Trinity
IV – 5 July 2009
What
is salvation? When are people
saved? These are very important questions
that the influential philosopher Jean Paul Sartre answered with these words, “my concern has been to save myself by work
and faith.”
Is Sartre right, is salvation a
result of our work and faith? Many
people, both Christian and non-Christian believe he was, but is this answer
Biblical? I suspect that the most
popular story of salvation is St. Paul’s
conversion to Christian on the road of Damascus
found in Acts 9. This story has led
many Christians to believe that our salvation can be pinpointed to a specific
date, time and place. This understanding
of salvation was common my Bible
College and if you asked
anyone when they were saved they would reply, December 8 1992 at 8:36 p.m. when
Pastor Phil was preaching during Youth Group on Wednesday night. To be sure, some fortunate people can pin
point the time, hour and place of their salvation, but this does not seem to be
the common experience of salvation among Christians nor is this the common
understanding of salvation in the Scriptures. Is there a story in the Scripture
commonly understood to be a normative story of salvation? Yes, the Israelites crossing of the Red Sea.
We
Christians tend to read the story of Israel’s
crossing the Red Sea as an intense historical drama, which it is, but we often
forget this story was the redemptive story of Israel. As someone once said, “[The crossing of the
Red Sea] was the redemptive event which became the foundation of Israel’s existence
as the people of God.” The crossing of the Red Sea is the story of Israel’s
salvation because this was the moment when God finally freed the Israelites
from Egyptian slavery and justly recompensed Pharaoh for his cruelty. Since this is a story about how God saves his
people, it would be meet and right for us to think of this story as a story of our
salvation and I would like to draw your attention to three components
of this story that should influence and guide our understanding of own
salvation.
First, let us look at the actual
waters of the Red Sea. On the Egyptian side of
the Red Sea, Israel was covered with the dirt and stench of slavery, but as
they passed through the waters of the sea the stench of slavery was symbolically
washed off, thus they came out of the waters cleansed and perfumed children of
God, albeit children who quickly soiled their garments through idolatry and
rebellion. The water of the sea
symbolically washed away the dirt of slavery.
The Apostle Paul, then, connects the waters of the sea with Baptism in I
Corinthians 10:1, 2 when he said, “our
forefathers were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. They
were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” For the Israelites, passing through the waters
of the Red Sea was like Baptism. St. Peter, connecting the water of Baptism to
Jesus’ redemptive work, said, “[Baptism]
saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Baptism,
our passing through the waters is an integral part of our salvation because it
unites us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is why Article 27 in
the 39 Articles says, “Baptism…is also a
sign of Regeneration of New-Birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that
receive Baptism rightly are grafted in the Church… Faith is confirmed, and
Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God.” Just as Israel
looked back upon their passing through the waters of the sea as a visible sign
of their salvation so should we look back upon our passing through the waters
of Baptism as a visible sign of our salvation.
However, why are passing through the waters of the sea and passing
through the waters of baptism a visible sign of salvation?
This leads us to our second
component: the sea. In the Old Testament,
the sea was a symbol of the chaotic forces of natures, which is why John saw no
sea in his vision of the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21. The Old Testament writers justified their
belief with passages such as Genesis 1:2, “Now
the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.”
The word “formless” and “empty” when combined in the Hebrew language signify a
dreadful chaos. Furthermore, other Old Testament passages speak of the sea as
the home of monsters, passages such as Psalm 74: 13 “It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads
of the monster in the waters” and Job 7:12 “Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep…?” Thus, when the Israelites left Egyptian
slavery only to be trapped between Pharaoh’s pursuing army and the chaos of sea
they were trapped like Odysseus and his men, between a rock and hard
place. In order for Israel to be freed from slavery, God had to
clear a path through the chaos that kept Israel enslaved. Thus, salvation is only possible when God
works on our behalf.
The chaos of the sea, I believe, can
also be a symbol of the chaos of sin and death.
Sin and death are like the Red Sea, a
chaotic barrier separating us from salvation and keeping us trapped in slavery. For salvation to be possible, God must create
a path through sin and death. Jesus did
this when he passed through the waters of sin and death upon the cross. Through baptism we are united to Christ in
his death and through faith we are united to him in his resurrection, as St.
Paul said in Colossians 3:12, “[we have]
been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith.” Thus, Jesus Christ accomplishes our salvation
by carrying us through the chaos of sin and death. Therefore, Israel’s
crossing through the Red Sea reminds us that
our salvation is only possible because Jesus passed through the sea of sin and
death and brought us with him.
Finally, we must look at one more
component, the event that brought Israel
to this moment of salvation, the event that made their salvation possible: the
tenth plague that fell upon Egypt. As you know, when Moses told Pharaoh to let
God’s people go, Pharaoh refused and hardened his heart. In order to encourage Pharaoh to let his
people go by revealing his power and glory, God sent nine plagues upon Egypt. However, these nine plagues only increased
the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. The
tenth plague changed everything. The
tenth plague was the death of every first-born male offspring, human and
animal, in Egypt. The Egyptian Pharaoh was considered a god,
thus his children were sons and daughters of a god. When Pharaoh’s son, a son of a god, died Pharaoh
let the Israelites go. Hence, Israel was
released from slavery when Pharaoh’s son, a son of a god, died. For Israel to arrive at the moment of
their salvation a son of god had to die.
In fact, all the components of Israel’s salvation are contingent
upon the death of Pharaoh’s son, a son of a god. If Pharaoh’s son had not died, Pharaoh would
not have released Israel;
they would not have traveled to the Red Sea or
passed through the waters. We cannot fail to see the potency of this image, a
foretaste of what was to come when Israel’s God would send his son to
die so that we might be saved.
Therefore, Israel’s
crossing of the Red Sea reminds us that our
salvation is only possible through the death of the son of God for it is Jesus,
the Son of God’s, death that catapults us out of our slavery.
I began by asking two questions, “What is
salvation?” and “When are people saved?” What is salvation? If Israel’s
passing through the waters of the Red Sea is the
story of salvation, we can say that salvation is the mighty work of God when he
frees us from our slavery to sin and death through the death of His Son. Consequently, Jean Paul Sartre, though an
interesting and admirable philosopher, is wrong to believe that he is
responsible for his salvation; salvation is not the work of men. When were you saved? Some of you, I hope, know the time, date and
place of your salvation, but if the story of Israel
crossing the Red Sea is a normative story of salvation we must always
remember that our salvation was accomplished in the past in the birth, life,
death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. However, the story of our salvation, though
accomplished in Christ, does not begin with the birth of Jesus. The story of our salvation begins at the
beginning of all things as St. Paul
said in Ephesians 1, “For [God] chose us
in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his
sight. In love he predestined us to be
adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and
will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in
[Jesus].” Before the creation of
the world, before time began, God loved you through Jesus Christ. Before anything was created, it pleased God
to love us and save us through Jesus. When,
brothers and sisters whom God has loved in Christ before the creation of world,
when did God save you?