sal�va�tion�� �noun
1.� the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction.
2.� the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk.
3.� a source, cause, or means of being saved or protected from harm, risk.
4.� Theology: deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.
___Random House Dictionary, � Random House, Inc. 2010
Spiritual salvation defined
The often-misunderstood term �salvation� is commonly associated with theology.� However, the more general use of the term, also referred to as �saved,� simply refers to �a deliverance from danger.�� The newspaper headline in the image above states that of the 2,170 people on board �Titanic� that fateful night, 868 were �saved.�
Applying the word �salvation� in the theological realm, the danger from which we need deliverance is spiritual in nature and is rooted in a condition of spirit caused by a thing called “sin.”� The distinctively nasty thing about sin is that, like cancer it aggressively metastasizes, taking on a life of its own; that is why it requires aggressive treatment or, it will kill the �patient.�� The bible states that this �sin condition� is hereditary and is passed down full-strength by the parents of every human being and unless ultimately remedied, the result is eternal separation from God.� It is commonly believed that the definition of “sin” is limited to deliberate violations of religious or moral rules.� While this is true, “sins” are more broadly defined in the bible as any thought, word, or deed that “misses the mark,”� the mark being God’s righteous standard;� this is an archery term suggesting that we have somehow missed the “bulls eye.”
The more important point is that while individual sins routinely violate divinely established religious or moral principles, their very existence points to a deeper cause rooted in the “fallen” or fatally flawed nature of man.� While originally created without a propensity to sin, Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden resulted in a crippling of their inner spiritual faculties.� Immediately following their act of defiance they became afraid of God, ran from His presence, covered themselves up, and blamed Him for their self-inflicted catastrophe.
Sadly, this predilection “package” has been handed down through the millennia to the present day in the form of a spiritual nature that seems to be “spring loaded” to the sin position.� Anyone with children knows they have never had to teach their offspring how to lie, strike their siblings, or demand their own way–it just seems to come naturally.� In fact, the universal parental responsibility has always been to teach their children not to do those things.
A person who has not been saved from this inherited spiritual condition is considered “lost” by God and in need of divine intervention.� Bear in mind, this �lost-ness� is not a reflection of the person�s intrinsic value or importance, they are just out of place and unavailable to God�s kingdom purposes.� In his book, Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard points out,
�Think of what it means when the keys to your house or car are lost.� They are useless to you, no matter how much you need them and desire to have them and no matter what fine keys they may be.� And when we are lost to God, we are not where we are supposed to be in his world and hence are not caught up into his life�We are our own god, and our god doesn�t amount to much.� When we are lost to God, we are also lost to ourselves:� we do not know where we are or how to get where we want to go.� [i]
Presently, God is graciously permitting mankind to live their lives independently of him. �This �grace period� is intended to give them time to choose their eternal destiny�either with him in his kingdom, or away from him on their own�a most uncomfortable option indeed.� Willard warns,
�Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell, or even be the kind of person who belongs there.� But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited.� It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is.� Whether or not God�s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not.� There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent.�
The biblical remedy for this “lost-ness” is to abandon all self-saving efforts, turn to God, accept His prescription for salvation, and be willing to recognize to his kingdom rule.� Lewis Sperry Chafer, author of the book �Salvation� writes,
�Salvation is the result of the work of God for the individual, rather than the work of the individual for God, or even the work of the individual for himself.� Good works are evidently made possible by salvation; but these good works, which follow salvation, do not add anything to the all-sufficient and perfect saving work of God.�
The �problem� that salvation addresses, in a nutshell
At this point, it is important to define the problem that spiritual salvation addresses.� To be just a little facetious, if your �problem� is needing something to do on Sunday, or getting �a little religion� into your life, any old religious system will do.� Take your pick.� But if you have come to realize that your �problem� rises to the level of being seriously alienated from an all-powerful and holy God, then that�s another kind of �situation� altogether.� C. S. Lewis observed:
“It is after you have realized that there is a real moral law, and a power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with the power–it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk.”� Mere Christianity
We�re not talking about a casual chat about a trivial matter.� When Titanic was listing and rescue seemed a long way off, the wiser passengers sprang into action, knowing time was running out.� They didn�t argue about the seemingly extreme action of abandoning ship, nor did they debate the seriousness of their dilemma.� They knew something had to be done, and quickly.� Likewise with spiritual salvation, when God begins exercising people about the personal spiritual peril they are in, trivialities go out the window.� John Stott wisely pointed out:
