There are a lot of churchy words when we consider how salvation changes us. This daily devotional looks at what they are and what they mean.
We tend to think we are the reason for the gospel. We think we are the purpose or the motivation behind the Plan of Salvation.
God designed the Plan of Salvation because He wants back what Satan took away from Him. He wants us back so we can worship Him again in spirit and in truth.
God is the focus. He always was and is the focus.
What Is Sin?
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3: 23 CSB)
As far as the Scriptures tell us, Adam and Eve had one thing they were supposed to do. They couldn’t eat the fruit of a certain tree in the Garden.
Man, did they blow it. They sinned.
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.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- 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.
- 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.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
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. It wasn’t an afterthought.
God loves us even after we disobeyed Him. He didn’t leave it so we would have to live forever in our sinful state.
What Is Salvation?
“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)
Because we have been separated from God, we need to have our relationships restored. God designed the Plan of Salvation to do that.
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.
- 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.
God has a purpose of saving us. That purpose is so that we are no longer spiritually dead.
Age, race, gender, social status — nothing limits to whom God’s salvation is offered. Nothing limits to whom the consequences are given.
All are offered the gift of salvation, but it is only given to those who accept it.
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.
God calls us to salvation. What salvation entails was determined by God. He figured out what we would have to do to gain it.
Salvation is the same for all who ABCD.
- We all are changed from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- We all are given access to Sovereign God.
- We all are given eternal life.
We have to believe that Jesus died for our sins. Then, God calls us to salvation. We can’t wake up one day, knock on God’s door, and say, “Save us.” Only He can call us to salvation through the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
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.
Yet, God wants us to take the initiative and seek Him after salvation. He does not force us to grow in grace and knowledge (II Pet. 3: 18). He calls each and every one of us to do that.
Salvation is based on forgiveness. God will forgive all but one sin — even multiple times. That is how much He loves us.
God will call us to salvation when we are searching for Him and more willing to accept His gift of salvation. God’s salvation is offered to all regardless of what we have done.
The Plan of Salvation was designed because God knew we wouldn’t do the do’s and we would do the don’ts.
Haven’t you heard of some worldview people argue that they live a more Christian life than disciples do?
But it isn’t about just living right. Yes, we do have to follow all of God’s laws and commandments after salvation. If we could do live a life doing all the do’s and not doing any of the don’ts, than Jesus would not have had to die for us. But we can’t do that. We need a Savior
We are offered salvation only through grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
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).
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.
Choosing to accept God’s gift of salvation means we commit to Him without delay. We give God control of our lives.
We’ve got to come to God with a true confession of faith. Faith is what secures our salvation. Faith is a gift from God that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
Jesus always comes to us where we are. He doesn’t make us clean up our acts or change what we are doing to earn salvation.
Our salvation is personal. We can’t hook onto our parents’ salvation. We have to make the decision to admit our sins, believe on Jesus as our Savior and confess God as our Sovereign Lord on our own.
Making the decision to accept the gift of salvation means we have to choose to be obedient. That is a major choice for some.
Salvation is free, but it is not a freebie. We don’t have to earn salvation. We don’t have to clean up our acts and then receive salvation.
But neither is there no expectations. We are expected to seek God, so that our character may be changed to be like His. We are expected to follow His laws and commandments.
We are not entitled to God’s love and forgiveness. He did not have to design the Plan of Salvation or even offer it to us. God wanted to because He wants to get back to having the hands-on relationship with all of His creation. But we have to accept it.
If we ABCD but are not sincere about it, we won’t gain Heaven. If we say we are setting our affections on things above but can’t give up the things below, we won’t make it.
The Plan of Salvation is not based on our knowledge. It is based on our hope.
What Is Repentance?
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out” (Ac. 3: 19 ESV)
The Plan of Salvation is about turning away from sin — our sinful, physical nature — and turning toward God and our new spiritual nature.
Jesus paid the price for our sins, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to do our parts. We have to repent and believe. The only way God can deal with our sins is to repent.
Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
When we repent of our sins, God will forgive us and restore our relationships to Him.
If we say the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, we have to say all sin is wrong, and we want nothing to do with it. Just as we can’t pick and choose what is and isn’t a sin, once we decide to accept the gift of salvation, we can’t pick and choose when we are going to repent.
We’ve got to come to God with a true confession of faith. If we say the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, we have to say all sin is wrong, and we want nothing to do with it. Just as we can’t pick and choose what is and isn’t a sin, once we decide to accept the gift of salvation, we can’t pick and choose when we are going to repent.
Repentance can’t be a single act. There is so much sin in us — and the continued opportunity to sin — that it is going to take a while for us to cut it out of our lives.
When we repent, we have to change — our allegiance, our thoughts, our mindset, our actions. If we don’t turn away from the desire to sin, we aren’t saved.
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.
We are saved at conversion because we believe Jesus is our Savior and that God is Sovereign. That starts regeneration. God flips a switch — however He does it — to change us from being spiritual dead to spiritually alive.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t change everything. We are still in these physical bodies that can still sin. That is where sanctification comes in.
What some don’t think about is that salvation is a process. Yes, there is the initial you-are-now-saved-so-you-are-spiritually-alive point.
Sometimes, we don’t focus as much on the work-out-your-salvation command. Well, that does make it harder. Because it makes it …….. work.
We do have to build our characters in the ways God wants. That is a decision we need to make at conversion and grow into along the walk. Salvation has to make a difference in our lives.
We aren’t going to be totally perfect until heaven. That is the goal. That will take work and time. That takes sanctification.
Father God. Thank you for offering us salvation. We disobeyed You, yet You still loved us. You sent Your Son to die to pay the penalty for our sins. We choose to submit to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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