Scripture tells us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and that Jesus is God’s means of salvation, restoring the broken relationship between God and human beings.
Many Christians talk about receiving salvation as saying a prayer to “ask Jesus into your heart.” At Woodland Hills, we believe that this approach has far too often been turned into a formula used to deal with the fear of facing an eternity in hell. This perspective focuses more on avoiding hell than it does on having a restored love relationship with God. For many people, once they have “prayed the prayer,” they feel they now have a “get-out-of-hell-free” card, so they don’t have to worry about hell anymore.
This hell-focused view often goes with a passive, “waiting to get to heaven” sort of perspective, which leaves issues of personal character transformation and the world’s injustices untouched. It is a very Western, individualistic, self-centered, entitled sort of view that looks at being a Christian from a “what’s in it for me” perspective. From this perspective, the crucifixion of Jesus is viewed as simply an event that God used to make people “nice” and “polite” and a bit more “moral.” Many folks will take this approach for many years and then wonder why they are less and less interested in prayer or being involved in a church community, let alone passionately following Jesus in their daily lives.
Sadly, one of the by-products of this self-oriented view of salvation is an unhealthy mix of the Kingdom of God and national patriotism, or, as we say at Woodland Hills, “mixing the Cross and the Sword.” This civil religion is a mish-mash of political and religious stuff that has very little to do with the Kingdom of God, but more to do with certain civil, national and cultural agendas.
At Woodland, our perspective is that, while it may be possible to come into relationship with Jesus simply by saying this type of prayer (for example, the thief on the cross knew far less about Jesus than many children who “pray the prayer” do today), we also believe that one should not say “Hey, I prayed the prayer,” but rather, “Hey, look at the witness of my life, as I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and devote myself to loving and following Jesus.”
As we grow in relationship with our Abba Father, we increasingly come under the “dome” over which God is King – the “Kingdom” of God. Those in the Kingdom realize that not only did “Jesus die for my sins,” but he also “lived a covenant-keeping life so that I might live in a similar way for him and for others.” This life in the Kingdom recognizes “sins” not so much as breaking rules, but acting in ways that break relationships with God, others, ourselves and even with creation. As Kingdom people, we get to live a Spirit-empowered life that looks like the “cross-like” love of Jesus, which he demonstrated by showing the unsurpassable worth of all people who he came into contact with. That love is defined by the word agape. Agape-love is characterized by being other-oriented, choice-based, self-sacrificial and knit together in covenant-love.
When we truly understand the magnitude of God reconciling himself to us through Jesus’ death on the cross, our only response is one of profound gratitude. As that gratitude grows and deepens, we develop a strong, cross-like agape-love – first for God, and then, flowing from this, for others, ourselves, and creation. We call this “the four directions of love.” It can be understood like this: The God who IS love created the world because of his love for the purpose of love! As we experience his love, our love expands to not only include loving God, but also others, ourselves, and, finally, creation itself.
