16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Romans 1:16 (NKJV)
Back in 2006 when God opened my eyes to what the leadership at our church was doing with the Purpose Driven stuff and I raised the alarm I was rebuked with argument that I should just kick back and cooperate so that the church could peacefully go Purpose Driven so that God could work there and people’s lives could be changed. When I began commenting on the old Slice of Laodicea blog about that same time, those PDC apologists who hated our firm stance against it said very much the same thing. If you listen to Rick Warren speak when talking about what a great ministry Saddleback Church is, he will always try to emphasize the thousands of people whose lives have been transformed or changed.
This is the common apologetic thread in all of the marketeers of the “ministries” who attempt to “sell” them to potential “customers” with the promise of “change” or, if it is made to an already “churched” group or person, then it will be from a “transformation” perspective. Is this what Biblical salvation is all about? This may surprise some, but transformation or the transformed life is not part of the Biblical Gospel. Neither is deliverance or liberation when used in a temporal context. What is the definition of Biblical salvation?
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:8-10 (NKJV)
What does it mean that “you will be saved?” Obviously it involves the heart, believing, justification, confessing with the mouth and being saved. Carefully read the passage I placed at the top of this post (Romans 1:16). Here it is in Greek followed by my translation.