�If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves up to His, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it.� When, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding holiness of the glory of God and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely, �hell-deserving sinners,� then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.� [ii]
The definition of a true Christian
It should be obvious by now that when it comes to becoming a Christian, we are not talking about the church you attend or any religious ritual that you may have experienced.� Simply put, becoming a Christian is a matter of life and death, involving profound inner transformation so momentous that Jesus referred to it as being �born again.�� The result is quite literally, a change in species.� You were born the first time �in Adam,� the head of a fatally flawed gene pool, and now through spiritual rebirth you are placed �into Christ,� emerging a totally different class of human.� This came as something of a shock to those who first heard about it, especially the religious crowd who dogged Jesus� every step.� Listen to this lively exchange:
�There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, �Rabbi, we all know you�re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren�t in on it.� Jesus said, �You�re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it�s not possible to see what I�m pointing to�to God�s kingdom.�
�How can anyone,� said Nicodemus, �be born who has already been born and grown up? You can�t re-enter your mother�s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this �born-from-above� talk?� Jesus said, �You�re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation�the �wind-hovering-over-the-water� creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life�it�s not possible to enter God�s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it�s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can�t see and touch�the Spirit�and becomes a living spirit.� [1]
The Apostle Paul emphasized the difference between the two kinds of person this way:
�However, you are not�in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But�if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.��If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is�alive because of righteousness.�But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,�He who raised�Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies�through His Spirit who dwells in you.� [2]
The person who has not been born again is said to be �in the flesh,� and the person who has been born again is said to be, �in the spirit.�� If you are �in the flesh,� you are still position-wise considered to be in Adam�s family tree.� Alternatively, those who are �in the spirit� have been transferred into the family tree of Jesus Christ.� You either have the Holy Spirit or you do not.� And upon that single criteria depends your eternal destiny.
Adam�s sinking ship
I want to introduce you to a helpful salvation paradigm which compares the Titanic illustration to our need to be rescued from a far worse peril.� In two illustrative passages of scripture, God divides all of humanity into two spiritual �species,� the old original human species headed by our progenitor �Adam,� and a brand new species of man headed by Jesus Christ, the �Last Adam.�� The old human species can be compared to the ship Titanic, and the new species can be compared to the life boats that took Titanic�s survivors to safety.� With that introduction, here is how the Apostle Paul described the arc of human history from its earliest beginnings:
The Death-Dealing Sin, the Life-Giving Gift
�You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we�re in�first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn�t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.�
�Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man�s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God�s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There�s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man�s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?�
�Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.�
�All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn�t, and doesn�t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call�grace.�When it�s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that�s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life�a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.� [3]
Scripture declares that while Adam, and our genetic attachment to him, brought nothing but death to the whole human race, God had long ago prepared a �lifeboat� for mankind whereby anyone could �abandon ship� and leave Adam�s sinking vessel and take refuge �in Christ.�� These passages also warn that spiritual salvation is not an �option� if you want to live eternally, any more than getting off Titanic was not an option for those who wanted to survive her sinking that terrible night.� It was a matter of time once the ship struck the iceberg, and likewise, it was just a matter of time once Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden for each one of us who would follow.
This then is the genius of God�s gospel message, his good news�anyone who wishes to be saved from �going down with Adam�s ship� can do so by finding and boarding God�s lifeboat of Christ.� God�s remedy to the great dilemma of Adam�s rebellion is not just trying to �fix� the old Adam.� Instead, he has given us an entirely new Adam, one who �is without sin,� into which we may �enter,� by faith.� The result is a new species of man, formed �in Christ.�� Put another way, we are born imprisoned �in Adam� who is our spiritual birth-parent and we need to be transplanted into an entirely new family tree which has a decidedly better genetic heritage. �And that is exactly how God pulled off the greatest �prison break� in history, �springing us� out of Adam.
