Salvation

Bought With a High Price

Posted on by Jesse Walker

Bought With a High Price – Video

How well do you make plans? I’m not very good at it. I like to think I’m spontaneous. Which means, I’m not good at making a schedule and sticking to it. That’s something I need to work on.

But I know someone who is great at making plans. Do you know who that is? If you said God, you’re correct. Did you know the bible says that God planned to save the world through his son Jesus Christ before he whispered a world into creation. In Ephesians 1:4-5 it says, “4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—”

This plan was carried out in Galatians 4:4 where we read that when the time had arrived God sent his Son to be born of a woman and to redeem his fallen creation. Make no mistake about it, it wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t just a good guess.  It was a well thought out, well-executed plan that was in the works before the beginning of time.

Why did God send his Son? In one word “love”. God before the beginning of time, choose to provide all who believe in Him a way back to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. This love was on full display on the cross when the Lamb of God carried away the sins of the world. God redeemed us (bought us back). There was no partial payment made. No loan taken out. He paid the bill in full. And he paid it with the blood of his Son, and 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “God paid a great price for you and me.”

By sending Jesus, He showed, that there is no Caucasian, no gender, no race, or ethnicity, no rich or poor, no educated or uneducated, no protestant, no country greater than the next. Neither Jew or Gentile, neither slave or free, neither male nor female, we are all one in Christ Jesus. He speaks to the shady lady at the well, he works with the stinky fishermen, with the lowly IRS agents (tax collectors), and he healed the lame and the blind.

Lord you are holy. We will praise your name forever. Help us to remember your steadfast love never ceases, your mercies never end, help us to see how they are renewed every morning.  For you are faithful. And this is Jesse Walker with the Glenwood Church of Christ.

Staying Motivated to Win Souls

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Being motivated to win souls in personal evangelism does not happen accidentally.  It occurs as a consequence of several factors which the Bible demands of children of God and is also the result of the heartfelt realization that there is an ongoing need for evangelistic activity.  I suggest we do the following ten things as we seek to develop and maintain motivation to win souls through evangelism.

  1. Love the Lord with all our heart and share our love. – Matt. 22:36-38
  2. Love our neighbor as our self and share our love. – Matt. 22:39-40
  3. Focus on the great spiritual danger confronting mankind. – Eph. 6:10-13
  4. Focus on the great number of lost souls. – Matt. 7:13-14; 20:16.
  5. Focus on mankind’s inability to save self. – Eph. 2:8-10; Rom. 5:12-17.
  6. Focus on the few number of workers bringing in the harvest. – Matt. 9:37-38
  7. Focus on the limited opportunities we have to win souls. – Matt. 25:14-30
  8. Focus on the grace of God operating in our lives. – 1 Tim. 1:13; Eph. 3:2, 8.
  9. Focus on the Word’s power to change lives. – Rom. 1:16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17.
  10. Focus on a positive, confident attitude. – Phil. 4:13; 2 Cor. 5:6, 8; Heb. 11:1.

Personal evangelism is necessary in every community if the church is going to continue to exist and have the opportunity of thriving numerically and spiritually.  We, as other congregations, face the inevitable aging process, the decease of older members, and other causes which may reduce membership from time to time.  Let us have renewed interest in personally being involved in evangelism.  As members of the church we have to do our part in this work, in fact, the Lord demands that we use our abilities and talents as opportunity permits.

Just because it seems like the world around us is walking farther away from God, we are not excused from doing our part to win over those souls. Saving souls really comes down to us having the desire to help those that are lost without God to find Him through His Son. If we truly care about more than our own salvation, we have to look at all people with the same loving value and desire for their salvation that God looks at all. He desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth! Do we caring that desire? God wants all. How many are we willing to reach out to on His behalf? We may be the answer from God for someone who is seeking the truth. Don’t let opportunities to assist in the saving of souls slip by.

How can I ‘work out my own salvation’?

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13

Outside of a cult here and a splinter group there, you don’t much hear anyone talking about salvation being by works. So let’s agree on that — we’re not saved by works.

The work of salvation was accomplished by Christ on the cross (John 19:30).

Then what in the world was Paul talking about when he said we need to “work out our salvation”? There are a couple of important points that will help us understand this passage.

First, who was Paul writing to? He was writing to Christians — a body of believers in Philippi who were already saved! (Philippians 1:1). Thus, this was not a group of unbelievers he was writing to who needed to go from a state of being unsaved to a state of being saved. He was not urging them to “come to Christ”; they were already there!

Second, let’s see Who it is that Paul says is doing the work: “…for it is God who works in you…”. So if God is the One doing the work, what is there left for me to “work out”?

Clearly Paul does not mean that there can be anything we can do as a meritorious act that will contribute to our salvation. The work of salvation was accomplished by Christ on the cross (John 19:30). The debt for our guilt of sin has been paid.

Therefore, we are not to work out our salvation from the guilt of sin; we are to work out our salvation from the power of sin. In a different letter, Paul wrote

11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires…14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:11-14)

As a member of the body of Christ, sin does not “reign in [our] mortal body”, but that does not mean we do not sin. This is how we are to “work out our salvation” — we are to think as Paul thought and to work as Paul worked:

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

You work each day so that sin has less and less “reign” in your life. You “press on toward the goal”. You let the Holy Spirit continue the work in you that Christ started. You work out your salvation from the power of sin by giving sin less and less control over your life, as you allow the Spirit more and more control.

