The Big Misconception: Personal Salvation First
by Tyler Zach
The unifying centerpiece of our faith in recent years has been: Personal Salvation first, Kingdom of God second.
Much of our evangelical learning, training, and equipping has revolved around winning people to Christ, building them up in their faith, and sending them out to win others to Christ.
It was impossible for me to not wrestle with this mission statement after hearing Richard Pratt’s view of the proper biblical conception: Our unifying centerpiece should be: Kingdom of God first, Personal Salvation second.
It makes a lot of sense to me. Here’s why.
The Israelites in the Old Testament put their trust in God’s promise to usher in a new Kingdom with a new King leading the way. Jesus came and fulfilled that. Then, Jesus, more than any other subject, talked about the Kingdom to others.
He talked about every area of brokenness and countered it with the way of the Kingdom. He wanted to see every wrong made right. In the Lord’s Prayer, He prayed first that God’s name would be hallowed and then that God’s Kingdom would come to earth as it is in heaven.
If Jesus was so concerned about the Kingdom immersing itself into every person and thing on the planet, how should that affect our lives as Christians?
Richard Pratt thinks that most Christians view heaven and earth like a present. The “package” being heaven and the “wrapping” being our earth. Most Christians, like kids on a Christmas morning, don’t care about the wrapping, they just want what’s inside. In this case, heaven.
If God’s Kingdom and His rule is over all of heaven and earth, then that should lead us to the conclusion that the coming of His Kingdom entails the redemption and restoration of all things – not just individuals.
This gets me excited.
What if we were to emphasize the Kingdom first, and personal salvation second?
One quick example. Hurricane Katrina. When we looked at the brokenness and desperation in New Orleans, both Christians and non-Christian said: “This is not right. This is not how things should be.” We in a sense knew that God’s restoration, His Kingdom, needed to come.
That was the big picture.
As a result, 312 students from Nebraska went down to serve. Some weren’t even Christian. Soon after their return home, some of the students trusted in Jesus and became Christians. This example showed that personal salvation flowed out of a deep concern for the Kingdom of God to come.
Since America is a very individualistic culture, it is easy to see how me might swing too far towards “personal” salvation rather than a "global" salvation.
Maybe the world wants to see the Kingdom of God in action more so than merely being asked to join the right team.
CNN just showed up at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan because they are organizing a project called X, Y, Z. You can go to their site for details, but here is the gist. The are making plans for the Kingdom of God to come in big ways – to restore the broken parts of their city and their world. The project director of CNN said, “If you can really do this, we’ll run this story and tell the whole world.”
Non-Christians seem to want to be a part of a better story. What better story could we possibly give them than to make all things right? Make all things new? To have the Kingdom of God come?
Let’s ponder.
How can we as ambassadors spread the Kingdom to the broken areas of culture that we are in? Then, how can we call others to “follow” the King in the midst of that?
“But seek first his kingdom...” – Matthew 6:33
Note: This blog series is a collection of musings from my Old Testament seminary class with Dr. Richard Pratt, professor at Reformed Theological Seminary
The unifying centerpiece of our faith in recent years has been: Personal Salvation first, Kingdom of God second.
Much of our evangelical learning, training, and equipping has revolved around winning people to Christ, building them up in their faith, and sending them out to win others to Christ.
It was impossible for me to not wrestle with this mission statement after hearing Richard Pratt’s view of the proper biblical conception: Our unifying centerpiece should be: Kingdom of God first, Personal Salvation second.
It makes a lot of sense to me. Here’s why.
The Israelites in the Old Testament put their trust in God’s promise to usher in a new Kingdom with a new King leading the way. Jesus came and fulfilled that. Then, Jesus, more than any other subject, talked about the Kingdom to others.
He talked about every area of brokenness and countered it with the way of the Kingdom. He wanted to see every wrong made right. In the Lord’s Prayer, He prayed first that God’s name would be hallowed and then that God’s Kingdom would come to earth as it is in heaven.
If Jesus was so concerned about the Kingdom immersing itself into every person and thing on the planet, how should that affect our lives as Christians?
Richard Pratt thinks that most Christians view heaven and earth like a present. The “package” being heaven and the “wrapping” being our earth. Most Christians, like kids on a Christmas morning, don’t care about the wrapping, they just want what’s inside. In this case, heaven.
If God’s Kingdom and His rule is over all of heaven and earth, then that should lead us to the conclusion that the coming of His Kingdom entails the redemption and restoration of all things – not just individuals.
This gets me excited.
What if we were to emphasize the Kingdom first, and personal salvation second?
One quick example. Hurricane Katrina. When we looked at the brokenness and desperation in New Orleans, both Christians and non-Christian said: “This is not right. This is not how things should be.” We in a sense knew that God’s restoration, His Kingdom, needed to come.
That was the big picture.
As a result, 312 students from Nebraska went down to serve. Some weren’t even Christian. Soon after their return home, some of the students trusted in Jesus and became Christians. This example showed that personal salvation flowed out of a deep concern for the Kingdom of God to come.
Since America is a very individualistic culture, it is easy to see how me might swing too far towards “personal” salvation rather than a "global" salvation.
Maybe the world wants to see the Kingdom of God in action more so than merely being asked to join the right team.
CNN just showed up at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan because they are organizing a project called X, Y, Z. You can go to their site for details, but here is the gist. The are making plans for the Kingdom of God to come in big ways – to restore the broken parts of their city and their world. The project director of CNN said, “If you can really do this, we’ll run this story and tell the whole world.”
Non-Christians seem to want to be a part of a better story. What better story could we possibly give them than to make all things right? Make all things new? To have the Kingdom of God come?
Let’s ponder.
How can we as ambassadors spread the Kingdom to the broken areas of culture that we are in? Then, how can we call others to “follow” the King in the midst of that?
“But seek first his kingdom...” – Matthew 6:33
Note: This blog series is a collection of musings from my Old Testament seminary class with Dr. Richard Pratt, professor at Reformed Theological Seminary
posted by Tyler Zach at 6:30 PM
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