A New Life
�Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.�
�Because of this decision we don�t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don�t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We�re Christ�s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God�s work of making things right between them. We�re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he�s already a friend with you.� [4]
It has been said that the very definition of a short term strategy is �rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.�� That defines religion in many ways.� I am defining religion as any action, process, ritual or attitude which seeks to fix up the �old ship.�� Not to be too disrespectful, it doesn�t matter how much lipstick you put on the proverbial pig, it is still a pig.� Adam�s �ship of state� is sinking no matter how many coats of paint you apply.� The only viable alternative is to get off while there�s time.� Remember what was said of those who chose to take their chances aboard that great ship in 1912�
�it is believed that this low number was due to passengers being reluctant to leave the ship, as initially they did not consider themselves to be in imminent danger�It hardly bears thinking about that if there had been sufficient boats that night…every soul aboard could have been saved, since it was two-and-a-half hours after she struck that she tilted her massive stern into the heavens and sank by the head, taking with her all that were un-provided for.”
Some might be tempted to accuse God of being unfair.� After all, holding us all responsible for Adam�s sin feels like we�re being punished for something out of our control.� But what if God had a remedy, equally out of our control, and made it freely available to all of us? �That brings us to the heart of the Christian �value proposition:�
�Therefore, just as through�one man sin entered into the world, and�death through sin, and�so death spread to all men, because all sinned�much more did the grace of God and the gift by�the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.� [5]� But first, there are a few �inconvenient truths� to face.
We all start out passengers on the same ship
Of course, we weren�t there when Adam sinned, though to be honest, we�ve had our share of bouts with sin when our time came.� But neither were we there when Jesus Christ voluntarily put himself in harm�s way as a substitute for each one of us when his time came.� While we didn�t sin in the exact way Adam did, we did our part later and could be considered �unindicted co-conspirators.�� The indictment is clear from the Epistle to the Romans:
�So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:
There�s nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They�ve all taken the wrong turn;
they�ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one�s living right;
I can�t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don�t know the first thing about living with others.
They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn�t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says�about others�but�to us�to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it�s clear enough, isn�t it, that we�re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God�s revelation doesn�t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else�s sin.� [6]
We need to do something about it
In the Introduction to this book, I wrote, �Up to that fateful moment, my day seemed ordinary enough, just getting the results of some medical tests.� But then time froze as I saw the doctor�s clipboard with my name and social security number at the top and the word �cancer� at the bottom.� In an instant, the dread word �cancer� morphed from an abstract concept to a stark reality. Nothing would be the same again.� While I was a Christian at that time, this called for a depth of faith that I was frankly unprepared for.�
This might sound silly, but suppose on that fateful day, my doctor had just come into the exam room and embarked on a lecture on all of the available cures for cancer in modern medicine?� I�m pretty sure, I would have interrupted him at some point and interjected, �why are you talking to me about cancer?� �Go talk to someone who has the problem, not me!�� But this isn�t the way he approached the subject.� Instead, he showed the lab results first, with the dread diagnosis prominently displayed.� I could have responded, �Gee Doc, that�s kind of negative.� You guys are always talking about diseases.� Don�t you have anything positive to say?�� I could also have said, �I don�t have any symptoms, nothing appears to wrong, I feel fine.�� But then we know that cancer is often asymptomatic�at first.
But of course, I did no such thing.� My instinct for self-preservation was working just fine.� After all, the good doctor was doing me a big favor, warning of a potential life threatening disease and offering to do what he could to help me.� But the point is, I needed to know I had a problem before I would sit still for a discussion about possible cures.� Nothing focuses the mind like being faced with your own mortality.� Suddenly cures for cancer became VERY interesting to me.
