CHAPTER 21

SAVED BY HIS LIFE

And He said to me, “It is done!

I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the Beginning and the End.

I will give of the fountain of the water of life

freely to him who thirsts.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things,

and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

Book of Revelation 21:6-7

We have therefore come to the end of this study on salvation. Our journey began with the history of theology, where we saw how incomplete theories, which do not do justice to God's mercy and love, contaminated the original Christian thought. In the second section, we recovered some essential theological foundations, in order to rediscover their deep significance for salvation. Finally, in the last section, we delved into the nature of God, to understand how it is his very essence of love that saves and that this love, the Holy Spirit, has been given to us through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. We then proposed our own theory, which we called Vital Identification, which we believe meets all the requirements to be considered comprehensive and respectful of God's mercy.

21.1. Saved by his life

I have chosen to title this book “Saved by His Life” because too often we hear that we are saved by Jesus' death, but this is not correct. It is his life, his love, his faithfulness that saves; death was only a stage in the process he underwent. It is the life of God in us, the love that Jesus has given us, what preserves from death, heals, frees from sin, perfects in love and makes communion with God and with other men possible. His life is the source of salvation, the eternal gift of God that restores the soul:

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

It is what every man and woman in this world seeks, true life, the life that does not wither, and it can only be found in the love of God and in the communion of those who are faithful to him. It is our task to bring it into the world, for God has chosen to act through his Church; wherever there is a source of life and love on this earth, we are sure that many will flock, for there is a great emptiness and hunger for love in the world that can only be satisfied with the bread of life.

To now answer our initial question about the meaning of the biblical verses “Christ died for us” and “Christ died for our sins”, they mean that Jesus went to his death out of love for us, remaining true to himself and loyal to us, accepting the torment of the cross to give us the greatest gift, the gift of love. This gift is what reconciles us to God, frees us from the slavery of sin and grants us forgiveness in the freedom of God's children. It is not the death of Jesus that frees, but his faithfulness until death, thanks to which the perfect gift of the Holy Spirit was made possible. “He died for us” means that he did not flinch even before death because of his love for us; “He died for our sins” means that he gave himself up to death in order to reconcile us to God, to cleanse our consciences of the shame of sin and to free us from the force of evil, giving us the power of love that conquers all things, even death. It does not mean that he had to pay some sort of compensation to God in our place, it is something completely different.

21.2. Conclusion

In conclusion, we can summarise the essential points of the theory we have set out in these chapters:

1. Salvation is a path of liberation and healing, which takes place by the grace of God, but which always requires the adherence and commitment of the person who is grafted into this process; it is synergism, that is, the sharing of God and man in salvation, since he is God with us;
2. It is constituted by the gift of Jesus’ life, the love of God, the Holy Spirit, for all those who have a heart open to receive him;
3. The gift of the Holy Spirit was made possible by Jesus, who obtained it for us through his faithfulness; it is the perfect faithfulness of Jesus, who gave all of himself even to death on the cross, that made possible the gift of perfect love;
4. It is love that liberates, justifies, reconciles, purifies and sanctifies those who receive it; love conquers death because it carries within itself the life of God in man;
5. God’s mercy, manifested in the life and works of Jesus, is the guarantee that the sins of those who turn to him with a humble and sincere heart are forgiven;
6. Salvation is a process in which love, the Holy Spirit, must not only be received, but also kept and nurtured with perseverance and dedication;
7. This way is discipleship, by which, remaining faithful to Jesus' commandment to love, we are instructed, transformed and made complete; we can also call this process identification, where his values enter into us, shaping our personality in his image;
8. Love and salvation find full and perfect realisation in the relationships and communion of individuals, especially in the Church; the love that saves is the love that is shared and manifested in good works, especially on behalf of the weakest and marginalised. Love is active, persevering and inclusive;
9. Eternal life consists in a full life in communion with the Holy Spirit, who transforms and enables us to produce good fruit for ourselves and for the community;
10. The first and last purpose of creation is to give us the life of Jesus, and salvation is in the gift of the life of Jesus, in the blood that he shed; it follows that the end and the means of salvation coincide; it is love, the Holy Spirit in us. Salvation is being united to Christ and his love to become children of God ourselves.

The incarnation of Jesus, his sacrifice and resurrection, did not serve to restore creation, but rather to complete it, that is, to give humanity the fruit of the tree of life, the Holy Spirit, which could not be taken or earned, but could only be given as an act of absolute love on the part of God. Man, who was created imperfect in that he still lacks the capacity to love, is therefore made perfect and complete by his union with Christ who infuses him with God's love. To be united with Christ is to receive his Spirit in our spirit, to become one with him; it is to identify with him, that is, to allow his values and ideals to enter us and become ours; it is to remain faithful to his covenant, honouring it and practising everything he commanded. All this was made possible by the faithfulness of Jesus, who gave us the gift of his love. This gift redeems and reconciles us with God, leading us to know him in his true nature, to become intimate with him, to access the source of life that conquers death, cleanses the conscience of all sin and sanctifies, transforming us into the image of Christ. However, this salvation is not for our exclusive benefit but, if it is to be authentic, it must be shared with others, in relationships and in fraternal communion, to become alive and life-giving.

The difficulties we have in describing salvation are closely related to our inability to understand the extraordinary creative, transformative, and participatory power of love, that is, to understand the very nature of God, who represents the ultimate purpose of salvation:

It is God who is the ultimate “end” of salvation and the fulfilment of our very identity as persons. To be saved is to be “divinised”, to participate in God’s life. Salvation, then, is much more than an alteration in our juridical status. Likewise, it is more than imitating Christ in moral conduct. Salvation is nothing less than the all-embracing transformation of our humanness.⁵⁷⁹

Salvation is to participate in God’s life, it is the vital identification and spiritual union with Christ, in order to undergo a total transformation that leads us to become fully human, in the same way as Jesus was; to be filled with the Holy Spirit, made holy and perfect before him.⁵⁸⁰ How God saves is intrinsically linked to who he is, unconditional love that manifested and expressed itself fully in Jesus. Salvation is a long journey, which begins and is sustained at every step by God’s grace, but which always requires our faithful commitment and loyal dedication to the commandment of love, and which has as its goal our adoption, so that we become a communion of men and women, sons and daughters of God, the source of eternal life on earth, the life of Jesus Christ.