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Introduction: What the hell?

1. An exclamation used to emphasize surprise, shock, anger, disgust, etc. In this phrase, “the hell” is used as an intensifier.[i]

Salvation has become a dirty word. ‘Saved. John 3:16. Born again’. The tidal wave of disapproval rushing against these ideas has reached flood stage. If a person approaches you on the street asking if you are saved, you probably think you already know what they mean and that it is not good. How did we get to this place?

Salvation, rescue, hope when all hope was gone, used to be a happy idea, a welcomed thought. Now it is a slogan, chanted by one group against another. But salvation belongs to Jesus, not to any ideology or system.

When I was young, about 7 years old, I was saved. I was swimming in a quarry with some school friends when I got tangled in the weeds and began to go under. Twice I came up, sputtering, and then I went under again. I remember looking up at the rays of sunlight filtering through the swaying weeds. Just then, Lorne Fleer, the older brother of one of my friends jumped in and pulled me to shore. Rescue, salvation, life!

I remember that I did not advise him how to rescue me, evaluate his methods or question his motives. I had passed the limit of my ability to deal with life and death.  I was entirely dependent upon his choice to rescue me. I had no choice in the matter of who would offer to save me or even how that would be done. I was past helping myself.

Someone asks us: Are you saved? Our response is indignant. Who are you to tell me I am not good enough as I am? Lorne Fleer did not ask me if I was good enough to be saved. He just saved me. What is it about the question of salvation that is so controversial? It is a question about how we relate to God.

Not Good

God is good. Everything He does is good. We are good enough. That means we are mostly good. We were created good but something went wrong. Somehow, we have the ability to be ‘not good’, sometimes but not all the time. There are some terrible people but not all of us. We have gotten mixed up with ‘not good’. We have the capacity for evil.

We have learned how to cope with this evil, most of the time. But then wars break out, murders happen, disasters of our own making overtake us and we realize that we really cannot cope with the evil in and around us. Now, imagine if that was what our existence would be forever. God created us to be eternal beings, like Him. Do you want this to go on forever? I don’t. That would be Hell as far as I am concerned.

Good enough is not good. Somehow, we need to get to good, if we are going to exist forever. We need to be pulled up from below the waters of chaos and the tangling weeds of evil choices that drag us down. We need a rescuer. We need to be saved from the evil that has found residence in this world and in ourselves.

So, What the hell is Salvation?

People resent being asked – ‘are you saved’. It is not meant to be an insult. Usually, it is a genuine interest in the progress a person has made in their relationship with their Creator – YHWH.

People are insulted to think that they are somehow not good enough for God the way they are. “Who are you to tell me I need something more in my life! If God doesn’t like me the way I am, He can take a hike!”

John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’.

God does not have a problem with us. Jesus has fixed that already. We are the ones with the problems. God loved us so much that He has done His part to fix our problems, already. He sent His Son, came to live here as one of us. He made it possible for everything to work out well for us, forever. The operative word you need to notice is ‘possible’.

Let’s try to define what salvation is. It is rescue, restoration of friendship, deliverance from death and Hell. It is healing, blessing, prosperity, safety and peace. But also… Salvation is something we choose.

We choose salvation for a reason. That reason is sin: evil, suffering death and Hell, meaninglessness, hopelessness and despair. Sin comprises all these things just as its reciprocal, Salvation, comprises many things. The many aspects of sin arise out of our broken relationship with God who is love, truth and peace.

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[i] Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc,