Not long ago, I thought of myself as my own savior. Despite beginning to come around the realization that GOD was indeed a being who did care for this world, and the people within it. I still had the philosophy that for the matter of making everything within me right and squared up (with God, or as my mentality at the time would have me say it: "whoever/whatever is the judge or assessor), it was to be done by me and me alone. Maybe there was a little bit of divine help (again, I would then question: whatever or whoever, or wherever that divinity came from), but it had been bestowed upon me and/or set within me as a coach teaches and hones his players, ultimately to play out on the field on the game day of life. I'd believed this so fervently, that I even had shirts made with the words in a double-entendre of sorts that read: "savior.self".
A little while ago, when I was still using Facebook, I'd seen a post that someone made which said something along the lines of "It may come as a surprise, but the savior that most people are waiting for is actually within themselves." As I usually do when I see things like this which I feel inspired to respond to, I stopped to pray for the words to say, because it is indeed a message that requires Divine (truly Divine, I.e.—from the LORD) guidance whenever there is to be a response to one of the many deceptions, which are mostly disguised as "poetic truths", that ultimately come from Satan. As well, I ALWAYS resort to looking through scripture for Bible verses that support and uphold what I'm going to say, because I've already learned that my own intellect and my own ideology that isn't based on the Word Of GOD (I.e. -- THE BIBLE) is feeble and ineffective in the face of the spiritual enemy which we as humans are faced with (Ephesians 6:12).
Light Lines | This is photography of light rays from emergency vehicle lights in Minneapolis, MN coming through vertical blinds, reflected on a wall and then photographed. This photo is part of my Collection Of Light photography series.
Let’s reason though to a bottom line so that no one is deceived, because this is a serious matter that isn’t to be taken lightly nor is it prudent to accept such a statement (that we are our own savior and the saving power comes from within us) at face value. Let it be known that it is deceptive by it being only a poetic truth at best (and that isn't giving it any goodness). So if anyone who believes and affirms this statement can and will, answer clearly the questions of: salvation from what; how do we attain it; and then how do we know when we’ve attained it?
Regarding salvation, we’d have to establish what the issue is and what’s the circumstance that one needs salvation from? A flat tire? Sinking in quick sand? Perhaps from a double workload that will keep them at the office for a few extra hours, or maybe even for them to continue to have that particular job itself (I.e.—from being fired.) Is it a kid hiding their report card in order to not getting a butt-kicking that will without a doubt be the penalty for slackness in studies? 'Salvation from what?' is the first question that needs clarification. In some situations, we can be our own savior, but other circumstances — not so much.
So, I guess right now we can say we need salvation from the ambiguity of this statement of "we need to realize we're our own savior, and the saving power is within us".
So now, I'm going to answer this question so that I can present an argument to refute the statement that "we are our own saviors", or the idea that salvation comes from within us.
First we need to understand that there’s no such thing as 'general salvation', or salvation in and of itself. It's merely a term that defines a condition, or more accurately—an act that brings about a condition of being saved. I've tried to illustrate this point in the paragraphs above. What salvation is, depends upon context and situation. However, the deception that is in the perception of general and non-specific salvation occurs when it obscures the fact that we ALL need salvation from sin and the destruction/consequences that awaits anyone who hasn’t repented and accepted the True and ONLY savior from it—Jesus Christ (see Romans 3:23-24, Romans 6:23.) He is the savior who manifested the salvation from that sin via His death and resurrection around 2,000 years ago.
Glory Rays | This is photography of light rays from Christmas decoration lights being reflected on a wall and then photographed. This photo is part of my Collection Of Light photography series.
Likely, the most surprising fact to realize about this salvation is that there is NOTHING that we can do. Yes, as we who believe the Gospel have been taught, we attain it by acknowledging and believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, became man, lived a sinless life, died for our sins and rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). In addition to accepting this as our life Truth, we repent of the sin we were saved from through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It should be known that repenting also involves turning from sin and sinful lifestyles, and turning to a life led by the Holy Spirit to walk in the Will of the LORD, obeying Him. Then, we are living in a renewed spirit and no longer have the desires to engage in that sin.
While this "step", or "steps" are indeed what induces our salvation from total separation from God, and His wrath during Judgement, it actually is not us that initiates this. It can be a bit of work to understand this, but it's best illustrated by the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, which many simply read and take at face value as a conversation in the Bible, not the illustration of the essential Truth of salvation. In John 3:3-8, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that people must be reborn by the Spirit. We often read "born again", but the original Greek text reads "born from above"—"anothen". It might not be apparent, but this implies that, just like the fact that we cannot produce our own physical birth (nor the conception) but we merely arise out of it from actions outside of ourselves, the same is true of our spiritual birth, or more appropriately—our REBIRTH!
