The Way of Salvation (Part 5)

SALVATION IS A MEANS TO AN END

Salvation, as vitally urgent as it is, is not an end in itself. It is a means to a greater end. Paul says as much in Ephesians 2:10. After reminding his readers that we are saved by grace through faith and in Christ, he tells us the purpose of our salvation. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

When we accept Christ as our Savior, we also surrender to Him as our Lord (Acts 2:36). A Lord is to be served! In I Corinthians 15:58, we are admonished to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

II Corinthians 9:8 assures us, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything; you may have an abundance for every good deed.”

If you are considering becoming a Christian, make no mistake about it, it is not an easy way to live. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). The cross, in Jesus’ day on earth, was not a beautiful piece of jewelry or a religious symbol. It was a means of putting people to a painful and shameful death. To take up one’s own cross is to surrender one’s desires and ambitions to Him.
During most of the history of Western Civilization, especially in the United States, it has been too easy to be a nominal Christian. September 11, 2001 informed us dramatically that this is no longer true. If you become a Christian, over half the world’s population will automatically hate you. Every year, recently, over 100,000 people, worldwide, have been killed, some by torture, for no other crime than being a Christian. Even in the formerly Christian United States, being public and vocal about being a Christian has become the most politically incorrect thing one can do.”

Should you decide to follow through on your present interest and take the steps that lead to salvation in Christ, you may very well join the blood stained ranks of those who have “been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake...” (Philippians 1:29). Jesus, Himself sounded this warning: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18-20).

Weigh your choice very carefully. If the Christian gospel is not true, it doesn’t matter. If the Christian gospel is true, nothing else matters! Jesus promise, “I will come again, ands receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14: 3)” is as valid today as it was the day He spoke it. The earliest Christians, who followed Christ at their own peril in a world whose attitude toward Jesus Christ and His people was very much like that of our world, looked forward eagerly to a day when, “...the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Jesus' last words to His people included this promise recorded in Revelation 22:12; “Behold I am coming quickly, and my reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” TO BE PREPARED FOR HIS COMING IS TO BE SAVED TO THE UTTERMOST!