Because we have been separated from God, we need to have our relationships restored. God designed the Plan of Salvation to do that. This daily devotional reviews what salvation is and isn’t and reviews the steps to salvation.
Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series
All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.
We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.
I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.
I grew up thinking that God’s original intent was to have us live for eternity in His fellowship and image, but the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin messed that up. That is where the poverty, disease, death, yada, yada, yada came into the world – i.e., Satan, not God. It looks like God just accepted Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey Him and gave up.
What never clicked before was that God put the Plan of Salvation in place long before Adam and Eve sinned. So, maybe God did just accept because that was part of The Plan (Eph. 1: 4) (Is God Really in Control Right Now?).
God always knew we were going to be disobedient. If we were going to remain faithful (which is He would rather have happened), He wouldn’t have needed to design the Plan of Salvation before He made us (Is Peace an Attitude?).
What Is Salvation?
- God sees our deep need of His salvation and reveals Himself to us (How Do We Profit from Scriptures?).
- Luckily for us, God wants back the relationship that was lost when the original sin occurred. That is why He designed the Plan of Salvation (How the Righteousness of God Filters to Us).
- Even though we fell from His grace, God still loved us enough to design the Plan of Salvation. We just need to believe on Him to be grafted in again (Rom. 11: 23) (Is Election Really Mercy?).
- We really didn’t expect God to show His mercy to us by designing the Plan of Salvation before He even created us — before Adam and Eve committed the original sin (Is Election Really Mercy?).
- Election is God’s plan to bring that salvation to His creation. That means Jews. That means Gentiles. That means all of the Toms, Sallys , and Elaines (Is Election Really Mercy?).
- God is in the business of saving us (How Can We Find Comfort in Troubling Times?).
- The Plan of Salvation is about turning away from sin — our sinful, physical nature — and turning toward God and our new spiritual nature (Evidence of Election).
- Initially, we have to learn about Who God is and what He has done. What He has done is the Plan of Salvation (Knowledge as a Virtue).
- The Plan of Salvation was designed because God knew we wouldn’t do the do’s and we would do the don’ts (What Is Election?).
- What is the purpose of the gift? God wanted His relationships with man restored. He wanted sin eliminated. To do that, He designed the plan of salvation (What Is Election?).
- Grace gave us access to salvation. Salvation purified us (How Do We Benefit from Being God’s People?).
- Salvation is based on forgiveness. God will forgive all but one sin — even multiple times. That is how much He loves us (Where Is Jesus?)
- God had the Plan of Salvation all mapped out before He even created us. It wasn’t an afterthought (What Is Election?).
- God chose us to bring His plan of salvation into fruition to fix His people and His world. God had to choose to redeem us. Salvation is all about redemption (What Is Election?).
- God is God, but He needed a part of Himself to come down as a sacrifice for our sins. That is where Jesus came into the picture. Jesus came as a human but still as God. He also came as an example of the obedience for which God was looking. We needed Someone to model our relationship with God. After Jesus accomplished the Plan of Salvation, God needed a part of Himself to reside in us. That is where the Holy Spirit fits into the picture (One God and the Trinity).
- “God presented Him as a propitiation …” (Rom. 3: 25 HCSB). It was God’s idea. “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ — which is to fulfill his own good plan” (Eph. 1: 9 NLT). God picked the substitute. It was His Plan of Salvation. He picked the Sacrifice. God picked Jesus as the substitute because He wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He didn’t want there to be any possibility that He could not accept the sacrifice. He knew Jesus was worthy to be the sacrifice. We mean that much to Him (Did Jesus or His Blood Redeem Us?).
- God did send Jesus to the earth to accomplish the Plan of Salvation. Jesus became the captain of our salvation through His suffering on the cross (Who Is Jesus as God?).
- We approach Christ as Mediator and Priest when we are searching for salvation. Once we approach Jesus for salvation, we are to believe that Jesus intercedes for us. He is presenting us to His Father so that God can forgive us of our sins. No, I don’t think it is going to be hard to sell God on forgiving us — when we genuinely go to Jesus for salvation. If we aren’t genuine but are just looking for fire insurance, I don’t — in my opinion — think Jesus intercedes for us (How Do We Believe in Jesus?).
- God sends His Holy Spirit to us to call us to salvation. We cannot just come to Him. That makes salvation a gift from Him to us (Faith as a Virtue).
- We gain salvation by the Holy Spirit taking us to the Father using the Son as the way. He does this by interpreting the scriptures for us (How Do We Let the Spirit Lead?).
- Salivation breaks the bondage from Satan when he got Eve to believe that she previously had been in bondage to God (Gen. 3: 1). He was trying to get Eve to see that she did not have the freedom to choose whether or not to eat from that one try (How Do We Let the Spirit Lead?).
