Are You Saved?

Have you ever been met with the question, “Are you saved?” Lots of Presbyterians fumble for an answer to that question, perhaps mumbling something about their participation in church, their confirmation experience, or something like that. If you’re one of those folks who can never find a satisfactory response to that question, you are in very good company. The truth is, for many Christians it is an ill-fitting question. But, of course, it is not an ill-fitting question for everyone. 

Take the Apostle Paul, for example. He had an experience on the road to Damascus that very dramatically changed the entire direction of his life. He was on that road because he had gotten papers authorizing him to find followers of Jesus and bind them and bring them back to Jerusalem to face the Sanhedrin. By the time his experience was over, he went from being a persecutor of the church to a zealous leader of the church. That is such a dramatic experience that he changed his name and had to be introduced to many Christian communities by a friendly face because they knew of his previous actions. 

Paul’s “Damascus Road” experience has often been lifted up as the norm of the Christian experience – the kind of 180-degree turnaround that is captured in the lyrics, “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.” Please allow me to say that if you are someone who persecutes Christians (Paul oversaw the first Christians martyr’s death!), you do need to get saved! Do it now, man, that stuff is so wrong! But, if you are someone whose imperfections and misdeeds are a far cry from Paul’s early experience, then maybe Paul’s conversion experience is not the model you are looking for. And although we can all be rather wretched at times, perhaps “Amazing Grace” isn’t really the song that captures your own story. And I have known people for whom a 180-degree turnaround in their life was exactly what saved them from self-destruction and their way of being lost or feeling separated from God. It happens. 

But grace doesn’t happen to everyone that way and there are plenty of other biblical stories that can serve as better models for our Christian experience. Think of Timothy, to whom two letters in the New Testament are addressed. The writer says, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” Now, here’s someone whose faith journey looks a lot more like mine – a generational follower of Christ who inherited a sincere faith from his family. I cannot think of any period of my life – no matter how imperfect much of it has been – when I did not know God’s love and grace made known in Jesus Christ. Whatever doubts I carry, I’ve never known a time when I didn’t have some deep and abiding sense that life has divine, loving purpose. 

I have had moments in my life when I was (or, at least I hope I was) changed significantly. My upbringing and some of my worst tendencies would make it very easy for me to be incredibly judgmental of anyone who is not in a straight, monogamous marriage. It would be very easy for me to continue ignoring systemic racism and pretend that the sins of the past were just because of a few very bad or misguided people. It would be easy for me to think that anyone struggling with poverty, addictions, or a life that seems unrooted are solely responsible for their condition and simply need to be “saved.” I was well-trained in those habits of mind and while there may be some slivers of truth in them, they were parts of my identity from which I needed to be transformed if I were to have what Paul called “the mind of Christ.” So, yes, I’ve been saved – if that’s the language someone needs – many times! And I am still in need of saving. 

In Romans 12, Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” There are two imperatives in that sentence, but oddly for imperatives they are both passive. To “be conformed to this world” is to be shaped by the presumptions, prejudices, and outlook that we inherit from living in a world that does not follow God’s will. To “not be conformed to this world” means to actively resist what seems to come naturally to us in our culture. And to “be transformed” – as both passive and as an imperative – means to open ourselves to God’s grace, which will give us a whole new outlook. To me, this is what “being saved” is all about. Being saved from becoming selfish, spiteful, exclusive, and all the things that come easily from our culture. And being saved to having a mindfulness about life that is shaped by the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Christ. 

“Are you saved?” can be a challenging question. Perhaps our best response can be, “By grace, often.” 

Mark of St. Mark