Salvation enables us to enter into a healing journey with God. This journey is discipleship.
Let me see what I can do to clarify these words by using a bit of dictionary jargon (in italics) and adding my own understanding.
healing…to make sound or whole.
Everything won’t be all good until we’re safely collected by Jesus on that great day. Even then we’ll need time to fully understand what has taken place over all these many, many years of human existence. And God will take the time to explain which will yield more and complete healing. I believe this is when we’ll finally have all tears wiped from our eyes as expressed in Revelation 21:4. All the brokenness we’ve experience on earth will be understood and we’ll forever desire the presence of God above and beyond all things. It’s difficult to fully grasp no longer longing for something more, so I don’t think about the ida of being completely whole too much.
Before heaven and the new earth, we’re here…now…in need of healing. And when we say yes to salvation, we (over time) become more aware of how God is actively helping us more clearly understand God’s grace. The more we understand God’s grace, the more we experience the rest we find described in Matthew 11:28-30.
- Salvation enables us to enter into healing.
journey…something suggesting travel or passage from one place to another.
Discipleship is not a class or event, even though we use classes and events to teach discipleship. Discipleship is a way of living and we need time to grow in our understanding of who God is and what it means to live according to the example of Jesus–not trying to be perfect* like Jesus but desiring the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we become more and more familiar with how the Holy Spirit speaks to us. Like learning another language, we go from no knowledge of the language to a little to more…over time. But unlike learning a new language, this journey of discipleship is not about our due diligence or fluency; it’s about our willingness. We must be willing to travel with God from one place to another and when we travel with God, we experience God’s healing.
- Salvation enables us to enter into a journey.
with…used as a function word to indicate a participant in an action, transaction, or arrangement
We’re not on our own. Our Creator is leading the journey while making room for the healing that is also God’s work. We have the choice so say, “No thank you” because God doesn’t use force to heal. God wants us to want to heal, to want to be in communion. When we accept the gift, we’re accepting God’s desire to be in eternal communion with us. And just like any healthy relationship, our relationship with God deepens over time. The difference between this relationship and others is that God knows exactly what’s best and invites us to join a way of living that is divinely framed, not only for the good of our relationship with God but for the good of our relationship with all of creation—each other, animals, nature.
- Salvation enables us to be with God.
So…
-because a relationship with God brings healing over time,
-because that healing helps us to see God’s character more clearly and
-because this relationship takes time to deepen just as it takes time for healing to take place
this healing journey with God is a life of becoming more and more of who God created us to be because all this time with God is us following God.
One cannot follow God and not be transformed (another way to say healed) by God.
This entire way of existing is discipleship. It is first and last and only always about relationship with God.
All of the good things we are part of, all of the good habits we develop, all of the things we believe God wants us to do should be the result of the relationship not the way we prove our relationship and certainly not the way we think we secure our salvation. We cannot secure something that was never in our hands.
That’s all for now…
*Being perfect is a concept many Christians wrestle with because we’re taught that we should be like Jesus and that, if we’re obedient enough, we can actually get to that point of perfection as Jesus was perfect. And there’s an additional layer that says we must be perfect in order to be saved because the only way to make it through the time of trouble will be to be perfect because the Holy Spirit will no longer be available to guide us. I don’t believe we can be perfect this side of eternity and I don’t believe God requires it. I don’t believe that being like Jesus means being perfect..