Salvation and Wholeness

John 1:10-13, 4:39-42

Salvation. For me, the word has a nice ring to it. It's has finality, eternity, power.
Wholeness. I like it, but its more vague. It has freedom, inclusivity, comfort.

Among the many words debated in churches and seminaries, salvation and wholeness are often interchangeable, at least in their common usage. Salvation hearkens back to biblical texts of victory over an oppressing force. One who has salvation has been saved. Specifically this could refer to any incident of being rescued from something, or to the center point of the Christian life, Jesus saving us from sin and death. Redefining our lives in light of this is to be Christian.

Wholeness hearkens back to "Shalom," a Hebrew word with a variety of meanings in English, principal among them "peace" in a more all-encompassing way: peace in our souls, peace in our relationships, peace between nations, and peace with God. Wholeness tends to focus on those times when we do not feel all together, the way we were meant to be, like we lost something along the way. We need to get back to that Image of God we were created in the likeness of. 

Salvation is including in my understanding of wholeness, which is God's plan, but wholeness should ever be a blanket term to downplay the salvific work of Jesus Christ. Certainly these terms, like any terms can be used in a variety of ways and my experience with them determines my opinions of them. I like salvation because it is the language of tradition, of the Bible, and is therefore trustworthy to a great degree, though what it means to be saved is not always spelled out and that is a sad thing. Words like "salvation" come to have no meaning because they are thrown about so much without a meaningful context. I like wholeness because it brings the goodness and light of God into every area of existence. God's will is not confined to the saving forgiveness of individuals that turn to God's grace, but radiates from that centerfold event into all life. Unfortunately, wholeness can also be used to focus of the self, rather than God. For me, to be saved is to have a savior: it is God-centered. Jesus is the focus. For me, to be made whole is to move from feeling inadequate to feeling fulfilled: it is self-centered. My feeling of incompleteness is the focus. Both are important. Both should be about Jesus.

Thank God for his many gifts: of salvation from sin and death, of wholeness in being the people God made us to be, and the relationship we have with Jesus, whose words are much better than ours, and whose love is holy, just, and never-ending.