Saturday-This One

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

1 Peter 1:10,11

As we sit down and watch any screen, listen to any radio station, there’s all these ads coming at us. They’re trying to change the way we think and feel about someone or something.

The whole point of advertising is influence. They are willing to pay lots of money to have us pay attention to what they say. Pay attention so that we are willing to change our thinking. Change our minds. Change the way we spend our money.

For example, there are lots and lots of different kinds of soda out there. Go to any grocery store and you’ll find rows of shelves that are filled to overflowing with sodas. Different flavors. With and without sugar. Regular and decaffeinated.

With all these choices, ads are trying to get us to turn away from all the rest and look at this one. Advertising is desperately trying to get us to focus on one and only one. The people paying for the ad aren’t really interested in the others, only theirs. Only this one.

Peter is asking the people reading this letter to do something similar about salvation. Back then, there were lots and lots of salvations. Lots of gods and philosophies trying to get people to follow their one religion.

But when he looked at all the religions of his day, Peter saw that had one big thing in common. Salvation in all of them was because of what people did. How many sacrifices did they offer. The number of prayers they said. Were there enough good works in their spiritual bank account to pay for all the spiritual failures they committed?

That’s why Peter doesn’t write about just any salvation. Not one of the countless salvations with all their temples, priests, sacrifices, prayers, and rules. No, Peter pulls their attention away from all those and towards “this one” salvation. And what’s so different from all those salvations compared to “this one” salvation? The atomic bomb of difference is wrapped up in this one word.

Grace. Grace is what separates Jesus and Christianity from every other religion. Every other philosophy. Every other system. Every other salvation. Grace is so different and so wild in comparison to all the religions of Peter’s day that it makes everyone stand up and take notice.

The best way to explain grace is to picture God. With all the religions and philosophies in the first century, there is no grace. Without grace, imagine God with his arms folded while sitting back in his throne. He couldn’t be less interested if we come to him or not. He has a frown on his face and he’s waiting for you to make the first move.

But grace has a very different picture of God. With grace, we see God leaning towards us as he’s reaching out to us. We see love in his face because he wants us to come be with him now and forever. Wow! Isn’t grace a wildly different picture of God. But more than just an image, it’s also really different in who he is. Grace says that God’s so interested in us that he was personally willing to do something about us. In love, he came to save us instead of us trying to save ourselves.

Today, worship of Caesar and all the Roman gods is gone. So are the Greek and Egyptian gods. All the gods and goddesses of the Middle East have also faded away. But they’ve been replaced by a new set of gods that are demanding the very same thing. We have to earn our own salvation.

• Buddhism. You achieve salvation through self-effort and understanding of the Buddha’s teaching. Through almost endless reincarnations, you get better and better.

• Hinduism. This is harder to pin down because there isn’t one source or teacher. Basically it’s through one of three paths; path of duty, path of knowledge, or path of devotion.

• Islam. Salvation into Paradise is based on a person’s good deeds outweighing their bad deeds. You have to walk across a slippery bridge that’s thinner than a human hair, sharper than a sword, and with seven obstacles to stop you.

• Mormonism. You have to repent of your sins and perform the good works to make it into one of the three levels of heaven. You can also be baptized in place of someone to pay for their sins.

• Jehovah’s Witness. Because all other forms of Christianity are false, you have to follow their set of rules. Again, salvation is earned by what you do. It’s a killer combination of faith, good works, and obedience.

Grace shows up big time in and through Jesus Christ. He was God from eternity past and created the universe[1]. But instead of just sitting around while waiting for us to fail at doing enough good stuff, he took the first step and came to Earth for us. And instead of us failing as we tried to offer one sacrifice after another, he paid the price for all our sins on the cross[2]. Jesus certainly showed us that he’s “this one” salvation. That’s why every knee bows before the name of Jesus.[3] He’s “the one.”

Noodling Questions.

• How have you tried to earn salvation? To deserve it?

• What emotions did you feel as you failed over and over again?

• Explain how Jesus’ death gives you freedom over guilt and shame.

[1] Colossians 1:16

[2] 1 John 2:2

[3] Philippians 2:10,11