Salvation, soteriology, vicarious

what do these words mean?

ver.: 19 November 2007

(return to churchly word index)

What is meant by :

• salvation,
• soteriology,
• vicarious?

Salvation

salvation : [ Latin salvatus, past part. (to save); fr. assumed Indo-European solu- (to make whole or complete again) ]

The core Biblical meaning of 'salvation' has to do with being rescued from danger or death. Indeed, that is what the name Yeshua (Jesus) means : 'he rescues'. It is what the crowd shouts as Jesus entered Jerusalem that last time before death : hoshi'annah, 'save us!' (in this case, from the Romans).

Christ rescues us from :

• sin (our broken relationship with God, shown mostly in our broken relationships with each other);
• death (we die because we are kept apart from God because there is something in us that rebels against God -- Christ addresses that, overcomes it, transcended it, and is working to complete it in the future);
• captivity (we are set free from all that shackles and hinders us);
• the Devil ("deliver us from evil");
• the wrath that is to come (when Time ends).

Christ rescues us for :

• a restored relationship with God (reconciliation) and life with Christ without end;
• new wholeness or completeness of being;
• citizenship in Christ's Kingdom;
• new realms of possibility beyond what we can now imagine.

We are rescued by Christ's work, the work of one who knows what we're going through because He went through it Himself. We have no role in this rescue; it is only God's doing. We are saved not because we want to be saved (we don't want to be saved), but only because God wants to save us. God needs no help from us. God wants and intends that we are all saved. It is a gift given because God favors us even though we don't and can't merit it. (That is what is meant by grace.) God will not force it on us; God's gift is lost on those who spurn it through wanton sin and rejection of Christ. It works in us through faith.

Salvation has already been done (by Jesus on the cross), it is happening now (in each believer), it will come to fruition in the future (when Christ returns). Salvation is also power in life : saved people have the fruits of the Spirit developing in them, and the support of the Spirit in doing what the Spirit leads them to do.

Most of today's Christian writers choose to express this slightly differently than in the past. From about the third century on, the main theme of salvation-talk has been about what we are saved from. But people have heard that part of it nonstop for centuries; they're so used to hearing about it that it goes in one ear and out the other. Now, everyday Christians and Christian thinkers are talking a lot more about what Jesus has saved us for. Salvation is being described more often in terms of being restored to wholeness, which was a part of the Christian view that was neglected for so long. And, it is being described more often as being a part of a larger work : God at work saving all of creation, to make a new world. Or, to speak more 'theologically' : the salvation of each person is a microcosm (a small version) of Christ's work in rebirthing all of creation. And the rebirth of the universe is a macrocosm (a huge version) of what Christ did in us and for us. The important thing is to keep in mind the only One whom we are saved by.

Soteriology

soteriology : God-talk about salvation (Greek soteria ), dealing with core questions about Jesus and what he did. Jesus saves -- it's even in the meaning of his name, Yeshua ('he saves') -- but what does that mean? How? Saving from what, for what? And what does that have to do with us, as a person and as part of a people? How can each of us sinners enjoy in our lives what Jesus won for us? Those are questions of soteriology.

"Soter" (Saviour) was a term used by many of the Mediterranean religions to describe their human heroes. (For instance, Caesar Augustus was often called 'soter'.) Because of that, the earliest churches rarely used the term. But as caesar-worship peetered out and the old paganisms faded away, the Church felt free to use it more often.

Vicarious

vicarious : someone else did it somewhere else, and you got the benefit. Christians believe that whatever 'it' was that keeps us apart from God (orthodox Christians call 'it' by the name of sin, but some also use other words to describe it), 'it' was decisively dealt with by Jesus the Christ. He handled it. None of us were around then, and none of us took part in the deed, but we sure reap the benefit of a new relationship with our Creator. This is called the "vicarious atonement" by those who speak theologese. While what Jesus did is fully vicarious for you, that does not mean God will allow you to sit back and mooch off of it. Now that you're saved by Christ, Christ calls on you to serve and to spread the good news. That's two things that are not meant to be vicarious; you're to do them in person.

And just in case you're thinking it : "vicarious" does not mean 'something done by a vicar'. Yet, the two words have the same source. A vicar was, originally, a substitute for a higher-level minister. Christ was a substitute too, for us when we are sentenced for sin, and for the animal in ancient animal sacrifices for sin.