Jesus is telling Nicodemus, and us, that our rebirth—our salvation—is brought about from the Holy Spirit! It's only by the prompting of the Holy Spirit that we become aware of our state of depravity, our fallen sinful nature which renders us short of the glory of God, and as such doomed to eternal damnation, and cognizant of the fact that we are in dying need (quite literally) of His saving Grace, which comes from the atonement Jesus made on the cross and our alignment with that action as described above. It is the Holy Spirit that moves upon us, in a way that I'm not able to explain, that gives us the knowledge of this need, this sobering fact of our state. The Holy Spirit initiates the encounter of salvation, but puts the ball into our hands so to speak and that is where we accept. It isn't some moral reckoning that we come to on our own through some dialectical methodology, or by some building of our own efforts, some self-betterment process and then we arrive at the fact that we need Jesus.
This is why it always would feel odd to me when someone says "congratulations" after they knew I had gotten saved or when I was baptized. It wasn't anything of my own doing, in the least bit. Although it may have been me accepting the gift of salvation, the sinful nature of mankind renders us totally unable to come to God for salvation; it MUST be a prompting of the Holy Spirit. Congratulating someone for being saved, for becoming born anothen, or as is commonly said: born again, makes as much sense as congratulating them for receiving a birthday gift.
Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John 3:6-8 that being "born from above" can be explained or visualized about as much as the wind blowing when and where it does can be. It is nothing that is produced outside of the will of the Holy Spirit! This is why it's always erroneous (and perhaps borderline blasphemous) to say that "we're having revival this coming Friday" or inviting people to come to the alter in church to "catch the Holy Spirit". This is tanatmount to spirit channeling! Highly grievous! No one can "channel" or induce the Holy Spirit.
Let me come off of the tangent that I was going at, and come back to the premise of this all. Salvation, as it relates to your soul's eternal destination and even to break the bondage of sin and all of the destruction that arises from it, is nothing that is attainable by our own power. It is indeed unavailable. This introduces some controversy then since it shatters a misconception that is commonly held, but it can be shown—Biblically—that there is not even a shred of self-agency in the process of True salvation! I'll write or speak about that later.
As well as knowing that we no longer face Hell when we become absent from this body (see 2 Corinthians 5:8) or left behind when THE Church (I.e. -- the Body of Christ, more specifically—those who believe and accept this as Truth) is raptured prior to The Tribulation (see Revelation 3:10), and ultimately eternal damnation when the Great Judgement occurs (see Revelation 20:15), we see healing, remarkable positive life changes, and spiritual blessings/power to overcome temptation and the habits of sin as a result. (see Galatians 5:16-17.)
This salvation cannot be attained by oneself, nor is there that kind of salvation from within oneself (see Ephesians 2:8-9), otherwise Jesus died for nothing (as the self-saviors seem to believe), or didn’t die (as the Muslims believe; *caveat to the Muslim belief in Jesus: Muslims believe in an ENTIRELY different "Jesus" than the TRUE Jesus)), or just died due to regular politics (as the historical-Jesus only people believe), or didn’t even exist at all (as the history-ignorant believe.) If you think this salvation is from within, then you ought to first clarify what kind of salvation you’re referring to specifically, and enlighten folks (yourself included) as to how it is manifested and recognizable. It’s only fair to do so when proclaiming such a serious idea of a matter of soteriology.
To address the “waiting” aspect of the statement, I’ll say that those who understand this Truth of Ultimate Salvation (I.e. — from the eternal price of sin, and the earthly/carnal bondage to it) aren’t waiting for anything nor anyone. That Salvation has already come, and is already manifest, as is explained above.
Again though, and to circle back and emphasize this rebuttal to the notion that there’s salvation within ourselves and by our own power (note: Although I could draw it into this argument, I'm not speaking about Pelagianism, but more so to those who hold that there is a god-power within and in and of themselves) one would need the explanation as to what in particular that salvation is from, and then how one manifests it, and of course what the evidence of it is when it manifests. Wouldn’t you say that’s due to anyone being given such a bold proclamation such as this? Beloved, you at least owe that to yourself if this something you’re believing and especially if you’re passing it on to your loved ones.
