2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Friends,
There simply wasn’t enough room in one message to share everything the Lord wants me to discuss about Him as Our God of Salvation. What a crucial issue salvation is! When Les Feldick, my beloved friend and teacher, describes it, he simply says, “FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION.” Of course that’s not all to be said on the subject. We all know that before we can truly come to faith, we must repent-turn from our sins. The outward manifestation of this inward “transformation by the renewal of the mind” is baptism. [See RO 12: 2]. But, it’s important to reiterate the Pauline teaching that our salvation doesn’t come from the baptism; it comes from the faith in Christ it represents. Yesterday, I characterized the series of citations we are looking at in these two messages as a love letter to us from God. And, that is what they are. The picture here wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t cite JN 14: 21, “Whoever accepts My commandments and obeys them is the one who loves Me. My Father will love whoever loves Me; I too will love him and reveal Myself to him.” Les has another amazingly clear definition for a difficult to describe subject, faith. “Faith, “ he says, “is taking God at His Word.” (The capital “W” is no accident). Can you see that faith, obedience, and love are intertwined? That’s also no accident.
The angel of God speaks to Joseph in MT 1: 21-23, “She [Mary] will have a Son and you will name Him Jesus-because He will save His people from their sins. Now this all happened in order to make come true what the Lord said through his prophet, ‘A virgin will become pregnant and have a Son, and He will be called Immanuel- God is With Us.’ “ When the Lord made promises back in the OT about this, He kept them. [See IS 11: 10, JER 23: 6, MICAH 5: 2, etc.]. I never get tired of saying it is because the Father loves us so much that He wanted us to have a way out from under slavery to sin and the spiritual death that comes from this slavery. Where does obedience come into this story? Imagine what would have happened if Joseph hadn’t had the faith to believe God’s angel and had refused to believe that Mary had been faithful to him. Thankfully, Joseph was obedient and faithful. When it was time to marry Mary, bring Jesus up, protect him from Herod the Great and others, Joseph did all of these things.
Before Christ was even born, his uncle, Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, made a prophecy that is very important to us about his own son. LK 1: 76-77, “You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High God. You will go ahead of the Lord to prepare His road for Him, to tell His people that they will be saved by having their sins forgiven.” If we ever thought that Christ’s coming and His role as our Redeemer was an accident, we need to think again. They are the acts of a loving Parent who wants nothing more than to see as many people as possible come to faith and be saved. COL 1: 19-20 really makes this issue clear. “For it was by God’s own decision that the Son has in Himself the full nature of God. Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to Himself. God made peace through His Son’s death on the cross and so brought back to Himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.” [See also AC 2: 23 & 4: 27-28; 1 PET 1: 20-21].
The story of Christ and the Samaritan women he met at a well is a beautiful lesson in obedience and love that He taught to both His disciples and to us. Samaritans were only half Jewish and as such, were held separate from the Jewish community. Jesus was thirsty and asked the women for a drink. This was a most unusual thing for a Jewish person to do at that time. Christ said to the woman at the well in (22), “You Samaritans do not really know Whom you worship, but we Jews know Whom we worship, because it is from the Jews that salvation comes.” As the lesson proceeds, the women demonstrates her faith in the Messiah. Christ then reveals his true identity as the Messiah to her JN 4: 26. When the disciples offer food to Christ, His reply exemplifies the attitude He has toward the issue of obedience. JN 4: 34, “My food is to obey the will of the One Who sent Me and to finish the work He gave me to do.” The Samaritan woman not only came to faith in Christ, but she went back to her village and brought many others there to faith as well. Look at all the people who are saved as a result of faith and obedience. God reveals Himself as the God of Our Salvation.
Paul offers us an important part of this love letter from God in RO 10: 9-10. This is one we should all memorize; that’s how important it is. “If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.” I believe this with all of my heart, Dear Ones, and it is my most profound hope that you do too. My faith was not my attitude, but one that a loving Abba has given to me. I know he wants you to have this very same heart-attitude too. That is why I keep writing these messages to you, to encourage you to share the same faith I have and to encourage us all to uplift each other in this faith when the going gets tough or Satan is trying to tempt us. We can do that for each other, prompting each other to remain faithful and obedient to the Lord who made salvation possible for us.
PRAYER: O Lord, You deserve our obedience and give us the faith upon which it is borne. We worship You in humble adoration. You are to be praised for the patient and compassionate love You show us. We can demonstrate our love for you by carrying out Your will. We understand that faith, love, and obedience are forever tied to one another and are potent forces in a life in Christ. Thank You for revealing Yourself as the one and only God, the God of Our Salvation. In Christ’s name, amen.
Let me close by citing REV 19: 1 in which John is speaking. “After [Babylon was punished because of the blood shed by the martyrs], I heard what sounded like the roar of a large crowd of people in heaven, saying, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to God!” We can keep our eyes and faith focused on the future victory over evil that Christ will win for us all. By doing so we can share the hope that our faith brings and offer worship the God of Our Salvation richly deserves. Peter and I send you our love today and always.
In The Grip of His Grace,
Lynn