When we look to being of the world but not in it, we focus on God. This daily devotional looks at focusing on salvation.
Nuggets
- Focusing on God helps us to look past the world and to repent from our sins.
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“Avoid entangling yourselves with the world. This clay will clog our minds, and a dirty happiness will engender but dirty thoughts” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
If we take our focus off the world, we can focus on God and find salvation.
- 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.
- Sins are 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.
- 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
Let's Put It into Context
We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes. Charnock has taught us
- that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
- In order to control evil thoughts, we need to address our pride.
Resource
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Focus to Repent and Be Saved
“‘You are from below,’ he told them, ‘I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world’. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins’” (Jn. 8: 23-24 CSB)
Focusing on God helps us to look past the world and to repent from our sins.
Being of the world is not a good thing. Jesus said we would die in our sins if we were.
Dying in our sins should be a scary thing for mankind. The Evangelist told us what that would mean.
- We will face judgment for the wrongs we have committed.
- We will “… die under the dominion or power of them.”
- We will feel the guilt for having committed the sins.
- We will suffer the punishment for eternity.
Resource
We’ve talked before about how the spending eternity in hell will be excruciating.
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But we can escape it. We have to search for God and ABCD.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
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 comes down to do we believe Jesus is our personal Savior. Do we believe that we are sinners and that He paid the penalty for our sins so that our relationships with God can be restored?
What does it take to believe? Beddome gave us a list. We have to recognize that
- We need Jesus to save us.
- Only Jesus can save us.
- His way is the best way.
If we know those three things to be true, we believe in Jesus as our Savior. The next step is to ABCD.
Just think of all the blessings we would miss if we hadn’t ABCDed! Thomas said these are physical, social, mental, and redemptive blessings.
Resource
But it is our choice whether we are going to believe Jesus is our Savior or not. We don’t have to worry that we have committed too great a sin that God will not forgive us. Ryle wrote, “All manner of sin may be forgiven.”
Resource
We know that there is only one sin that God won’t forgive. I believe that the unpardonable sin is unbelief.
God isn’t going to go up to Jesus and say, “Son, You did everything I asked You to do. But I just can’t send all these people to hell. I am going to let everyone into Heaven — whether they have ABCDed or not.”
That isn’t going to happen. We know God is unchangeable.
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Glossary
Yes, God has love, mercy, and grace that He lavishes on us. But we have our part. It isn’t just a one-sided covenant.
It is the unbelief that marks people to be of the world.
Believing isn’t enough. We have to repent and believe. “And saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mk. 1: 15 ESV).
Bolton noted the importance of repentance. 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. Bolton wrote, “If but one sin be unrepented of, the man continues still a bond slave of hell.”
Resource
If we leave one sin unrepented. One sin.
We don’t want that. We want to be prayed up.
Making the Connections #1
The sermons didn’t say anything about thoughts. But we have to consider our thoughts when we look at salvation.
What we have to do is renew our minds, including our thoughts. Renewing our minds – in fact, all of us – means changing ourselves to be more like God.
When we search for salvation and find it, we have to change our views and convictions to those God holds. We have to concentrate on being a new creation.
Glossary
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Thomas did address our character, though.
Christ’s character was divine. But when we think about it, Thomas said that our soul is, too. We were made in the image of God.
Glossary
Thomas brought up another good point. Jesus mingled with people, yet He was distanced from them in character. He wrote, “The crowd had nothing in common with Him. What they honoured, He despised; what He loved, they hated. Hence, He only felt akin to those who had kindred sympathy.”
Resource
Making the Connections #2
Thomas explained why Jesus had to be morally above mankind. “Had He not been thus morally above mankind, He had lacked the qualification to redeem souls. Holiness has the power to convict, to renovate, to sanctify, and to save. A man who is one with sinners, morally standing on the same platform, can never save them.”
Resource
This is a good argument for when worldview people say they believe having a good character is enough. Only Jesus could save us from our sins because His moral character was above ours.
We have to be sanctified up to His character. Mankind’s character is not enough to redeem ourselves. What the worldview sees as good enough isn’t because the worldview character does not have God in it.
We know what Jesus’ character was — and still is. Thomas wrote, “Though His physical personality is gone, His character is here still.”
Resource
How Do We Apply This?
- Be grateful for Jesus’ grace.
- No choice is a choice for Satan. We will face punishment for our sins if we do not consciously choose to follow Jesus.
Resource
We have everything to lose if we do not ABCD and choose Jesus. We have everything to gain if we do.
Father God. We praise You for being Sovereign God. Thank You for designing the Plan of Salvation so that we can have our relationships restored with You. We look to You instead of the world. Amen.
What do you think?
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