HAVE YOU BEEN SAVED?
By Fr. John Theodosion, October 2009

A very Godly bishop was walking down the street one day when a young woman, a very zealous Christian, no doubt, asked him, “Your Grace, are you saved?” The bishop, a very kind man, smiled and said, “My dear friend, might I just inquire a little more exactly as to what it is you are asking me. Are you asking me, have I been saved? Or are you asking me, am I now saved? Or are you asking me shall I yet someday be saved?” Well, that pretty well flustered the young woman. She didn’t have a response. “My child,” said the bishop” All three are true. I have been saved. I am being saved: and I shall yet be saved.” You see, salvation is comprehensive. It has to do with our past – we have been saved from sin and death through baptism. This we call justification. It has to do with the present - we are being saved. This has to do with how we live our lives and our growth in the life of Christ and the Spirit. This we call sanctification. And salvation has to do also with our final glory in Christ. As St. Paul said, “When Christ Who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4). That we call glorification.

Another bishop when asked the question, “Have you been saved?” replied “I have”. “And when were you saved?” he was asked. The bishop replied immediately, “On Friday afternoon at three o’clock in the spring of the year 33 A.D. on a hill outside the City of Jerusalem.”

That is when we were all saved, but God will not force this salvation upon us. We must - each of us – accept it personally as the great gift of God’s love. We were saved in baptism which is our personal Golgotha. Baptism is the tomb where “we were baptized into His death” (Rom. 6:3); it is also the womb from which we were born anew receiving within us the life of Christ.

We were saved at baptism but we must continue to “work out” our salvation for the rest of our lives by daily serving, loving, obeying and following the example of Christ and the saints.

When you stand before God’s altar to be married, you are pronounced man and wife in the Lord. You are married on a particular day and time. This cannot be argued. Yet it is equally true that you will grow closer as a couple with time and the marriage bonds will become stronger as you grow together as a couple leading each other to salvation. As two wills seek to become one, your marriage becomes what God ordained it to be.

The great saints of the Church were humble men and women who radiated grace and love. They were not converted once. Nor did they repent just once. Their life was a daily conversion and a constant repentance. They were saved once on the Cross at Golgotha, but they were also being saved daily in the yielding of their will to Jesus. Daily they sinned and daily they repented. Daily they fell and daily they rose. We have been saved but we are also being saved. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18).

In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the proud Pharisee thought he was saved. His prayer was, “Thank God, I have made it! I am where I am supposed to be. Everyone else is below me on the ladder somewhere. I am not like other men. Would that they were all as good as I am.” It was that kind of spiritual pride that condemned the Pharisee. The lowly tax collector, on the other hand, was on a much lower level of spirituality and virtue, and he knew it. He acknowledged his sinfulness and, realizing the unlimited possibilities for growth, he struggled to move closer to God.

Moving away from sin and moving closer to God is the reason for our salvation. This is why Jesus came to save us. Once we have been saved and we are on the road to salvation sin becomes an incident in the life of the Christian – not a practice. Love becomes the practice, not just an occasional incident – the love of Jesus. We are saved from sin for love. The non-judgmental, accepting, forgiving love of Jesus must flow through us to others. “Above all, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col. 3:14).

A little girl looked at a stained glass window one day and remarked, “A saint is a Christian who lets God’s light shine through. Friends we should take some time to consider our salvation, past, present and future. It is all right for us to want to achieve salvation, but we should remember that our salvation is something we work on each day. This life is a gift from God, let us live it in such a way that reflects the light and love of God in all that we think, say and do. Then we will most certainly be traveling on the road to salvation.