Christian Living

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I thoroughly enjoy the verse in Romans 10:13 that says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It is so clear and precise. First we have the word "Whosoever" which is written 163 times in the Bible (KJV) which means, surprisingly enough, "Whosoever, who ever, anyone". That word opens up the next phrase to anyone here on this earth. It includes the most "good" person, "old" person, "young" person, and the most "evil" person. The verse excludes no one.

So if this person (any person) should "call on the name of the Lord" they will be saved. That person must call on the Lord to receive the blessing written at the end of the verse. Let's look at the example of Peter when he was walking on the water and he took his eyes off of Jesus. As he was sinking, he said "Lord, save me" (Mat 14:30) He called on the name of the Lord and he was saved. (It is important to point out, though, that using the name as punctuation is not the same as calling on His Name.)

Do you see how this verse is so dynamic?! If anyone will follow the simple steps in this verse they will be saved. It may blow the minds of some people who think that salvation should be obtained through tests and trials. But God has never desired that we should go through extraordinary lengths to obtain his mercy. (Hebrews 4:16) To be completely blunt, it would be impossible to pay for His Son's blood, which was spilt on our behalf. It remains a gift and I am grateful for it.

But let's get back to the verse at hand... The verse uses the word "saved". For many years I read the verse just as it is written, with the word "saved" as the end result of anyone who called on the name of the Lord. That was good enough for me. Come on, in Romans 6:23 it says that the wages of sin are death. I thought it was enough that I wasn't going to die ‘cause of my sins. But as I have wrapped myself in the Word of God and desire to understand His heart more and more, I started to look underneath the hood.

Have you ever bought a car? I have. And I can tell you that every man I know that has bought a car asks to see what is under the hood. They may not know one thing about cars or the engines that run them but they want to see what is under the hood. In certain car races the owners of the racing vehicles refuse to let people look under the hood because that's where the secrets are hidden. And so I deeply desire to know the secrets of God!

I am sure we all realize that Jesus didn't speak in English nor was the New Testament written in it. It was written in Greek. So to look under the hood of the New Testament I had to understand the words that were used in the verses.

The word "saved" in that verse refers to the Greek word "Sozo". And to my surprise it means a whole lot more than just "saved". Allow me to create a simple example to explain what I found out. Let's say I was to write a letter and use the word Lamborghini as to what you should buy and drive around town. The translators in the far, far future could use the word "car" for translation. But "car" means much less than what I meant by using the word "Lamborghini".

The same is happening here with the word SOZO. The translators used the word "saved" but it means so much, much more than that. In fact the same translators used the words make whole, heal, and be whole in other places where the word "sozo" was written. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia describes SOZO as the Greek word which means to heal, cure, to make well; to rescue from danger, to save; to cause something to change to an earlier, correct or appropriate state; to renew.

Imagine my surprise to read that the salvation that I thought was confined to entrance in heaven actually means healed, cured, made well, rescued from danger, being corrected to an earlier state of being, and to be renewed. WOW!

This is such great news, don't you think? Not only are we simply saved in the fact that when we die we don't have to go downstairs (if you know what I mean) but we can live "Sozo"ed from the moment we call on His name!

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