The plan of salvation was devised because God loves us. That plan, though, can be mind boggling to us. This devotion looks at how God freely saves and calls us (in that order) to restore our relationships with Him.
Nuggets
- We may not be able to figure out everything about God, but we have to figure out enough to believe in Him.
- The plan of salvation is open to all mankind.
- Instead of our own merits, we are offered salvation through grace.
- We are not called to be children of God by anything we do; it is about what Jesus has already done for us.
- The purpose God has in saving us is so that we are no longer spiritually dead.
Devotions in the Comprehending Christ’s Love series
Comprehending the love that Jesus and God have for us is a mind-boggling task. Yet Paul, in Ephesians 3: 18, said he wanted us to understand.
We have been looking at a sermon by Baker entitled Comprehending Christ’s Love to try to help us.
Resource
Let’s see what we can piece together here.
Oh, imagine this. This one is going long, too. I will have to break it into two devotions.
Let's Put It into Context
“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is” (Eph. 3: 18 NLT)
Here is what we pulled out of the devotions so far.
- God loves us even after we disobeyed Him.
- God loves us so much that He designed a plan to restore our relationship with Him.
- God’s everlasting love means that — no matter what we do — He is going to love us.
- What He won’t forgive is our continued unbelief. He won’t forgive us when we don’t submit to him.
- Even as His love for us is going to last forever, God is going to have an agreement with us that will last forever.
- Jesus’ love for us is so intense that He willingly gave up His life — gave up Heaven — so His blood could be used as the sacrifice for us.
- Because we are children of God, we are heirs of God.
Note: The headings in purple and blue are Baker’s words, not mine.
What the Apostle Meant, Desiring the Ephesians Might Comprehend It
“But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him” (Ps. 89: 33 NLT)
Isaiah 55: 8-9 tells us that God’s thoughts and ways are way above us. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55: 8-9 KJV).
If God told us we can’t understand, how can Paul tell us we can comprehend?
That they might form correct views of the freeness of God’s love
“He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (II Tim. 1: 9 CSB)
We may not be able to figure out everything about God, but we have to figure out enough to believe in Him. That means we have to have the correct views of God’s love.
Because face it. We sometimes try to make God what we want Him to be. “Oh, God doesn’t care who I love.” Well, yes, He does.
Scriptures tell us He doesn’t want us yoked with non-believers (II Cor. 6: 14). Plus, there is a comprehensive list in Leviticus 18 of unlawful sexual practices.
“You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I am the Lord” (Lev. 18: 6 NLT)
- your mother (Lev. 18: 7)
- any of your father’s wives (Lev. 18: 8)
- your sister or half sister (Lev. 18: 9)
- your granddaughter (Lev. 18: 10)
- your stepsister (Lev. 18: 11)
- your aunt on either side (Lev. 18: 12-14)
- your daughter-in-law (Lev. 18: 15)
- your brother’s wife (Lev. 18: 16)
- both a woman and her daughter or her granddaughter (Lev. 18: 17)
Jacob should have remembered this one. “While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals (Lev. 18: 18).
Most of us are probably going Ewwwwww. But we may not add this one on the list — and we should. “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin” (Lev. 18: 22).
There are more in that chapter that God forbids. I think I have proved my point that yes, God does care who we love.
Back on track. God’s doesn’t want us to put Him in our box. He wants us to join Him in His box.
Related Links
Natalie Grant
We are called by God. He instigates the calling.
To some, this may sound like it is limiting who gets called. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him …” (Jn. 6: 44 ESV).
It isn’t. We tend to forget about “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt. 22: 14 ESV). We are the ones who choose because of our free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
We are called out of the darkness of sin into Jesus’ light. “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’” (Jn. 8: 12 NIV).
We are called by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit uses God’s word and God’s people to convict a non-believer.
Some may think that God only calls certain people. That is not true. The plan of salvation is open to all mankind.
Noel address that belief in this way. He wrote, “The invitation runs in the most comprehensive terms, that none may think themselves excluded.”
Resource
True, Jesus went to the Jews first. But He didn’t want His disciples to stop there. He wanted them — and us — “… be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Ac. 1: 8 ESV).
