The reason God saved us.
Romans 6: 4 –7
It is always exciting to witness someone accepting the offer of salvation from God. It is amazing to watch as they develop from a babe in Christ to a full-grown man or woman of God. Although, we do not actually understand all that is involved in our being reborn into the family of God, we know something meaningful has happened and we honestly desire to change our lives. Nevertheless, somewhere between the excitement and the desire, the importance of our salvation escapes us. We often fail to appreciate our status as the children of God. Moreover, we fail to mature and become the mighty men and women of God; we were reborn to become. The threat of not growing or maturing in our relationship with God should cause us to reflect and ask some questions concerning the purpose and meaning of our salvation. We must understand what we did spiritually as well as physically when we stepped forward to accept God’s offer of salvation. We must understand the gift we received because of our baptism and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. We can find these answers by looking through and mediating on the Scriptures.
According to the Scriptures, upon our salvation we are reborn as the new creations of God. However, our rebirth does not involve our physical appearance. It involves a transformation of our spiritual man. We are spiritually dead because of our sins and the corresponding separation from God. God is holy. Therefore, our sins make us unholy. Consequently, we need to be reborn into the righteousness of God. As the saved children of God, we are new creatures. We die to our old spiritual selves. We rise out of the watery grave of baptism to a new spiritual life. 2nd Corinthians states, ‘ olds things have passed away and everything has been made new.’ The old ideal of sin should be replaced with the new ideal of living righteous for God. We replace those old ideals with the information we receive from our study and mediation on the Scriptures. Sin made us enemies to God, however, the Scriptures informs us that Christ died for us. This makes us friends with God. Sin once stood between God and us. Now the Scriptures tells us, ‘ Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.’
Therefore, when we respond to what we read in the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit of God will lead us into all understanding and righteousness. The Holy Spirit of God will empower us to do God’s will. This begins the process of recreating us into the image and likeness of God. James 1:18 informs us that we are reborn through the Word of Truth or the Scriptures. When we study it, we renew our minds to God’s way of thinking. This is why our spiritual rebirth has nothing to with us. God does the recreation Himself. God through His Holy Spirit gives us the understanding of the Scriptures. His Holy Spirit empowers us to do what we have been taught. Because of this, we mature in and develop in our relationship to God. Titus 3: 5-7 says God saved us not because of the righteous things we do. God saved us just because He loved us. He had mercy on us because of Jesus birth, life and eventual death. We are reborn spiritually by the renewal of our minds through studying the Scriptures and the teachings, guidance, and empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, we are no longer enemies to God. We have been accepted into the family of God. And are co-heirs with Christ to the kingdom of God.
Nevertheless, the process of renewal and maturing as a child of God is a continual journey. We actually work out our salvation by doing the things God instructs us to do. As we continue to do these things, we develop more and more into the type of person God recreated us to become. 2nd Corinthians tells us to renew our minds and John 5: 24-25 informs us that ‘when we hear His Words and believe that God has, is, and will do what He promised, we will be saved.’ In Romans, we are told faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We are therefore made alive in God by our belief in what the Scriptures reveals to us. We must believe that God loved the world so much that He gave his only, unique, and begotten Son so we can enjoy the presence of God in our lives. Ezekiel 18:4 states ‘ the soul that sins shall surely die.’ When we are in sin, we are separated from God. We are also dead to the ways of God or the path of righteousness. When we are dead in sin, we are in league with Lucifer. This union will earn us the same reward that is reserved for him. This is why the Scriptures inform us to confess our sins. God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. He will also clean us from unrighteousness. He will restore us back into the image and likeness of God.
In sin we are as good as dead, nevertheless, because God loved us, we have been given a way-out or a path of escape from the wages of sin. Because God loves us, He provided the Holy Spirit to guide us along the path of righteousness. The Holy Spirit teaches us all about God as we renew our minds through the study and mediation on the Scriptures. God has cleansed us from our sins. Now, we are free to live in total dependence and complete obedience to God. Now, the Holy Spirit of God can come into our hearts and we can experience the presence of God. He has provided us with the Scriptures. He has allowed it to be proclaimed to inform us of our away of escape from the path of sin. Now, we have turned from the darkness to the light of God. In the light, we have clarity of purpose. In the light, we can discover our position in the body of Christ. In the light, we can see those walking in the darkness. Because we are in the light, we can point them to the road of salvation.
Moreover, when we point others to the road of salvation, we began to develop and mature in our relationship with God. The more we proclaim the good news to our brothers and sisters, the more we hear the words ourselves. We are not only to make disciples; we are to teach them everything we are taught. Therefore, the more we tell others about the gospel, the more the Holy Spirit of God reveals to us. The real good news is God has decided to take us and recreate us in His image and likeness. He has placed us as royal priest, a holy nation, and calls us heirs to His Kingdom. The good news is we now walk in the light, although we once walked in the darkness. The things we once believed, we no longer believe because we walk in the light. We can now show others the way to the path of righteousness, because we now walk in the light. This is the will of God. His will is for us to experience the presence of God in our lives.
This is the reason for our unspeakable joy and unshakeable peace. We are thankful to God because He has claimed us. Although we did not know Him, God claimed us and has chosen us to be His peculiar people. We are thankful because God has chosen to bless us with more than we can ever dare to ask for, dream of or imagine. He will provide for us out of the riches of His kingdom, just because He loves us. We are thankful because our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Although times get hard, we remain thankful because we are continuing to experience the presence of God as we do His work. Since God has chosen us, we must be loyal to Him, We must chose to follow His teachings as they are revealed through our study and mediation on the Scriptures. We must choose God regardless of what the world says. We choose God by our obedience. We choose God by our dependence on Him. We choose God and God chooses to empower us. Therefore, when we chose to follow Jesus, we become dependent to and obedient to God. Philippians 4: 6-7 says ‘ God will bless us with peace that pass all understanding.’ The Scripture promises, ‘ God will supply all our need according to His riches in Glory.’ However, we must choose to follow Him. When we choose God by seeking out in wisdom of the Scripture, we will have a confident assurance that God abides in us and we abide in Him. When we choose God, we discover the reason God saved us.
