Following Judah's Lion

The Majesty of Salvation

The salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ is an event and experience and transformation that has no competitors, it stands alone in substance and majesty. Salvation takes a person who is dead in sins, separated from His very own Creator, and not only illuminates him as to his sin but simultaneously illuminates his heart to his Creator who awaits as his Redeemer. Now remember this revelation is taking place without the sinner changing at all, he is still a sinner. What? Am I saying the drunk doesn’t have to stop being a drunk before God will save him?

Yes! That is exactly what salvation is. A man feels a distinct pain in his abdomen, so his wife drives him to the hospital and as they walk through the emergency room doors does the nurse say, ”No, we cannot take you until you are healed!”? Of course not, it is a hospital for sick people. And the Lord Jesus said that the righteous don’t need a Savior, it’s the unrighteous, praise His name! The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives! Can you fathom the brilliant glory that comes with that moment of spiritual illumination and faith? I can remember as I applied to Bible school that I did not believe I would be accepted because of my past, I had no idea that sinners of all depths could be called of God because I still had not grasped the expansiveness of God’s grace, I still fall short in that.

The atmosphere that surrounds a sinner as he begins to perceive the truth of the gospel must be electric in the spirit world. Imagine, a hell-bound sinner, lost in the darkness of his sin, and the Holy Spirit has entered his understanding. As he meditates upon the revelation he has begun to receive he comes to a majestic point of order in his own heart, and with heaven listening and the Spirit empowering, that one sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ in complete accordance with the foreknowledge of Almighty God. And in an instant, he is saved for all eternity. Oh my, how can mere words describe such a scene, and even though on the outside there may be no demonstration that would actually mirror the situation, all of heaven is rejoicing.

Please do not ascribe even a tiny bit of a mundane nature to this, or even equate it to a coronation of a king, both scenarios are pitiful as competitors. The translation of a sinner from darkness to light, lost to found, and death to life is the single most important event that happens today upon the planet earth. We have a tendency to get so cavalier and complacent about salvation that it must grieve the very heart of God. You watch a sermon on abortion and the crowd goes wild. Watch a preacher talk of the evils of the compromising church and the torches start burning. Arminianism verses Calvinism, pre-tribulation verses post-tribulation, or so many other subjects that bring forth excitement and interest and book sales way out distance the mundane atmosphere of the salvation of a soul.

We have lost sight of the Saving Christ. Sure He is the Coming Christ, and He is the Reigning Christ, and He is the Healing Christ, and He is the Great Shepherd Christ, but first He was the Saving Christ. He came to seek and save that which was lost, that is the entire purpose of His entrance through the virgin body of a daughter of David providentially sidetracked into a stable in Bethlehem. The writer of Hebrews says it is “so great salvation” and David begs God to return the joy of God’s salvation to his heart. And we who are the redeemed have treated our salvation as if it is one of the childish things Paul admonished believers to move away from, hardly, it is our headquarters from where we must dwell in His presence. True discipleship is growing deeper into this very salvation that has changed us forever. Salvation is Jesus, and it begins with a transaction of faith and continues with a journey of faith as we learn more of our wonderful Lord and Master and Savior.

Do not ever lose the “Christmas morning” feeling of awe about your salvation. Do not let the discourse concerning the finer points of doctrine and eschatological views damper the tangible joy you have for just being a child of the Most High in all His Glory and Majesty. If you have gotten over your salvation you must go back because you have gotten over Jesus Himself. The battle that raged on Calvary’s cross is beyond our comprehension, and the price that was paid is expressed in words that could be used in purchasing a gallon of milk, but it is so much more, so much more and above all that we could ask or think, and we must continually bow down and drink from the freshness of the brook that continues to course our very body and cleanses us from all sin in His sight. Our salvation confounds Michael the Archangel.

Now upon the moment an individual sinner believes on Jesus and is born again, his eternal place before God in heaven is sealed. The sufferings of Jesus have become effective in his life and soul, but like the ten lepers how many times do people walk away healed of sin and yet never returning continually to thank our Savior? Have we become too sophisticated to fall before Jesus again and again to thank Him for his unspeakable salvation? We should have spent eternity separated from God in torment and yet we will now be invited like Mephibosheth to the everlasting table of our King!. There are no words, but there must always be our hearts in concert with an attempt at words that glorify and worship the Captain of our Salvation.

The offer of salvation is infinitely exquisite in its breadth and depth, and the condescending love that is inherent in such an offer cannot be plumbed by the self circular thinking of man. This is no self help program or something that gets you through this life, no, this is God sharing Himself and His eternal dwelling place with sinners who do not even deserve even His thought. Why oh why would God desire to reclaim such a race as ours? And how does holiness reach out to depravity? And with God being august and pristine in glory and absolutely in need of nothing, what motivation is this we see in God the Son going and God the Father sending and God the Holy Spirit drawing? Salvation, the offer of the ages, timeless and complete.

And yet there is earthly benefits of being a child of God. Not benefits as the world defines them, our benefits are spiritual and any and all material benefits are always tethered to God’s spiritual blessings that are without measure. The hope of heaven, the promise of eternal life, the peace of God, the grace of God, the knowledge of the holy, the cleansing of our sins, and many, many more are ours in this great salvation. But you can gather all the benefits both earthly and heavenly, and you may hold them up for all mankind to admire, but they will turn pale in the shadow of THE benefit of salvation that encompasses all the rest.

With the so great salvation comes the relationship and presence of the One Who purchased this majestic salvation. His name is YHWH, Yeshua, Joshua, or Jesus and His attributes are His wonderful name. I cannot fully put into words what He means to me, and the day I met Him is the greatest and most glorious day of my life. If I never received any earthly blessing from my salvation, if I only received His presence and the Lordship of a friend I would consider myself more blessed than I could ever describe much less deserve. To have been given the gift of life, and with that having been given the gift of faith, the honor and privilege of believing on the Lord Jesus is the invisible act of worship that reflects the cross and substantiates the resurrection and glorifies the Savior among the angels as all heaven rejoices.

Let us never relegate our salvation to the last row in our spiritual journey, oh no, let’s embrace it daily as the precious treasure of grace that it is and always will be. My friends, there is a day coming which will outshine every day that has ever been. On that day, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords will be worshiped in the midst of all creation, and His glory shall not be contained. And there in the midst of glory that cannot be known, there will be us. Redeemed, washed, robed, changed, and forever saved and eternally safe in the majesty of His salvation…all for us and His glory…forever.

Amen.