, many misunderstandings entwining that important concept.

What I am emphasizing here is the need to understand salvation also, or maybe first, in the way Jesus spoke of salvation to Zacchaeus.

Perhaps it is primarily the “prosperity Gospel” preachers, the “Foxvangelicals” (to use the term my friend Brian Kaylor recently used with reference to Robert Jeffress), and so many U.S. Christians who are so entangled in consumerism who need to consider this the most.**

But what about you—and me?

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** Kaylor is President and Editor of Word&Way (the Christian media company based in Missouri since 1896). He used this term in a Jan. 17 article (found here) titled “A Tale of Two Services.” I highly commend this piece comparing/contrasting what former Vice-president Pence said at First Baptist Church, Dallas, and what President Biden said at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, this past Sunday.

The Kondo Craze

Kondo (近藤、pronounced like cone-dough) is a rather common name in Japan, but thanks to Marie (麻理恵, pronounced in Japanese like mah-rhee-eh) it has become a household name (and even a verb!) in the U.S. Let’s think a bit about what some call “the Kondo craze.”

Kondo’s Book                                                                                  

As you probably know, Marie Kondo is the author of a bestselling book: The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. In 2011 it was published in Japanese and the English translation was issued three years later.

Beginning in January, Kondo also hosted “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” a reality television series developed for Netflix. The eight episodes showed Marie visiting families to help them organize and tidy up their homes.

Without question, many USAmericans need help/advice in decluttering their homes--and their lives. Much of what Kondo suggests in her KonMari method, which is explained on her website (here), is good, helpful advice.

Giving that advice has become lucrative for her. In helping people tidy up, Kondo and her husband have acquired a tidy fortune. They are said to be now worth $8,000,000.

Kondo’s Point

In most cases, tidying up one’s home means getting rid of a lot of “stuff.” Most people, here and in Japan, have far more than they need--or have room to store or display in a comfortable manner.

A key point of the KonMari method is not deciding what to discard but rather in deciding what to keep. The “selection criterion” for the latter is this: “does it spark joy?”

In the English translation of her book, Kondo writes that “the best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: ‘Does this spark joy?’ If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it” (p. 41, bolding in original.)

It is interesting how “joy” is used in the English translation, but the Japanese book uses the word tokimeku which means to “flutter” or “sparkle.” In consulting with my Japanese daughter-in-law, I decided that a literal translation of the Japanese title would be something like The Magic of Tidying Up that Makes Life Sparkle.

The English translation, though, is about keeping only those things that “spark joy.” That emphasis raises some questions. 

Questioning Kondo

Why should material things spark joy (or cause our lives to sparkle)? I can think of two reasons: because they are decidedly beautiful or because they have deep sentimental value.

But can anyone live with only possessions that are beautiful and sentimental? Probably not--so there goes Kondo’s key criterion.

Kondo suggests starting decluttering by disposing of unnecessary clothing. Admittedly, probably all of us have some wearing apparel we like more than others. But should we, can we, daily wear only those clothes that “spark joy”?

It is suggested that the KonMari method is opposed to consumerism--and it may inspire some people to buy less. But for many people, discarding things that don’t spark joy probably means that when they go shopping again, they will see new things that do spark joy and buy them.

Consequently, as a January 2019 article in The Guardian points out, “Some of her clients may just make space for fresh purchases in an endless binge-purge cycle.”

In spite of my questions, though, I do like Kondo’s emphasis in the last paragraph of her book: “As for you, pour your time and passion into what brings you the most joy, your mission in life.”

Exactly. It is living to fulfill a mission rather than having things that produce real joy.