Saints With Addison BevereSample

Deep Dive

The gift of salvation is first and foremost a change of identity. 

When we realize that our salvation comes with an overflow of God’s grace, turning us into Saints, then we’ll begin to look at God’s Word and ways in a new light.

We are saved the moment we give our lives to Christ. But it takes a lifetime to unpack salvation’s implications for our lives.

This is why the apostle James wrote, “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21 ESV). These thirteen words are loaded with hope and promise, and they abound with meaning. Notice that this is a charge, an imperative statement. James is not passively suggesting we receive the implanted word (salvation). He is firmly telling us to do so.

I also want to point out that James is explicitly writing of and to people who are followers of Christ. He’s inviting us to receive with humility the wonder of salvation, which reaches into every facet of our existence. 

The word souls is used to convey our minds, wills, and emotions. James is telling us that if we receive the implanted word (a spiritual concept), we will experience salvation of the soul (a practical concept that affects the way we live here and now).

Sadly, people have used this passage and what James writes in his second chapter about works and faith to promote a salvation that only comes from really good behavior. But James is in no way advocating such a paradigm. What he is suggesting is that we dive deeper into salvation’s reality and, by doing so, find a power that saves us from hell and breathes vitality and power into our lives now.

Because we are children of God, the enemy has lost the battle for our spirits, so he’s waging war on our souls. He doesn’t want us to live in peace, joy, and intimacy. The last thing he wants is for our lives to reveal God’s Life to our world. 

He wants us to reduce our salvation to an abstract concept that doesn’t have much bearing on the real and challenging issues we face today. He’s terrified of our unpacking the gift of salvation and discovering that we are Saints, holy ones, whose lives are God’s poetry, revealing His wonder to our world.