SAVING THE WORLD - John 2:14-17
“ He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money and overthrew their tables. To those who sold the doves, he said, ‘Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
We call Jesus the Savior, meaning also Savior of the World. Is the world indeed saved? Actually, it depends. The Gospel says only that through him the world should be saved or might be saved, as it is written: "For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him."
We can have our own doubts as well, regarding the big good changes in the world, which should have happened when the world met Jesus in real life. What could the world ask for more from God, in order to repent and change for the better.
This was the core of the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus himself, that, please people repent, amend your ways and turn to God, for the Kingdom of God is close.
As the commemoration of the Good Friday approaches, we know all too well what happened in the world, as the Gospel of John continues, saying: “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil.” They did not listen to John the Prophet, and neither to the Christ, Jesus.
The judgment was written in the Past Perfect tense, but we also know it too well, together with the Gospel of John, that the world did not change almost not even a tiny bit, and men still love darkness, and their deeds in average is evil, which means the very disobeying of God's obvious will, those are listed in the commandments.
Also, the Gospel must not really talk about the physical world to be saved, as it is, but humanity. This should be clear from the third chapter of the second letter of the Apostle Peter, as he wrote, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat; and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."
It means the the full universe will cease to exist by utter destruction of fire, at one point of the time. Although it is promised that new Earth and New Skies will be created, however the old ones will be burnt to ashes. The old will pass away. Until that hardly we will see any real improvement in the general conditions of the Universe.
Regarding humanity, it is a little bit the same. First of all, most of the people die, early, before time or after a bit longer human journey in this world. Thus, saving is not really offered to physical people in this world, nor in their perishable body, but in the spiritual world, where the souls continue their journey, and where Heaven and Hell have been established.
It is not extremely polite to say, that although the eternal life in the spiritual world has been offered to everyone by faith and grace, still not to many who take this offer by its face value, as it is written in the Gospel that "He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God."
In summary, being saved means the salvation of the soul, and it happens, when it happens by grace and by faith in the Lord, to whom be Praise and Gratitude be given, according to the will of t God, by the Holy Spirit, now and always, AMEN.
