WHAT MUST I DO TO BE MADE WHOLE? 

If the question were more often put this way rather than What Must I Do to be Saved?, it might strike home with greater effect. That is what "to be saved" really means in the Greek: to make sound, safe or whole. If one looks into a concordance that gives the Greek term along with the English, he will notice that the same Greek word is translated both as saved and made whole. It is unfortunate that such a beautiful term as "saved" is now commonly associated with the burlesque in religion. Most folk who are turned off by the Are you saved? kind of approach will be more responsive to the concept of wholeness. 

Too, salvation implies a once‑for‑all kind of experience, something one "gets" and that's it, whereas to be made whole is more suggestive of a continuing experience. In fact, they become two entirely different questions, and a person who is most definite about being "saved" might demur at the idea that he is made whole. This may be because saved is commonly associated with sin ‑ saved from past sins ‑ while made whole has broader implications. One suffering from anxiety may be saved, but not really whole. Certainly one dying of cancer may be saved from his sins, but almost no one would think of him as made whole. 

This is an odd development, for in the New Covenant scriptures there is only one passage that explicitly states that salvation is from sin (Mt. 1:21). About one‑third of the "saved" passages refer to deliverance from some such evil as captivity, disease or demon possession; or from physical death, as in Mt. 8:25 ("Save, Lord, we are perishing."); or from the calamities of a fallen Jerusalem, as in Mk. 13:20 ("If the Lord had not shortened the days, no human being would be saved.") While the term obviously refers to deliverance from sin, it may well encompass more than this. "By grace are you saved" refers first of all to redemption from sin and the covenant relationship with God that follows, but it might likewise involve the abundant life that Jesus wants for us all. He wants us to be whole persons, sound in mind, body and spirit. 

To the sick woman that sought to touch but the hem of the Lord's garment, he said: "Daughter, your faith has made you whole." It is the same word for saved. We are to conclude that she was delivered from both her sins and her terrible affliction. Wholeness in God's sight seems to be this. He doesn't intend that we be sick in either body or spirit. God's will for us is not always realized, of course. Yes, we may be whole even when diseased and afflicted in that we have been made free from sin, but the fact remains that God wills for us that fuller wholeness that involves all that the good life implies. As Paul put it in I Thess. 5:23: "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is salvation in the broader sense, though wholeness may be the better term. 

Healing was obviously a significant part of the Messiah's mission. The prophets had said it would be. "The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings," cried Malachi in closing out the era of prophecy. Isaiah insisted that the Messiah would case the troubled heart: "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." He also said that "with his stripes we are healed." One would be hard put to conclude that the prophet is referring only to deliverance from sin, for all this is in addition to the promise that "he was wounded for our transgressions." 

God's plan for us is not complete if we are saved from past sins, and then proceed to live in poverty, disease and frustration. He moves us from darkness to light (I Pet. 2:9), from alienation to heavenly citizenship (Phil. 3:20), and from slavery to freedom (Gal. 5:1). These have strong moral implications. We are to be the tree that brings forth good fruit, the light of the world, the salt of the earth. All this spells fullness and wholeness of life. 

This means that we have a moral obligation to be happy (joyous) and to generate happiness in our time. As pilgrims in this world (not wanderers!) our mission is to leave it better than we found it. Better TV, better education, better political systems, better homes, better everything. This view will broaden our concept of ministry, for this is to say that the governor of the state and the builder of a house are ministers of God as much as one who serves in the pulpit. We are in this world to heal, to make men whole, wherever we serve. 

What must you do to be saved? ‑or to be made whole? It may include more dedicated service on the job. It may mean being a more devoted husband. It may point to a sweeter attitude toward life and people. Or controlling one's temper. Or taking better care of the body that God has given you. Or making better use of your time. Or being more neighborly and more concerned for the problems of others. A person who grumbles and growls his way through life is not whole, He has allowed the abundant life to pass him by. He may have money laid up in the bank, but he is not rich toward God. 

Loving. Learning. Laboring. These are at the heart of the good life that Jesus came to bring. We have reason to believe they will continue into eternity. Always loving, learning, laboring. That is wholeness, and that is what life is all about. That one can be a good church member and do none of these only shows how the church can miss the point of salvation. 

Jesus made it clear that "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Wholeness begins with the new birth, of water and of the Spirit. Faith and obedience puts us into Christ where we are a new creation. From that moment on Christ is formed in us and we continue to grow in his image, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, especially love, joy and peace. We "grow up into him in all things" (Eph. 4:15). 

This is what salvation and wholeness are. This is why the apostle could urge us to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12), and it is why Peter places salvation as the end of one's faith as well as the beginning (I Pet. 1:9). So we see that salvation is a continuing thing ‑‑ it is process ‑ and so we can think of it as "nearer now than when we first believed" (Ro. 13:11). That is why wholeness may be the better word in many contexts. 

Once Jesus made his way into the home of Zacchaeus, his impressions were such that he made a very unusual statement. "This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham" (Lk. 19:9), he said to them. He refers to a new life for the publican and his family. It is more than to say Zacchaeus was "saved" from his sins. He was inducted into a new life, a life of repentance, which is ongoing. From that point on, he vowed, he would restore fourfold to every person he had wronged. Much of his riches would now go to the poor. So salvation came. A carping, conniving tax collector found newness and wholeness of life. Holiness and wholeness are closely related. 

In commenting on the Zacchaeus story, Albert Barnes makes a helpful comment: "Salvation commences when men truly receive Christ, and their sins are pardoned; it is completed when the soul is sanctified and received up into heaven." 

This gives us an added dimension to the question we have considered all too lightly, What must I do to be saved? Part of the answer may be in putting up another question, What must I be to be whole?   —the Editor