What do we mean when we use the word “salvation”? . . .
What do we mean when we use the word “salvation”?
If Gary Moon makes an argument in
Apprenticeship with Jesus, if it can be seen as some sort of apologetic, then this is the primary question that it addresses. If I have been “saved” by Jesus then what have I been saved to?
Of course, reminding ourselves of the topic of Day 1, “Salvation is Also a Life,” this is what Gary is attempting to move us towards, viewing our daily life with God as the focus of a progress of ongoing salvation that does not end in this life. This is because, in part, the wholeness that Gary describes cannot be achieved on our own. Rather, we need God and other people to find the fullness of life that we read about in Scripture and see in the saints of the Church. Sure, there are the examples of solitary, lone individuals that seem to gain God on their own. In actual experience, however, they are members of communities and orders built up and supported by countless people living and dead. No one comes to God alone nor stays in the Divine presence without the assistance of others. It seems this is the way God has made the relational universe, for now and forever. We need one another to be with God. And, of course, we need God.
As such, our life with God, or our salvation, is constantly in a state of flux. Sure, we can be assured that we have been “saved” and will live with God forever, but in this life, at least, what this being with God looks like changes from day to day. There are new relationships and new situations and new challenges. We are asked to make use of this raw material for what we are becoming in Jesus, for we are working with God on our salvation in the midst of real life. And this is why the direction that Gary points is so important, for there are so many voices around us that encourage us in directions far different from daily discipleship to Jesus. The message of salvation that Gary represents is paradigmatically different than what our culture—“secular” and often “Church” included—would have us choose. Gary’s writing and exercises provide us perspective on how the changing environment in which we find ourselves can help us become like Jesus even though its goal is to make us like anti-Christ, the opposite of Jesus.
With the coming of Day 30, I think it helpful to provide a bit of overall review for the book and consider how it might be used as a resource for others. In bullet-point format:
•
Apprenticeship with Jesus is a great introduction to many of the topics that we often talk under the moniker “spiritual formation.”
• That put, I didn’t feel there was a strong progression from topic to topic.
• The length of the chapters is great for a variety of users, and the inclusion of the exercises is a strength in providing opportunity to take the themes presented to heart.
• It
is possible to quote and make reference to Dallas Willard
too much.
• When I read at the beginning of the book that I should spend two hours per day on
Apprenticeship with Jesus for the next 30 days I felt like a failure from the start. It seems better, within reason, to ignore the “30-Day Experience” boot camp mentality that is presented and to work through the reading and exercises at a pace that is best for each person.
•
Apprenticeship with Jesus represents a growing body of literature that presents the topics that Renovaré cares about in a style that is approachable by even casual readers. The writings of the classical devotional figures and people like Eugene Peterson, Henri Nouwen, Dallas Willard, etc., are so helpful, and yet not every person can simply pick up one of these books and make sense of it. Authors like Gary Moon are meeting this need, an important role if the view of salvation and the intentional discipleship to Jesus that the language of “spiritual formation” represents is to become a broadly received outlook in the contemporary Church.
Overall, working through
Apprenticeship with Jesus was a meaningful experience and I highly recommend it to others.