Salvation As
Knowledge, Power, and Love
The good news of the
kingdom has once again been anticipated in our reflections. In the kingdom of
God come in Jesus Christ, God transforms our ignorance, our weakness, and our
alienation.
In place of our
ignorance, God grants us knowledge. To be saved is to know Christ and
all his benefits. This knowledge is not the work of Christ alone but also the
Holy Spirit, who guides us into all truth (Joh n14-16 passim). If we take this
passage as a cue, we may say that salvation is not only knowledge, it is truth.
Here we get closer to our desire to show that salvation is not facts or information.
Truth is not “mere” knowledge. It is a way of life—it is wisdom.
Truth is for living
and it is known in a way of living. In other words, salvation is not simply
gaining some knowledge or understanding some ideas. Nor is it getting the
knowledge and then deciding whether to live by it. Rather, salvation is knowing
Christ as we live like him and in him. That is, we do not know Christ apart
from our life in Christ. The knowledge that is salvation is the knowledge of
the kingdom of God. That knowledge is available only in Christ. He is the
wisdom of God for our salvation; as we know him, we enter into wisdom.
To say that knowledge
of the kingdom is available only in Christ leads us to the truth that through
Christ as example, we also see salvation as power. If humankind apart from
Christ is feeble, then Christ’s gift to us is power. However, this power is not
the power to accomplish whatever we have dreamed of; it is not power at large,
ready for any task. Rather, salvation as power is the ability to live in the kingdom
of God. (Jonathan R. Wilson, God So Loved the World: A Christology for
Disciples [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2001], 130-31)
Such jives nicely with the following
passages:
It is impossible for
a man to be saved in ignorance. (D&C 131:6)
He shall see of the
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isa 53:11)
On Isa 53:11, see:
The
People Being Justified by the Messiah's Knowledge in Isaiah 53:11
John
Murray on Isaiah 53:11 and the Knowledge of the Servant Justifying Believers