May 25
“We have been born into a new life… The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (1Pet. 1:3; 2Cor. 5:17)
The message of salvation is this: Jesus came so that what you were is no more… what you are now, is IN Him.
Salvation is God’s way of reconnecting us with Himself – restoring us back to what we were originally designed to be. When we turn to Jesus and receive what He has willingly done for us, we ARE reconnected back with the One Who made us.
This is why the apostle taught us to: “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:12-13)
“Working out” our salvation means that we are to spend our lives seeking to understand, and live by, the fullness of the wonder of what God has done for us, and will do through us, because of Jesus.
God has made it possible for us to be reconnected with Him. To come alive from death. To draw our Life from Him. And for Him to pour out His Life through us.
Salvation is God’s means of being reconnected with Him. “Working out our salvation” is living by that divine connection.
When we really understand this… it will revolutionize the way we live our Christian faith. Gone is the way of trying to do good, trying to please God, and trying not to mess up.
We NOW live life by our connection with God. Us in Him. Him in us. Doing what God does through us.
Our faith, then, rises to the understanding that IF it is God at work through us (because of our reconnection with Him in salvation) what is it that God cannot do?
The focus on human effort and human limitations is removed from the mix… all that is left is what God can do through willing hosts.
This is what Jesus was constantly trying to teach His disciples… “IF you believe, nothing will be impossible.”
Why? Because God is the One doing the doing. Our faith is the “permission” for God to work as He desires to work.
This is often so difficult for us to grasp. We have been led to believe that we are all just works in progress… that (someday) we just might be godly enough for God to do some pretty amazing things through us. But until that time, we’re just going to have to struggle along – until we become better, more capable, Christians.
What God would have us see is simply this… Our new life in Him BEGINS at the moment we are connected with Him through receiving the gift of salvation. And from that moment on… our lives are defined by THAT connection. Everything that God is able to do, He is able to do from that very first moment of connection.
We are not becoming new creations (people who can do godly things) we ARE new creations (people who are eternally connected to the God Who does God things).
The message of salvation is that the old is gone (whatever we were, because of sin and its effects) and the new has NOW come. From the very instant that we said “Yes,” to Jesus, we are connected to the Life that is eternal and infinite.
TheHeartseeker's Blog 