- Salvation eliminates evil and replaces it with good (Goodness as a Virtue).
- God wants a relationship with us and will call us. His gift of salvation is available to any and all who believe. He is calling us to life, to contentment, and to be heirs as His children (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Wisdom?).
- God brings the Plan of Salvation to everyone (I Tim. 2: 4). If we don’t choose God, we don’t get the gift. We aren’t the elect (What Is Election?).
- We can only gain salvation and be made, holy, sanctified, and righteous by accepting Jesus through faith as our personal Savior. We are called to salvation through the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us wisdom so that we may choose salvation (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Wisdom?).
- I-am-thirsty pointed to Jesus’ 100% human side, and why-have-You-forsaken-Me pointed to His 100% God side. He was invested in the Plan of Salvation body and soul (Thirst from the Cross).
- There is only one way to salvation — Jesus (Jn. 14: 6). But that also means that He uses the same process every time. Tom didn’t get a different salvation process than Sally — and it is the same one I got (salvation from the Cross).
- Jesus hung on the cross for us — for every Tom, Sally, and Elaine. He was all about accomplishing the Plan of Salvation (Thirst from the Cross).
- Look how Jesus addressed God. “… My God, my God …” (Mk. 15: 34 CSB). He may he questioning God, but He is still reverencing Him. He still had His faith. Not Tom’s God. Not Sally’s God. Not Elaine’s God. My God. God is interested in a relationship, not a religion. He wants it personal. But it wasn’t My Father, was it? It was complete submission — even in the pain, even in the abandonment — even whatever came. Jesus was committed to the Plan of Salvation because His God asked that of Him (Abandonment from the Cross).
- The Plan of Salvation was completed on the cross, not at the resurrection. Atonement is all about the blood. It isn’t about the waking up from the death sleep (Life from the Cross).
- Jesus may have done the heavy lifting in the Plan of Salvation by being the One to die on the cross, but the Holy Spirit is in it for the long haul. The Spirit is the One who convicts us and leads us down the road of sanctification (Who Is the Holy Spirit?).
- Unfortunately, not everyone will accept God’s gift of salvation. That is because they have the free will to choose to not accept the gift (How Does Predestination Fit In?).
- God doesn’t force salvation on us. We have to repent (Can God See Us If We Are Sinners?).
- We may not have access to God because we have not accepted His gift of salvation, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t have access to us (Can God See Us If We Are Sinners?).
- There is hope for us. We just have to follow God’s Plan of Salvation (How the Righteousness of God Filters to Us).
What Salvation Isn’t
- Can we earn salvation by being self-disciplined? No. Being a good person does not make us closer to God — unless we have made the decision to accept Jesus as our Savior and God as our Sovereign God. It isn’t about obedience. It is about a relationship. Just following the rules isn’t it. It isn’t about us and what we can do. It is about God and what He has done through Jesus’ sacrifice (What Is Self-Discipline?).
- There is nothing that we could do to earn our salvation. We don’t work for salvation. Jesus was the only One Who could secure it for us. The opportunity for our salvation was only was only available when Jesus shed His blood for us (What Is Righteousness?).
- Salvation is not a license to keep on doing the opposite of God’s laws and commandments. We are accountable for doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts (Godliness as a Virtue).
- If we are predestined to salvation – meaning God picks who will and who won’t be saved – that really isn’t a gift (How Does Predestination Fit In?).
- Romans 10: 5 doesn’t say that the law gives us salvation. It say the law gives us righteousness (Where Is Jesus?).
- God’s laws and commandments are good. Their purpose was so that we could gain righteousness, not salvation. Yes, we need salvation, but obedience to the laws is how we transform to be more like God (What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Obedience?).
Steps of Salvation
- The foundation of salvation is belief. That has components of faith, access, and reward (Belief: The First Step in Salvation).
- True salvation starts out with faith (Where Is Jesus?).
- Once we have faith in our Sovereign God, we grow to love Him (Love and Obedience: The Last Two Steps in Salvation).
- We don’t earn salvation by doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts. But that does come after conversion. We can’t stop at the love God We have to show that love by obeying Him. This is where we should imitate Jesus (Love and Obedience: The Last Two Steps in Salvation).
- I think salvation is one of those three-part words. We were saved the instant that God forgave our sins. But that didn’t mean salvation was over. Our job description says we need to work out our salvation. We do that as we navigate the sanctification road. Yes, we don’t reach the end of the sanctification road until we are made perfect. That isn’t going to happen until we reach heaven (Love and Obedience: The Last Two Steps in Salvation).
Father. You designed the Plan of Salvation so that we can be restored to You. Thank You. Amen.
What do you think?
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