Conversatio Divina

Part 4 of 16

Getting Saved

Henry Cloud

I remember very well when I told God, “Sorry, I just don’t want to do this anymore.” What had begun as a very direct calling from Him had come to a point of despair. I had no doubt three years earlier, He had told me in a thousand different ways to go into the field of “Christian Psychology,” as it was called then. 

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Table of Contents

  1. 01.  Four Models
  2. 02.  Desert Time
  3. 03.  Salvation as Healing

I changed my major from accounting and finance, and headed out, with the vision that I was going to have a meaningful career helping people heal emotionally and relationally through spiritual growth. And for three years, I had poured myself into studying everything I could find, and had gone to work in a Christian psychiatric hospital to learn the state of the art. And after three years, I had come to a conclusion: this was not something I wanted to give my life to anymore. 

The reason was that the “Christian” models that were out there at the time left me feeling like Really? Is that all there is? for more reasons than one. First, they did not make sense to me biblically. But second, and much more importantly, I did not see them bringing about the kinds of transformation that the Bible talked about when it spoke of the healing power of the gospel. So, if that was what Christian Psychology was about, I was going to do something else. 

01.  Four Models

For the most part, these models of healing fell into four categories. First was the “sin” model. It said that if you are suffering in some way, it is because there must be sin in your life and you should be confronted about your sin, confess it and repent, and then you would be well. Great! I thought—at first. I believed in sin and that sin was a problem. 

But then I hit a wall in working with people: many of them were suffering not because of their sin, but because of terrible things that had happened to them. Abuse, neglect, abandonment. What were they supposed to repent of? They hadn’t done anything wrong to cause their suffering. I could quickly see that this model could not speak to those that Jesus spoke of as the oppressed or downtrodden. While I knew that although sin was a problem, I was also realizing that this could not be the whole answer. Next came the “truth” model. It said that if you memorized enough Scripture, and really got the truth in your head, or learned your “position in Christ” through knowing the truth of who you were “in Him,” then your emotional and psychological problems would go away. “The truth will set you free,” or “as a man thinking in his heart, so is he,” were the pillars of this perspective on healing. 

The problem with this model was that I was seeing many people who knew those truths, had memorized them, recited them all the time, and yet were still suffering. Besides, I knew enough theology, anthropology and philosophy to know that the Bible said we are creatures made up of “heart, mind, soul and strength,” and not just “the thinking mind.” As important as truth is, there had to be more to the story, and I was seeing that lack play out before me. Besides, as I would realize later, “just know the truth and the truth will set you free” is not what the Bible teaches anyway. That is not even what the passage says, which was usually only partially quoted by those using the truth model. What it actually says is, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” In other words, we get set free by truth as we walk in it and live it out, “hold to” it, not just memorize it. More about that later, but I knew that just knowing truth did not equal healing, both personally as well as with those I worked with. 

Third was the deliverance model. This perspective on healing said that if you were suffering you needed deliverance from some kind of demon or curse, and you could either get that from a supernatural deliverance or a fighting the demons off with Scripture. I remember once when a man told me he had the demon of “financial poverty,” and as we talked more, I ended up telling him that there was no demon of “irresponsibility” and he needed to get off of the couch and get a job. While I have seen that demons exist and do cause great suffering, I knew also that there were other reasons causing the suffering that I saw, and I sat with people after multiple deliverances who were still hurting and needed help. This, too, was a limited model. 

And finally, there were the various forms of the “inner healing” model. In these forms of healing, sometimes called experiencing “God’s touch,” people would get in touch with a painful memory, or have a cathartic release of pain. The healer would pray for them or go through a guided experience and “take Jesus to the moment of pain,” or a similar technique. Again, there was some relief that would happen, but not the transformation that I was looking for and which I saw described in the Bible. 

02.  Desert Time

So, I told God I wanted to do something else. And he basically said, “Shut up and keep going.” So, I did, and it was like entering into the desert. I felt as if I was throwing my education and life away, and pursuing something that I neither liked nor even believed in anymore. But, I had to keep going—I thought that was what God had led me to do. To make a long story short, over the next few years, 

I began to see what I had gone into the field to see. I saw depressed people not just cope but turn into people who no longer got depressed. I saw people with eating disorders turn into people who had a normal relationship with food. And it went on and on. Healing really did occur. I was seeing it first hand, and was experiencing it in my own life as well. God was leading me in this journey, step by step.

