The Reversals of Salvation

In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus emphasized the same great reversal that Isaiah had prophesied. The poor will be blessed. The hungry will be satisfied. Those who weep will laugh. And God will bless those who are helpless. But the good news also went a step further. Jesus called those who are blessed to follow him and to live by the standards and values of God’s kingdom, which are often very different from earthly standards. For example, he called them to love strangers and even their enemies, in contrast to worldly values which tell us to be wary of strangers and to hate our enemies. So the message of the kingdom is not just one of blessing but also one of ethical responsibility.

You’ll recall that in Luke 7, John the Baptist sent messengers to ask Jesus if he was really the Messiah. And Jesus replied by paraphrasing Isaiah 61:1-2, the same passage he had read in the synagogue at the start of his public ministry. Listen once more to Jesus' reply in Luke 7:22:

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

Everything Jesus mentioned here was a form of salvation, a reversal from bad conditions to good conditions. In the new earth, these bad conditions will be completely eliminated. And even now, salvation gives us a foretaste of those everlasting blessings. But the great reversals of salvation aren’t limited to our outward circumstances. They also change us on the inside. As Jesus said in Luke 6:27-36:

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you… Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

The blessings of the kingdom don’t just reverse external circumstances. They also reverse the character and perspectives of those who are saved. As with external reversals, these internal reversals are manifested partially in the present world, and fully in the next world. Right now, we begin to think and act differently because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we see the world through new eyes. These changes will continue in heaven, where we’ll be totally free from the presence, corruption and consequences of sin. And they will be completed when Jesus returns and gives us our new bodies in the new earth

One of the things that is notable about Luke’s narrative is that he is interested in the least, the last, and the lost. And in fact one of his major themes is the theme of reversal. The least, the last, and the lost are going to become the first, the most, and the found in the kingdom of God. [Dr. Ben Witherington]