I once had a conversation with Carl Ellis in which he led me through the Salvific Paradigms of Jesus.  We usually want to know if someone is “born-again.”  But how many times did Jesus ask someone to become “born again?”  Only one time when he was talking to an older man, Nicodemus, who’s deepest need/desire would have been to become young again. (John 3)

Then there was the woman at the well who he offered living water.  When she realized that Jesus was the Christ, she ran into the town and told everyone about the man who “told her everything I ever did.” (John 4)  She didn’t get “saved” by Jesus, she got “saw” by Jesus.  To others he was “bread” and still others he was “light.” 

The task of the Jazz Theologian is not to get people saved necessarily–though that is a paradigm that God will use in many cases–rather to help people become Christians the way Christ did.

What other Salvific Paradigms to you see in the scriptures?