When you are engulfed in flames.

People interpret salvation in different ways. Most people I know think of salvation as an event, as in “When I got saved....” Most of these same people also do not believe they can lose that salvation once they have acquired it. This perspective has merit, and does have Scriptural backing, but in my opinion represents only a partial view of biblical salvation.  To be sure, salvation is an event, just as the crucifixion was an event, but isn’t salvation also a process as well?

Mark 9:36-50 “He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." 38 "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." 39 "Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. 42 "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.   45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.   47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where "'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'   49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

As humans with rational, finite minds, we like ideas to be nice and tidy. We live in an era of the sound bite, the bumpersticker, and the media spin. We are uncomfortable with tension and live in denial of grey areas. Our need to get a handle on things is embedded deep in our psyche. God knows this, and that is precisely why the Christian faith as revealed by Him is defined as mystery, not doctrine, as recorded in the Scriptures.

Our need for faith to be neat and tidy spills over into our opinion of others as well. The disciples, still in self-absorbed mode here, find out that someone else is cashing in on the Jesus phenomenon. Someone else is handing out business cards that read, “Jim, son of Lance, representative of Jesus Messiah.” This information finds the disciples already riled up about positions of control and power.  They don’t like it, and they want this imposter dealt with by the Master Himself. They cannot conceive that someone outside their elite group could be a genuine exorcist.

But Jesus is always smashing in the cubbyholes. He is always throwing the file cabinet on the trash heap. With Jesus, very little is defined, except submission and discipleship. Everything else is under those two requirements.

Faith and salvation are best defined by fire. Fire is basically a chemical reaction: the rapid oxidizing of organic material. Fire is also hard to control. It hypnotizes you with its constant movement. In the Scriptures, fire is used to illustrate two key concepts – destruction of the rebellious and purification of the devoted. Both undergo a passage through fire. Here Jesus refers to both groups, and how it is better to sacrifice and be scorched by the Holy Spirit than to go whole into the fire of Hell.