Thursday, December 31, 2015

“No Such Thing"


     There is no such thing as salvation.

    By this, I do not mean to suggest a controversial or obviously false notion.  I rather intend to consider the truth that the salvation declared by Scripture involves the most intensely personal reality of our existence.
 
     "The Lord is... my salvation" (Psalm 27:1).

    The Psalmist affirms our Lord as our salvation.  Such grace is not a thing or a possession, but rather a Person with whom we have living relationship and fellowship.  The Holy Spirit indwells us when we believe for the holy purpose of birthing within us unto the relational bond with Christ for which God created us.  "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).  Many fruits of salvation proceed from the presence of our Lord within us.  The Savior Himself, however, constitutes the root and essence of salvation.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him" (Colossians 2:6-7).

   Our original forebears long ago turned away from the tree of life that provided the eternal spiritual vitality of knowing God in and through Christ.  This resulted in the need for salvation in all of Adam's son and daughters.  Such necessity involves atonement for our sins, forgiveness, cleansing, deliverance from our fleshly constitution and subsequent condemnation.  Most importantly, however, salvation involves the Savior personally entering the mortal chamber of our spirits and raising us from the dead.  "You hath He quickened (enlivened), which were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).  He is our salvation, our Savior from death and unto His own life everlasting.  Thus, we must never view our redemption in anything other than the most personal terms.  To be saved means that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us to reveal Himself as the living reality of all salvation.  Again, we were made for this gift of grace, and God so desires to personally relate to us that He gave His beloved Son unto a terrible tree of death in order to save us unto His tree of everlasting life.

    In such blessed light, there is no such thing as salvation.  There is a Savior, the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus Christ.  When the Bible references the matter, it always implies Christ as the heart of the matter even if it does not directly proclaim it.  He is our salvation.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  Nothing else.


Say it again, Lord, 
By Thy Word and Thy Spirit and the voices of Thy children,
again and again please say it, Lord,
I am thy salvation. 

For we have none other, to whom shall we turn when
the needs of our heart call us yet again
to say it, Lord,
You are our salvation.

So we will say it, Lord, 
as we look into Your face to once again receive Your grace
as You say it, as we say it,
I am, You are our salvation.


"Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation."
(Psalm 35:3)

Weekly Memory Verse
    The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
(Psalm 27:1)
   
     
    
    

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