The Becoming of Salvation

1 Peter 1:9
". . .for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

Do I take the job in California? Do I go for the PhD? Do I marry xxxx? All great questions. These answers will all determine where you will end up. "He will go far in life"--this means he will make it to the top. But this verse reorients everything. The goal of our faith, indeed the goal of life, is the salvation of our souls. Now, unfortunately, we can secularize this goal and approach it in much the same way we approach everything else. If life is about where we go, or where we end up, then we can view our faith through this lens as well. Faith becomes about getting "saved." Faith becomes about getting into heaven. Now, I certainly yearn for the unfathomable beauties of the next life. But this verse is talking about something that we receive now. "Receiving" in the original has the sense of an ongoing process. Salvation here is not simply a matter of where our soul goes, but what it becomes.

There is incredible freedom in the understanding that this life is not primarily about where we go but who we become. The question then is not "what great things will I do for the Lord in my life" but rather "will I become the kind of person who naturally does great things for God?" Will my branches strain and bend at the weight of the fruits of the Spirit? Will my words and actions be apples and oranges to a hungry and thirsty neighbor? This is the salvation of my soul. And such a soul will fit in well in heaven.