Organic Salvation

[Peter Debelak]

Organic Salvation

This teaching is something I learned in the local churches and from reading Witness Lee – and it is a cornerstone of my faith.

I agree there is a danger in mechanizing this concept into a simple “eat Christ” through defined practices like calling on the Lord, pray-reading and prophesying from the HWMR.

But when this concept of “organic salvation” is tied to the Biblical truth of God’s “multifarious wisdom” and “varied grace” – then its limitless how God can operate in one’s life.

The alternative to “organic salvation” is WWJD (what would Jesus do) – salvation by imitation. (I talk disparaginingly, but there is also a value in WWJD which James talked extensively about - but evidence of "works" seems to me to more of a "barometer" of one's health, not a prescription to "just do it.").

Thing is, when it comes to my greatest internal failings, I don’t know how to “pull myself up by my bootstraps” to be a “good Christian.” Seeing a positive model, like Jesus, and “imitating” is a recipe for self-loathing. Because I fail time and again when I attempt it (which is not to say I stop attempting).

There is a hope in “organic salvation.” But-for that hope, I wouldn’t even know how to think about the wretched man that I am. Paul’s angst in Romans 7 is palpable for me. That there is a Savior who not only overcame sin judicially, but actually indwells me – One who can be touched by the feeling of my weakness, and still overcame – that breeds hope.

Despite having paroused numerous Christian environments since I stopped meeting with the LC, no one has invoked this hope as poignantly as I learned it in the LC.

This fundamental faith in the Spirit which indwells me – albeit in humility (which I picked up after the LC) – is actually the very thing that has enabled a critique of the LC’s more abusive doctrines and practices. But I did learn it there. And it was a central teaching from Witness Lee.

Even as I rely on it to criticize the LC, I would be remiss if I neglected to emphasize that I initially learned it there.

Thoughts?

In Love,

Peter