Grumble, Grumble, Grumble…

Posted on by Bob Mathews

Have you ever felt like your life is missing something or that it should just been better in general? Even when your life is going well, do you feel the desire or need to complain about it not going well enough? Can I ask, what is enough in your mind or when will it be enough?

The Israelites were living in slavery in Egypt. Life was difficult. There were great burdens on them to the point that they cried out to the Lord.

“Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them” (Exodus 3:9).

God heard their cries and knew what was happening to them. He was ready to take action and help them gain freedom once again. So, God preceded to do this with Moses and his brother Aaron acting as a go between Him and Pharaoh and Him and the people. After words were spoken and signs were performed, Pharaoh refused to let the people go and even increased the burdens upon them.

This is where you see the first grumble of the sons of Israel. God is working on helping them out of oppression, but they complain to Pharaoh and then to Moses and Aaron that things are only getting worse for them (Ex. 5:15-23). This grumble has some legitimacy because even Moses then asks God why he was even sent. After God responded, He sent Moses and Aaron to press Pharaoh to let the people go again. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened in all this, and then God brought the plagues on Egypt. After all the plagues were passed, Pharaoh did exactly as God had said. He sent the sons of Israel out of Egypt. God gave His people freedom once more.

Not long after this decision, however, Pharaoh decided to pursue the sons of Israel into the wilderness to enslave them again. The people saw the pursuit and grumbled again to Moses. Why did you deal with us this way? Why did you bring us out here to die? It would have been better for us to stay and serve the Egyptians (Ex. 14:11-12). After everything God had done to give them freedom, they are already grumbling and complaining that oppression would have been better. God performed signs and wonders through Moses and the plagues and already they doubt in the Lord’s ability to save them. Not to mention the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that was leading the people. God is actively with them yet they still grumble. Why? When will God do enough for them?

God precedes to give them salvation once more by parting the sea so they could escape the pursuit of the Egyptians and even destroyed the Egyptians pursuing them with that divided water. Freedom was given and off into the wilderness they went. God took care of them over and over again. However, once in the wilderness they grumbled a third time. “What shall we drink?” Moses cried out to the Lord and He gave the people a source of water (Ex. 15:24-25). Once again God did not hesitate to take care of them.

Two months into their departure from Egypt the people grumbled once again. This time they grumbled out of hunger, which we all can agree is a legitimate need in life. However, they spoke in a way that flew in the face of all God had done for them. They spoke of Egypt and the full bellies they had there (Ex. 16:2-3). God had done so much for them already and yet once again they didn’t trust Him to take care of their needs. Instead, they complain and wish for days of oppression when they could eat their fill.

As you can see, the sons of Israel seem to have a pattern going on in their lives. No matter how much is done for them, it is never enough. We could go on looking at more passages about them grumbling over and over again. They even grumble again for water, something God has already shown He will give them, but it just never is enough. God did more for the sons of Israel than most would probably say they deserved.

The truth is, God has done more for all of us than any of us deserve. God cares for us in the same way that He did the sons of Israel. He takes care of our needs, the most important of which is the safety of our eternal soul. God gave us His Son. His Son who became the sacrifice for our freedom from sin. Our soul can be with God only because of what God did for us through Jesus Christ.

When you add that truth to everything else written in the Bible and all the works of God you can see around you, is it enough? Do you need more? What does God need to do for it to be enough for you? Jesus was the last piece in God’s plan to give us something that could bring about our salvation. If Jesus isn’t enough for you, nothing will be…

“Salvation is not initiated by human choice”

Posted on by Bob Mathews

I read that statement recently. It was written by John MacArthur, a man with whom I agree quite often, and with whom I also sometimes disagree. Do statements ever strike you as being so outrageous they couldn’t possibly be true, but if you think about it a little they make you wonder if there is a sense in which they may be true?

Such was the case for me with this one. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with it. Read on and I’ll tell you why…

What’s the first step toward salvation?

This post will not be a “step 1, do this; step 2, do this” type of post. Everything starts somewhere though. Such is the case with salvation, and certainly to see whether or not salvation is initiated by human choice, we need to see how it is initiated. So where does it begin?

We’re told that “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). So hearing the Word is the first step toward salvation.

God prepared before creation the good works He has in store for me today.

If hearing the Word is the first step, how is that initiated other than by human choice?

That indeed is the question to answer. Could it be there are things taking place that lead to our salvation before we hear the Word? If so, then they are not actions we take, because that would be in conflict with the Word itself.

Consider:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

4For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love 5He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—6to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. (Ephesians 1:4-6)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

So we are “created in Christ to do good works”. That’s a telling fact in itself, but what’s the source of these good works? “God prepared [them] in advance for us to do.” In advance of what? Certainly in advance of us doing the good works, but I believe it means more than that. The context of Ephesians 1, and on into chapter 2, is God’s eternal plan. Thus, God prepared before creation the good works He has in store for me today.

Predestined?

What about “He chose us” and “He predestined us”? So God chose before creation who would be good and who would be bad? Who would be saved and who would be condemned? No, that can’t be the proper meaning of this passage because if it is, it conflicts with several other things God told us, not the least of which is that He is “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

It’s easy to read “chose” and “predestined” in Ephesians 1, and miss the critical phrase. God “chose us in Him to be holy and blameless in His sight,” meaning He foreordained that those who come to Christ in obedient faith would be “holy and blameless in His sight”. So yes, we’re predestined, but not as individuals; we’re predestined as a class of people who trust in Him.

So you see, there are many things going on in “the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 1:3) that are directed to draw us to Christ — things that indeed initiate our process of salvation long before we ever hear the Word.

What other passages shed light on this subject? I’d love to hear your thoughts.