Our salvation is secured because everything depends on Jesus. This devotional reading looks at how Christ saves to the utmost when we draw near to God, even though we may feel we are not worthy of His salvation.
Nuggets
Jesus doesn’t lose us because He saves us to the uttermost when we draw near to Him.
Christ will save all who come to Him, asking Him to do so, so we can be restored to fellowship with God.
Jesus doesn’t lose us because He is willing to shield us.
Salvation isn’t about us. It is about God. Only Jesus has the power to save us to the utmost. Only He has the love and compassion to do that when we have rejected Him for so long.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the The Surity of Our Salvation study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
The foundation of this study is Beveridge’s sermon The Believer’s Safety
Resource
The headings are Beveridge’s words.
Christ Is Able
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7: 25 ESV)
Jesus doesn’t lose us because He saves us to the uttermost when we draw near to Him.
Save to the Uttermost
We doubt our salvation because we don’t think Jesus can truly save us. We can think of a long laundry list of things we think can go wrong that will steal our salvation from Him.
Wrong.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Jesus saves us to the uttermost. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103: 11-12 ESV).
Saving us is all about forgiving us of our sins. He doesn’t save us from being liars but can’t do anything with murderers – or the other way around. He doesn’t save us from half our sins but all.
Part of the process of forgiveness is cutting our sins out of us. Then, He gets rid of them.
Forgiveness is, when we ask, the act of God pardoning us because we have shown repentance for breaking His laws and commandments, which allows us to become holy as He is.
- Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
Glossary
Jesus saves us from all of our sins: pride, covetousness, hate, wrong actions. There is nothing from which Jesus can’t save us.
We are never too sinful that Jesus cannot save us. There is only one unpardonable sin. To me, that is when we refuse to believe in Him and submit our lives to following His Will.
We are never too much in despair that Jesus cannot save us. No matter what we think we have lost or how deep in the pit we are, Jesus can still save us.
We gain many things when we accept salvation through Jesus.
- Our sins are forgiven.
- We are changed to become more like God.
- We gain satisfaction and joy in this life.
- We gain eternal life.
Those Who Draw Near to God through Him
Christ will save all who come to Him, asking Him to do so, so we can be restored to fellowship with God.
The original sin caused us to be separated from Sovereign God. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God; therefore, they and all mankind were banished from His presence. God designed the Plan of Salvation to restore our fellowship with Him.
We know that God is adamant that there is only one way to salvation.
- “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4: 12 NIV).
- “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below” (Ex. 20: 3-4 NIV).
- “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 NIV).
We have to exhibit a sincere and loving faith in Jesus.
If we think we can save ourselves without drawing near to God, Jesus doesn’t save to the utmost.
There are no favorites in the Plan of Salvation. It wasn’t just the Pharisees that were offered salvation. It wasn’t even just the Jews.
Everyone who accepts God’s gift of salvation will be saved.
Rudder put it this way. He wrote,
“If what we can do is necessary to fill up the measure of demanded sacrifice, then Christ’s sacrifice is not infinite after all. And if Christ’s sacrifice is not infinite, then Christ Himself is not infinite. But if, on the other hand, Christ be infinite, if, therefore, His sacrifice be infinite, then the possibility of our coming acceptably to God in any other way is in the nature of things impossible.”
Resource
If any part of salvation depended on us, then Jesus wouldn’t be saving us to the utmost. If He couldn’t save us for eternity, then He wouldn’t be saving us to the utmost.
But we have to remember that the purpose of salvation is not about Jesus. It is about being able to draw near to God.
We aren’t to accept salvation because we think Jesus was a good Man Who did a lot of good things on earth while He was here.
We accept salvation so that the separation from Sovereign God that occurred because of the original sin can be eliminated.
It isn’t about Jesus. It is about God.
We have to come to God and pledge our obedience to Him since the original sin was a willful act of disobedience. We have to show Him that we have turned from our wicked ways.
We have to come in repentance.
We are being saved from the power of sin. “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith” (I Jn. 5: 4 ESV).
Salvation comes from God and is all about God.
Christ Is Willing
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Lk. 13: 34 ESV)
Jesus doesn’t lose us because He is willing to shield us.
We may question why Jesus would mourn for Jerusalem when almost all they did was reject Him. Dykes told us about Jesus’ love. He wrote,
“They are a wonderful expression of His deep-seated desire to save from ruin the worst of men, to save the unwilling, to save to the very last. … Let me say it reverently: it is the deep desire of God in our Lord Jesus Christ to bring the most impure and evil of us all into as close a relation to Himself as can be. Let us remember, the place of nearness is the place of safety.”
Resource
Think of the crowd screaming for Jesus to be crucified. True, it seemed that everything escalated at the end, but they were never openly accepting of Him.
Yet, here is Jesus acknowledging their rejection and telling them He loved them anyway.
Jesus sees our sins and loves us anyway. Jesus feels our refusal of Him and loves us anyway.
Remember, we just said salvation comes from God and is all about God. It is about Jesus paying the penalty for sin so that we can be redeemed.
We can refuse God, but He still offers us salvation.
Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem while they reject Him. He treats them as a mother would her children – lovingly sheltering them.
That is how much love and mercy Jesus has for us.
Jesus knew many of the citizen of Jerusalem would continue to reject Him, even after His resurrection. That brought Jesus great sorrow.
What we can gain from Jesus’ heartbreak over Jerusalem’s rejection is that Israel had always rebelled against Him. And yet, He never said they were not His people anymore.
In the same way, we will never lose our salvation when we genuinely put our faith and trust in Jesus.
Making the Connections
We don’t know what salvation is until we know what sin is. We can’t know God’s love until we know what salvation is.
Does that mean it is okay to sin? No.
It means that God uses our sin to teach us about Himself.
Kidd argued that this shows us the worth of our soul. He wrote,
“This we know, salvation is deliverance from sin and all its consequences; freedom from the curse of a broken law, and from the wrath of an offended God; the possession of pardon, peace, and growing purity in this life; and the full fruition of holiness, happiness, and glory in the life which is to come.”
Resource
We are worth so much to God that He designed the Plan of Salvation which sacrificed His own Son to a horrible death so that we may be restored to fellowship with Him.
How can we doubt our salvation?
How Do We Apply This?
- Come to God for salvation – we have to accept His gift.
- Don’t be left behind.
- Don’t stall in accepting salvation from Jesus because His salvation is perfect.
- Believe that – even when we struggle with sin – Christ has saved us to the utmost if our faith is sincere.
Resource
Father God. We are awed that You loved us enough to sacrifice Your Son for the Plan of Salvation. We see how unworthy we are and how much He is worthy. We know there is nothing we can do for salvation but accept amour gift. We know You will never withdraw a genuine salvation. So, we know that there is no need to doubt our salvation.
What do you think?
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