How is this calling accomplished? Noel wrote this happen when “… the Holy Spirit shines into the mind with such irresistible light as convinces the judgment, awakens the conscience, and engages the will to a compliance with every part of its duty.”
Resource
God calling us is a hard concept for some to comprehend. We are not called to be children of God by anything we do. It isn’t about our social status, our bank account, our looks, our intelligence, our humility, our generosity — it isn’t about anything we do or don’t do.
Glossary
It is about what Jesus has already done for us. Jesus came to earth, died on a cross so that His blood could be shed, and rose again so that we would know the power of God.
We did nothing to deserve this. In fact, we did the opposite. “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 8 CSB).
Instead of our own merits, we are offered salvation through grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2: 8-9 ESV).
We are offered salvation only through grace. There is only one way for our relationships with God to be restored. “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).
Spurgeon noted that Paul told Timothy that God saved us before He called us. Hmmm. Does that throw a wrench into my way of thinking?
Does that mean everyone is saved? The order says the salvation happens before we accept or reject the calling. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with eternal life and good.
Spurgeon wrote, “Not in his own experience, not as far as the work of the Holy Spirit goes, but he is saved in God’s purpose, in Christ’s redemption, and in his relationship to his covenant Head; and he is saved, moreover, in this respect, that the work of his salvation is done, and he has only to receive it as a finished work.
Resource
Okay. Elaine-speak. Salvation isn’t based on anything we do. I am still a little fuzzy on the “… not as far as the work of the Holy Spirit goes …” part.
God has a purpose in saving us. That purpose is so that we are no longer spiritually dead. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
I think Spurgeon is correct when he said that the plan of salvation was completed, and we accept or rejected a completed plan. We aren’t offered a half-baked plan.
How does that mesh with Abraham? We talked before that Abraham was counted righteous because he believed God was Sovereign God, God created the universe, and would do what He promised.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Even though Jesus hadn’t accomplished the plan of salvation in Abraham’s time, Abraham believed in the promise of the Savior. That promise was given way back in Genesis 3: 15.
God designed the plan of salvation before He created the universe. Before He created mankind. Before mankind sinned. Sin is 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.
This salvation is given to us. Spurgeon said it isn’t offered to us. It is given to us.
So, how does this impact the is-everyone-saved debate? Spurgeon noted that “We ask to have mercy from the well-head of grace, but we ask not even to make the bucket in which it is to be brought to us; Christ is to be the sacred vessel in which the grace of God is to be presented to our thirsty lips.”
Resource
Let’s look at it this way. Down home, there is this Caring Cupboard. People can put things in it, and others take out what they need. Right now, it is deemed the garden overflow box. I’ve seen posts on Facebook where people have announced what they put into the box.
Sally has more tomatoes than she can use. She puts them in the box. Tom loves tomatoes but doesn’t have time to grow them himself. He goes to the box and takes them.
That is a little different concept than Sally going up to Tom and offering him the tomatoes. True, the end result is the same — Sally gets rid of tomatoes she doesn’t need, and Tom gets tomatoes he wants.
But the tomatoes are in the box whether or not Tom accepts. Now, Elaine is going to steer clear of the tomatoes all together — and that is her choice.
It is our choice to accept or reject the plan of salvation. The plan was in place long before we could do anything about it.
We know about God’s plan of salvation. Still, God calls us through the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Some of us wholeheartedly accept His gift. Some wrestle with the gift and what is expected of us. Others just flat out reject it.
It is our choice.
Making the Connections
The thing about the plan of salvation is that we not only have to grasp it, but we also have to include it in our lives. We’ve talked before about having to take it from head knowledge to heart knowledge.
I think we need to add feet knowledge, too. We have to act on it.
How Do We Apply This?
We have feet knowledge when we ABCD.
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
It is more than just the ABC part. We have to do the D part. We have to have it change our character, our habits, and our actions.
We have to submit to God’s holy plan.
Father God. You love us so much that You designed this wonderful plan to restore us to You. Help us to comprehend what we need to so that we will accept. Amen.
What do you think?
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