This sermon by Greg Boyd explores the meaning of salvation as Greg explores the theme of transformation found in the movie Project Hail Mary. Greg points out how God’s salvation occurs in three ways: Past, present and future. This movie demonstrates how the deep reality of God’s salvation manifests in our lives.
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Born Again
• Greg Boyd
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In this sermon, Greg Boyd interacts with the movie Project Hail Mary to unpack the transformation that Christ offers. Project Hail Mary is a science fiction story about a middle school science teacher named Ryland Grace who wakes up alone on a spaceship with amnesia and must figure out how to save Earth from a dying sun. As the story unfolds, you realize what led him to this point. He slowly remembers how the earth is in danger, and he was part of a team that was preparing astronauts to find a solution in a solar system that is eleven light years away from Earth. Due to an accident, all the scientists he was training were killed, leaving him as the only scientist with the knowledge required for this mission. The story shows how he refused the assignment because he could not see himself rightly. Even though others saw that he was uniquely qualified for the mission, he could only see his limitations. The story unfolds with Grace learning what is needed and eventually saving two planets from destruction. Before he was sent off on the spaceship, the project leader said to him, “You know who you are. You’re going to do great.”
Greg draws from the themes of this movie to address who we are as Jesus followers. Like Ryland Grace, we all think we know who we are. We know that much of who we are is shaped by the fallen world, ideas that we learned from parents and friends, and even our genetic makeup. However, there is more. Who we are often goes unseen because it lies at a deeper level.
The deeper self that was veiled under Ryland Grace’s insecurities was eventually uncovered when he had to rise to the occasion. Viewed in this light, Project Hail Mary could be considered an allegory of what the Bible means by saying we are “born again,” or “saved.” Commonly, salvation is viewed as a magical, one-time experience that sets us on the right path. But the Bible actually depicts being “born again” as a process. Greg uses the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly to illustrate this process. As we are being saved, we shed off the false self and allow the deeper true self to come forth.
In a variety of ways, we have been told that we are nothing but caterpillars, but God sees what we truly are. The Bible points us to see what God sees. We have an Identity in Christ sheet that provides a list of characteristics of who you are in Jesus. For instance, you are God’s beloved child, according to John 1:12 and Ephesians 1:3. On the surface, this might not be real to you, but deep beneath the surface, this is the truth. Salvation becomes real as we, like the caterpillar, shed the old exoskeleton and surrender ourselves to die with Christ. Then we are born anew and thus saved.
This is why the New Testament speaks of salvation in three tenses, past, present, and future. You were saved in the sense that all these things were revealed to be already true about you when you surrendered your life to Christ. You are being saved in the sense that we must continually put off our old self and continually put on the new. And you will be saved, when this process is completed in God’s eternal kingdom is fully manifest. We now live in a time of present salvation, “being saved.” We do this as we reject the pattern of this world and allow the Spirit to transform our minds (Romans 12:2). The more our minds are renewed, the more our experience of ourselves aligns with God’s deeper truth about who we are.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Repentance, Salvation, Transformation
Sermon Series: Reel to Real
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Focus Scripture:
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Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
