3.2 Jesus Is Savior

Whatever our Salvation means by God’s definition, none of it happens to us except by the continuous and present action of Jesus towards us. If Salvation is happening, it is happening right now, caused by a present and active Christ Jesus inside of our hearts.

Salvation is not a “place.” Salvation is a deeply intimate, active, and ongoing interaction between Jesus and each of us. This interaction always goes in two directions at the same time. First, our fellowship with Jesus takes us into knowing the Father, being filled with all the fulness of God. And second, our fellowship with Jesus takes us into knowing one another as the Church, our dwelling place and God’s.

Learn of Me. If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink (John 7:37). – Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29).

This relationship with Jesus is the core of what Salvation is, and it is forever. In the phrase “learn of Me,” translating “of” is difficult. Usually it means “away from,” but not here. We could say, “out of,” but most use “from” in this verse. The word “drink” is the best way to convey this continuous transfer from Jesus to us. But it does not mean “learn about.” It means that Jesus is continuously transferring His substance to us as we see and learn of Him, and we become just like Him, metamorphosed into the same image.

Welcoming Jesus. Look and see, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone should hear My voice and open the door, I will go in to him, and I will dine with him and he with Me (Revelation 3:20).

This is another picture of the same reality. If Adam and Eve had opened their door and welcomed Jesus into their hearts, eating of the Tree of Life, then they would have been set upon this same path. Although learning out from Jesus increases forever, God has specific milestones along that Way. Adam and Eve would have beheld Jesus inside of themselves for a thousand years before they would have become fully like Him in knowing the Father as God intended, that is, Salvation. Their path would have been no different than ours is right now. The “learning” would have been the same.

The Pathways of Learning. But God is all here now, and every part of knowing Him is complete, right from the start. This is a problem for us, because God is just too exuberant, as Paul says over and over. Part of Jesus’ task inside of us is to tone God down, giving us each next step of knowing the Father, just a bit at a time. This learning out from Jesus is a flow, a process, a movement, just like the pathway of learning in a school, going from one subject to the next, from one year to the next. We are not good students, however, for we resist God at every step, lying about ourselves and refusing to believe His Word.

For this reason, our initial path of learning has two parts, both of which can be called “an emergency rescue.” God uses the Tabernacle in the Gospel to show us one aspect of our path. This will be the topic of the next chapter, “The Way Out.”

Another Aspect of Learning. There is another aspect for us in this learning path besides the gospel structure, very much part of our “emergency rescue.” Jesus is already all propitiation now; Jesus already connects us utterly together with God, right from the start.

I noticed this in my life over the years. I would engage in a temper tantrum against God, hating Him by cursing myself, hiding from God and refusing His Word, dancing around in the fig leaves of my “Christian” pretending, ashamed of myself. Such antics never lasted long before I collapsed into surrender. EXCEPT – I would then discover the Lord Jesus continuing with me as if I had never engaged in such rebellion, as if we had been utterly together all along. How can He do this? How can Jesus relate with me as if I am without sin?

Surety for Me. By so much also, Jesus has become the surety of a better and stronger Covenant (Hebrews 7:22). In Gethsemane, as Jesus wrestled in agony, sweating great drops of Blood, He agreed with God to become the Surety of this joining together of God with us, this sharing of Life with our Father that is Salvation. Jesus agreed to be surety for us towards God. We must know what that means.

I don’t know God, and in my ignorance, I imagine all sorts of awfulness. God is a consuming Fire, and He terrifies me. But Jesus I know inside my heart. He shows me Himself, stumbling under a cross He cannot carry, just like me, and He says to me, “Daniel, you are seeing the Father.” Jesus is my guarantee that God is Good all the time, that sharing Life with God is SAFE.

Surety for God. But my problem towards God is much bigger than God’s problem towards me. He knows full well that I will take His Word and His Spirit to my own lusts and use both to beat up my brothers and sisters, either to get them under my control (which never works) or to get rid of them if I can’t. Jesus agreed to be surety for God towards us. Jesus agreed to protect God from us. We must know what that means.

One time I had a vision, as I was walking along the path, of a bony finger pressing towards my forehead with the stern, even terrifying words, “What are you doing to My Word?” This bony finger was so God-like to me that I have since placed its image on every other countless time God contended with me over many decades. That bony finger was Jesus.

Having Already an Entrance. What was I doing to God’s word? I was sinning against God by trying to figure it out with my intellect. From that moment until now, I have only hidden God’s word in my heart, with no need to know what it means, but rather as, “Let it be to me, my Father, according to Your Word.”

There were two goats on the Day of Atonement, not one. Upon both, Moses placed the sins of all the people. One went to death, the other continued living carrying all the sinfulness inside itself for the next year. Hebrews says the same thing of Jesus in this way. – having already… an entrance into the Most Devoted inside the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed as well as a living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh.

Saved by His Life. “Newly sacrificed” means right now, inside every present moment, I am already symmorphosed; I share the same form with Jesus’ death. The Blood consecrating my way means that right now, inside every present moment, that I walk with no consciousness of sins, with every aspect of my humanity pure and devoted. But it is “as well as a living way through the veil” that is most incredibly precious to me, for I am saved by His Life.

Jesus protects God from me by coming into union with me first, placing all of my ongoing sinfulness upon Himself, calling it His own, and living as me through every step of my life. This is the only Love that causes me to humble myself under the mighty Hand of God. By this I know Love.

Planted into My Earth. These three things are absolute and finished, larger than the universe and utterly personal inside of me. I am already symmorphosed with His death. I am already made pure and devoted by His Blood shed for me. I am saved by His life – in every present moment.

Let me paraphrase Jesus’ words in John 12, also including 2 Thessalonians 2:8. “I am planted into your earth, losing everything of Myself for your sake. But now I am arisen inside of you. You are My appearance inside creation. I live now as you and as My entire Church, your brothers and sisters inside of Me. It is My presence inside of you, I, Myself, living and appearing as you, that ALONE swallows up all of your ongoing iniquity. I ALONE make you to be just like Myself.”

My Sin Belongs Only to Jesus. Give your sin to Jesus, it belongs ONLY to Him, for He bought it from you with His own Life. When you feel like sinning, give it to Jesus, for He made you what you are. When you rebel and act stupidly, give it to Jesus, for His presence alone renders your iniquity inoperative.

Consider Achan in Joshua 7. God had instructed Joshua that all the iniquitous stuff of Jericho was devoted to God, and enveloped by Him for destruction, as Paul said in Romans 8:3. God Himself sent His Son in the likeness of fleshy falling short, and, encompassing sin all the way around, He brought His entire judgment upon sin in the flesh, that is, He neutralized and eliminated it. Yet Achan wanted his sin and rebellion for himself; Achan’s theft of his own sin brought death upon himself and many.

Jesus Alone Saves Me. It is no little thing to KNOW that Jesus lives as me, AND as all His Church, carrying our ongoing sinful selves inside Himself, placing our iniquities into His empty, empty grave. Those who accuse Christians of sinfulness accuse Jesus.

Here is how Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 5. – For the love of Christ holds us together, having concluded this, that if One has died for all, then all have died. And He died for all, that those living should no longer themselves live, but rather the one having died and having been raised again for their sakes [in trade, life for life].

Jesus ALONE saves me. Jesus alone saves all my brothers and sisters. And now, this same Jesus is the only life I am. This same Jesus has utterly won my heart.