By Julia Qiuye Zhao

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. –Acts 4:12

As a child, one question that preoccupied me was “Are you saved?” For most of us who grew up in Evangelical churches, this is no surprise. The answer was supposed to be straightforward: “Repent and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.” However, the problem was that although it was supposed to be one and done, I had trouble being really sure. Even when there was the Sinner’s Prayer, I could never be sure that I had meant it to the extent that was required for salvation. Discussions on this topic, from pastors, televangelists and others reinforced my uncertainty. Whenever the topic came up, they would say that if one was not sure, it would be better to make sure by praying the Sinner’s Prayer with them. And so I always did, just to make very sure. 

The problem with this approach to claiming Jesus as our Savior, besides fostering anxiety, is that it is focused on the single event of conversion. It is important to claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior and if one is not sure, it is a good thing to make it clear. However, being saved is also a journey. Praying the Sinner’s Prayer and meaning it is a good start, however it is only the beginning of “being saved.” 

For the early Christians, salvation and redemption was a cosmic process, to which each individual Christian was invited. One of my pastors once said in a sermon that if you were to ask a Christian in the first few centuries of the church why Jesus died, he or she would not answer that it was to save him/her from his/her own sins. Rather, this Christian would answer that it was to defeat the devil and the forces of evil. 

Maybe this could be a redemptive way to go forward in our time of anxiety and polarization. Perhaps the question is not whether systematic or individual sins are more of a problem but that Christ’s redemption and salvation are bigger than we think. God’s desire is for shalom, the healing and redemption of all of creation. Our own salvation is a part of that, but that is in itself a journey towards healing and redemption along with the rest of creation. John Calvin sees God as the “Divine Playwright” and the earth as the training ground for learning to love God. Jesus is the Savior of the world. We are called, not only to count ourselves as a part of redemption, but also to show to the world what it means to be saved and redeemed. 

Perhaps our pursuit of justice and our healing in fully claiming our identities, as Asian Americans, as women, and as leaders in the church, is a part of both pursuing that redemption and also showing the world what it means to be redeemed. And at the root of that is claiming Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Like branches, we cannot do without being connected to the Vine. However, also like branches, the connection to the Vine also connects us to the other branches, making as one single Vine, tended by one Gardener. 

Julia Qiuye Zhao was born in China, grew up in Toronto and completed a PhD at the University of Notre Dame before following God’s call into ministry. She completed a MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary and a certificate in spiritual direction with Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Development in May of 2023. She was ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in January of 2024 and has served in a pastoral residency at the First Presbyterian Church of Valparaiso until May of 2025 when she will begin a call as Pastor/Head of Staff at the Presbyterian Church of Clearfield, PA.