We Need Salvation

843 Acres post:  The Meal and the War

Salvation: The alternative to salvation is optimism—an optimism that must minimize its perception of evil in order to retain its integrity. For optimism alone won’t cut it in the face of shootings, tsunamis, and racism. We can’t just look for good intentions when we talk about injustice, wickedness, and corruption. We can’t just focus on technological advancement when we address poverty, pollution, and psychosis. We need salvation, not just optimism, because spiritual evil radiates from even good actions. Only salvation is bigger than evil.

Visions: Here, in Revelation 19, John gives two visions of salvation—a meal and a war. The meal is called “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” [1] The war is led by “a rider on a white horse” and “the name by which he is called is The Word of God.” [2] Eugene Peterson writes, “The contrast between meal and war could hardly be more extreme, but it is complementarity, not contradiction, that we experience as we submit to the images. Salvation is the intimacies and festivities of marriage; salvation is aggressive battle and the defeat of evil. Salvation is neither of these things by itself. It is the two energies, the embrace of love and the assault on evil, in polar tension, each defined by the other, each feeding into the other.”

Meal: Today, we experience a foretaste of the meal at the Lord’s Supper. “The power of this eucharistic meal to keep us participant in the essentials of salvation is impressive,” Peterson writes. “This is the primary way that Christians remember, receive, and share the meaning of our salvation: Christ crucified for us, his blood shed for the remission of sins.”

War: We experience a foretaste of the war today, too. “The moment we walk away from the Eucharist, having received the life of our Lord, we walk into Armageddon, where we exercise the strength of our Lord.” We fight for obedience, endurance, faith, and courage. And our weapon is the same as that of the rider—“from his mouth comes a sharp sword”—what Paul calls, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” [3]

Prayer: Lord, Only salvation, not optimism, can swallow evil. For we cannot partake of the meal unless we partake in the war, and the war forces us to acknowledge that we need more than optimism; we need salvation. Root us in your Word so that we may fight well. Amen.