Now, it would seem that this would have been a happy time, right? I had been in despair because I was not seeing enough change happen, and now I was seeing healing take place. Victory, you would think. 

But the exact opposite was taking place. I was entering into a greater despair than before. The reason: None of the processes I was learning, processes that were bringing about real healing, were what I had been taught as “Christian.” They were effective, but as far as I knew, not “spiritual” in the ways that I had learned about spiritual growth. So, the essence of my despair was being forced into a choice I did not like. I could help people and not feel like I was engaging in spiritual redemption, or I could be “spiritual” and not very helpful. I did not like either one of those. I was stuck. 

I turned to God again, and asked Him to help me out of this quandary. Then, I decided to basically drop out of life (other than work) for a couple of years, and just start over. I went back to the Bible and tried to approach it without those models in my head and just read it as it was. I wanted to see it from as blank a slate as possible. I emptied my preconceptions and just read Scripture as Scripture. 

I can only express what happened over that time period in one way: I was born again, again. Everything that I had been observing that was bringing about healing was right there in the Bible all along. It was all there. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I could be in my skin, embracing reality, the Bible, and God all at the same time. 

I also discovered something else. Those other models were not in the Bible after all. Nowhere did it say that if you are “good” (without sin) you will not suffer, or that suffering only comes from one’s own sin. Similarly, it did not say that knowing truth, deliverance, or guided prayer would be cure-alls either. I felt released from having to believe exclusively in one model or another, in having to believe things that I knew not to be reality, and I had a renewed faith that the Bible was truer than I had ever known. 

03.  Salvation as Healing

What I was seeing was that “salvation” was something more than I had ever thought. It was not just about getting saved from hell, or just having a relationship with God. While those were certainly true, the Bible was saying something else as well. The word “salvation” actually means “healing.”Wherever the Greek word sozo appears in Scripture, it can alternately be translated as “saved” or “healed.”Redemption meant that God was bringing us back to the way we were supposed to be, and “reconciling all things unto himself.” Salvation was in

essence “healing all that had gone wrong.” God was restoring life, and when he does that, our emotional and relational problems get healed as well. For the first time, my life mission and my faith truly came together. Why? 

I saw the Scriptures describing specific processes that produce maturity in us, and as a result of that maturing, we have increasing emotional and relational health. He restores his “image” in us, and as we grow more in his image, doing the things that he does, we get well. God is a person who does certain things that produce life, over and over again. And, he has created us in his image, able to do those same things. We are to be “like him,” living healthy lives. So, as we grow in his image, doing what he does, healing occurs. I began to understand that salvation equals healing, just as the Greek word implies. Said another way: The more that God helps us to become like him, bearing his image, we get well. So what does that look like? 

As I wrote in my book Changes That Heal, I think this happens in four basic areas: 

First, God is able to form emotional connections. He bonds with the other members of the Trinity, and then with us. He has ongoing, unbroken relationships, and created us to be able to do the same. What we know from science and experience is that disconnection, or emotional isolation and detachment lead to all sorts of emotional and relational problems. From depression, to anxiety, to breakdowns in intimacy, our inability to get close to others and establish deep emotional connections are at the root of many of our problems. God is a connector, and is restoring our ability to connect as well. As he does that work of restoration, we get well. 

I had seen this first-hand, not only in my work, but in my own life as well. In college, I had fallen into a deep depression, and had turned to God for help. I waited for him to “zap me” with healing, but what he did instead was get me connected to a small group of people who got under my skin, got me to open up and be vulnerable, reveal my hurts and needs, and they connected with me where I was. As I invested in them, creating deeper connections, I began to get better. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the spiritual healing that God was giving me, all while I was waiting on a supernatural “zapping.” Instead of zapping me, he was restoring his image in me—the ability to bond with others and be filled as a result. 

