If you’re a fan of American Idol, you no doubt know by now the “shocking” and “unprecedented” results of last week’s elimination show. For the uninitiated, this year the biggest TV show in the world added a new dramatic wrinkle to its otherwise bland and bloated elimination results show. This season, the AI judges can choose to “save” an eliminated performer if they determine said performer “deserves” to stay in the competition. Once the contestant finds out he / she is eliminated, they are quickly handed a microphone and told “sing for your life”. (The ironic part is that contestants are forced to sing the same song that America voted them out for singing. Seems cruel if you ask me. To both the contestant and America!) If their performance is deemed worthy by unanimous vote by the judges, they’ll find salvation and live to sing another week.

This new wrinkle, known as “the judges’ save”, can only be used once per season. Here’s the catch: after the judges’ save is used, two performers must go home the next week. Last week, contestant Matt Giraud was spared elimination. (Actually this was the second time Giraud was the beneficiary of the judges’ grace, as he was an original “Wild Card” contestant early on in the season.) With the crowds and fellow contestants chanting “save, save, save” like some old gladiator movie, Simon Cowell looked Matt squarely in the eye and shared with him the results of the judges’ deliberation: “Matt….it’s good news.”

Here’s the bottom line. This week, furious texters around the country doubled their efforts to ensure that their favorite “artist” didn’t get sent home in a “stunning” double-elimination event, thus resulting in a record text-message turnout (45 million). From that perspective, I’m sure the judges’ save accomplished exactly what the producers hoped it would. But it also highlighted for me an idea that permeates our culture: the notion that salvation can be merited. In my mind, I’ve been asking myself all week: what does it mean to “deserve” to be saved? The blogs were humming this week, affirming that Matt indeed “deserved” it, whereas other contestants certainly did not. What does deserved salvation look like? And if you deserved to be saved, did you really need to be saved in the first place? All of this begs us to define what exactly we mean by the term “salvation”. For many of us, it simply means bucking up and trying harder.

But what about when your best isn’t good enough? That’s when we get kicked to the curb (or, in AI-verbiage, our “journey” ends, complete with video montage and Carrie Underwood soundtrack). Of course, the good news (evangelion) of Christian witness is that salvation is neither earned nor merited. To say it differently, salvation does not originate from within us. It comes from without; it comes as the unmerited gift of God for life. It doesn’t come as the result of some performance; it doesn’t come from our efforts at trying harder, being more holy, drawing something out of ourselves in order to please a capricious Judge. (Thankfully, “pitchy” isn’t part of God’s vocabulary!) It comes completely and undeniably as a gift.

And this is truly good news.