This past Tuesday millions of Americans went to the polls and cast their ballots. Having reached the terminus of the political season, we can all look forward to enjoying some time without being bombarded by endless political ads.
One hears all kinds of odd claims bandied about during the election season. Many readers may have heard this one: “Salvation will not arrive on Air Force One!” This pithy phrase is often uttered in churches or other Christian settings. Let’s put this statement under the microscope and see how it holds up.
As is always the case, the first step is to define our terms. What precisely do we mean when we speak of salvation? For far too many Christians, salvation means “going to heaven when you die.” But the salvation portrayed in the Bible quite simply does not involve people being evacuated from the present world and transported to some ethereal realm called “heaven.”
The story of the scriptures instead describes something far richer and more interesting. It begins with the one true God who created all things according to his power and wisdom. God delegated his authority over the creation to human beings who were fashioned in his image. God intended the world to be a place of beauty, joy, abundance, peace and life. Disastrously, humanity failed to fulfill its vocation and instead rebelled against the creator. The consequences of human sin came with certainty: the creation descended into chaos, corruption and ultimately death.
It is absolutely crucial to understand that God’s remedy for this catastrophe is not to carry some people away to heaven while allowing the world to spin off into madness. Rather, God’s plan of salvation involves bringing the entire creation back into alignment with his original purposes. He intends to redeem the world from all that has defaced it – specifically, sin and death. Therefore, any true understanding of salvation must acknowledge that God has no intention of giving up on the present world in which we live. Rather, the Lord has determined to rescue the entire cosmos from the dark and deadly forces which are constantly striving to undermine his good purposes.
Therefore, the first principle we must keep in mind is that salvation has nothing to do with us escaping from the present world, but everything to do with the redemption of the cosmos.
There is an important corollary to this first principle: salvation is not an all-or-nothing affair. What do I mean by that? Well, when Christians speak about salvation, they can quite rightly be referring to the comprehensive salvation which God will ultimately bring to completion on the day when Jesus returns. At that time, God’s kingdom will be established over the whole earth. The world will be thoroughly cleansed from evil, sickness, oppression and death. Righteousness, justice and joy will prevail forever.
But here’s the key: while we eagerly await God’s full and final salvation, the reality is that God is already bringing about salvation in very real and tangible ways. At this very moment, God is working to establish his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Additionally, in many past times and places, the Lord has wrought salvation in the sense that deeply destructive and evil forces have been thwarted, thereby allowing people to flourish in a way that they could not before. We might refer to such events as “preliminary” or perhaps “incomplete” salvation. I prefer the term “anticipatory” salvation, because these events help us anticipate, or look forward to God’s ultimate salvation. In other words, times of present salvation allow us to get a small taste of the overwhelming joy we will eventually experience when God acts decisively to destroy everything that despoils his creation.
Now it is quite true that no one should confuse these moments of “anticipatory” salvation with the final salvation which awaits God’s people (and God’s world) at some future moment known only to him. However, these examples of salvation are nonetheless absolutely worthy of our praise and remembrance. We should always celebrate when God shatters or even restrains the malicious powers which are menacing the world. There are countless examples of such salvation found throughout the Bible and history.
Let’s now focus on one such story, the tale of Gideon. As is typical in the book of Judges, the story begins with the people of Israel turning away from the covenant God: “Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” The sin of Israel brought them into a time of severe hardship. “The power of Midian was so oppressive” that the Israelites could not even live in their own homes; they were driven into the mountains where they were forced to carve out makeshift shelters. Meanwhile, the Midianite invaders ransacked the land of Israel and absconded with anything of value – including all of Israel’s crops and livestock. “Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.”
God’s abundant mercy is one of the great themes of the book of Judges. Even when people have sinned greatly against him, he remains gracious, willing to forgive and restore blessing to those who turn away from their offenses. So it was at the time of Gideon. The Lord soon responded to Israel’s pleas by sending his angel, who appeared to Gideon while he “was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.” The celestial messenger gave Gideon a greeting which was surprising, to say the least: “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
The scene is meant to be humorous. A winepress in ancient Israel was usually a large pit dug into the rocky ground. The grapes would be thrown into the pit where they would be trampled, allowing the grape juice to flow into a separate vat where it would be collected into jars and fermented into wine. The main point is that Gideon was hiding from the Midianites. This is hardly a portrait of valor, yet the angel addresses Gideon as a mighty warrior!
Gideon is anything but the archetypal hero. First he complains, “the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” The LORD replies, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Even then, Gideon shows no mettle. He inquires, “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” The Lord responds, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
Although amusing, there is a very serious point here. God often uses deeply flawed individuals to bring about his salvation. Here was feckless and fainthearted Gideon; he rightly regarding himself as the least courageous man among the weakest clan in his tribe. Of course, God’s power would be the deciding factor in the looming confrontation with the Midianite hordes. But despite his blemishes, we must not forget that Gideon’s response still mattered. For God didn’t ask Gideon to perform some unattainable task; the Lord simply asks him to do what he could: “Go in the strength you have.”
Bible readers will remember how the story goes from here. The Lord paradoxically pares down Gideon’s army to just 300 men. Yet still God promises “with the three hundred men…I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.” Armed with empty jars, torches and trumpets, Gideon and his men surround the enemy camp at night. They smash their jars, blast their trumpets and give a great shout. The Midianites, believing themselves to be surrounded by a mighty force, were thrown into sheer panic. They turn against each other with their weapons. The survivors flee in disarray. Israel is saved.
Let’s draw some initial conclusions about the nature of God’s salvation, which we will continue to unpack next week.
(1) Salvation refers to the rescue of the creation from all that threatens it – namely sin and death. True Biblical salvation has nothing to do with God snatching people away from the world and taking us to heaven. We must never tire of repeating this principle, because it has huge implications for how we understand our work in the world.
(2) Present salvation is still salvation. Eventually there will come a time when God will orchestrate the full and final salvation of the cosmos. Obviously, Gideon’s victory over the Midianites was not that moment. Nonetheless, the salvation the Lord brought about through Gideon was deeply meaningful.
(3) God often brings about salvation through fragile and faulty human beings. Like many other figures in the Bible, Gideon hardly seemed to be a candidate for greatness. Yet his greatness ultimately rested in the fact that he did what God asked of him, with the strength that God gave him. May we always do the same.