Second, God is able to be free from the ones he loves, and have boundaries and limits. Said another way, he stands up to the ones he is in relationship with, and sets limits when He is violated. He is not an “enabler.” In addition, he is free from being controlled by those that he loves. 

What I was seeing was that for many psychological and relational problems to get resolved, this basic ability to be free had to be “saved” or “healed.” Depression, anxiety addictions and many other maladies came as a result of people not having the kinds of boundaries that God has, being able to stand up to evil and set limits. Yet boundaries are taught in Scripture, and God is working to restore that ability in us as He matures us. Again, as he restores His image, we get well. 

Third, much of our suffering has to do with the fact that we were designed to live in a perfect world, and yet that world has gone bad. It is fallen. As a result, we have imperfections in ourselves, in the ones we love, and in the world around us. God is able to deal with this reality through being able to grieve and forgive, and at the same time hold on to the “good.” Said another way, even when we sin, through forgiveness and processing his pain, God still holds on to love. He can hold it all together. 

Contrast that ability with the way we live our lives. Too often, when we fail, we see ourselves as “all bad” and want to throw in the towel. We feel unlovable and worthless. Or, when someone else does not live up to our expectations or even wounds us in a horrible way, we find it difficult to forgive and let it go. We are forever in bondage as a result of our lack of forgiveness. When we are hurt, we find it difficult to process that pain; instead, we deny it and stuff it. What happens when we do that is we carry it around forever, and feel the effects of our “baggage.” 

As God redeems his “likeness” in us, we get better at these abilities and get healed as a result. We get better at accepting ourselves and our own imperfections because of God’s forgiveness of us. We get better at accepting others and forgiving them. And, we process our pain and wounds as we learn to mature in our ability to grieve as He does, and let it go. The fruit of this spiritual growth is that we get healthier and healthier, resolving the pain of all of the hurts and disappointments that have happened to us along the way. 

Fourth, God grows us up into what I refer to as “adulthood.” What I mean by this is that we are all born “little people in a big person’s world,” and we feel inferior and “one-down.” Many times because of poor parenting and other results of the fall, we stay stuck in this child position, experiencing all of the related symptoms. Depression, anxiety, addictions, inferiority, judgment, and other maladies show us that we really do not feel equal to other adults, capable of mutuality and living out our gifts without fear. 

This was one of Jesus’ main emphases, as he constantly told us that we “are all brothers,” and that no one is better than anyone else. (Matt. 23:8–12) He called us to be equal adults, living out our talents and taking authority over our lives. When we assume this adult position, we come out of the “one-down” judgment and people-pleasing that causes so many emotional and relational problems. We take responsibility for our talents, and lives, and begin to produce fruit. We speak out, expressing opinions and beliefs. As God grows us up from the child position to the adult position, we get well. Again, as we are saved, we are healed. 

Now, many years later, I no longer have “two worlds.” There is no such thing to me as an “emotional problem” that is separate from a “spiritual problem.” We are spiritual beings, and our salvation has everything to do with our emotional and spiritual wellbeing. As we grow in him, and as his image is strengthened in us, we get well, healed, as we “are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14, NIVScripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™). 

My prayer for you is that you might have a similar experience, knowing that your relationship with God is more than just “fire insurance,” or only having a connection with Him. While those would be enough in and of themselves, he has offered us much more, in this “so great a salvation” (Heb. 2:3, NIV). In salvation he has offered us the real meaning of the word itself: healing. 

So, submit yourself to this path of growth in his image. Connect deeply with God and others, establish boundaries of righteousness, process the bad things through forgiveness and grief, and become an adult by taking authority and stewardship over your life. As you do, you will be healed. 

Footnotes

Dr. Henry Cloud is a psychologist, leadership consultant, and best-selling author who has written, or cowritten, more than twenty books, including the two-million-copy best seller Boundaries and his most recent books, Necessary Endings, Integrity, The One Life Solution, The Law of Happiness, and 9 Things You Simply Must Do. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, earning a B.S. in psychology with honors. He completed his PhD in clinical psychology at Biola University and his clinical internship at Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. His philanthropic interests lie in the area of homelessness and the inner city as well as missions in the developing world. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Tori, and their two daughters, Olivia and Lucy.

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