I mentioned Brian McLaren’s book “A Generous Orthodoxy” last week. The chapter after “Would Jesus Be a Christian” is titled, “Jesus, Savior of What?” In this chapter he argues that while Jesus did come to save us as individuals, we in the west have placed such a strong emphasis on personal salvation that we have lost sight of the big picture – that Jesus is the savior of the world.
This is what he says:
“I used to believe that Jesus’ primary focus was on saving me as an individual and on saving other “me’s” as individuals. For that reason I often spoke of Jesus as my “personal Savior,” and I urged others to believe in Jesus in the same way. I still believe that Jesus is vitally interested in saving me and you by individually judging us, by forgiving us of our wrongs, and teaching us to live in a better way. But I fear that for too many Christians, “personal salvation” has become another personal consumer product (like personal computers, a personal journal, personal time, etc.) and Christianity has become its marketing program. If so salvation is “all about me,” and … I think we
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