Likewise, in the spiritual realm, you and I are called upon to agree with the doctor [God] that we have a problem that is so serious that he had to go to great lengths to cure it.� Then, and only then, are we ready to look around for potential treatments.� Salvation begins when we acknowledge the problem.� Then the question boils down to �is there a cure that stands up to the disease?�
The three �tenses� of salvation
The quality of God�s spiritual salvation offered in Jesus Christ vastly exceeds any charge that could be brought against the sinner from any quarter.� His salvation pays the penalty of our past sins, breaks the power of our present sins, and removes the presence of sin in our future eternal state.� As someone said in a commercial, �if you can find a better deal anywhere else, take it.�� Note the sweep across time and space of the gift of this �so great salvation.�
Past: Saved from the guilt and penalty of sin
From the Shadows to the Substance
�When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive�right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ�s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.� [7]
God loves you, he knew you were helpless to save yourself, but there you were dragged down by the weight of sin, guilt, and enslavement to dark and hostile powers.� He also knew there was no one in the universe who could cure the problem but him.� He would need to rescue us and the personal cost for him to do so would be incalculable.� He did so anyway and the victory was complete.
Present: Being saved from the power and domination of sin
Life on God�s Terms
�With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ�s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.� God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn�t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.� The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn�t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.� [8]
In our blindness, we actually believed that we could �be good,� enough to wipe away our sins and somehow set things right with God.� We had no idea of the dimensions of the problem.� In my battle with cancer there were many quack �miracle cures� offered�anything from massive doses of aspirin to ground peach pits.� But alas, cancer wasn�t going to give up that easily.� Likewise, sin wasn�t about to loosen its grip without a fight.� And Jesus came to fight that battle for us, as our substitute, our champion.� Finally the dark powers, and the claims against us had met their match.� A final glorious victory released us from bondage and freed us to belong to God.
Future:� Yet to be saved from the presence of sin and into the presence of God
A New Life
�What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we�ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven�and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you�ll have it all�life healed and whole.� [9]
This is no remote, unfeeling �force,� or �thing,� this is a God who cares and invests and gets involved.� He took it upon himself to deal with sin and its effects so thoroughly and permanently that we can look forward to an eternal future completely free from sins presence.� He promises to protect us, and give us a life that is whole and healthy.
Permanent transformation
There are at least three options when we are faced with personal character problems in our life�conform, reform, or transform.� Anyone can do the first two, either by going along with the crowd or engaging in self-actualized reform programs–seeking to change ourselves from the outside.� Transformation comes from the inside and results in lasting and permanent change–it is a work of God and cannot be faked or imitated.� Look at what God promises to do for anyone willing:
What we were�
�But don�t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God�s ways had no idea of any of this, didn�t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn�t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God�s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn�t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ�dying that death, shedding that blood�you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.� [10]
Before connecting with God and his promises, we were in the dark about God and how he works.� We were strangers to his promises.� We had no idea about the deeper meaning of his relationship with Israel, nor what that had to do with us.
What we have become�
�What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it�we�re called children of God! That�s who we really are. But that�s also why the world doesn�t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he�s up to.� But friends, that�s exactly who we are: children of God. And that�s only the beginning. Who knows how we�ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we�ll see him�and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus� life as a model for our own.� [11]
God didn�t just stop at saving us, no, he brought us into his own family.� Now through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ we have by faith been brought into God�s �inner circle,� understanding him person-to-person and being let in on his plans and intentions for the universe.
No wonder the writer of the book of Hebrews solemnly warns, �For if the word�spoken through�angels proved�unalterable, and�every transgression and disobedience received a just�penalty,�how will we escape if we neglect so great a�salvation?�After it was at the first�spoken through the Lord, it was�confirmed to us by those who heard,�God also testifying with them, both by�signs and wonders and by�various�miracles and by�gifts of the Holy Spirit�according to His own will.� [12]
A generous offer for you personally
God is recruiting volunteers now to join him as family members and partners in the loving fellowship of those taking part in �a tremendously creative project, under unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast scale, with ever increasing cycles of fruitfulness and enjoyment,� [iii] as Dallas Willard put it.� Further, we don�t have to wait to die to commence this heavenly life, but upon being born again, we experience inner spiritual transformation that immediately revolutionizes our lives in the here and now.
New positions to which every believer is brought
From the least to the greatest, all Christians [�believers�] are brought into a new relationship with God that is founded upon the word of God, and not on how they might feel, or upon anything they might do.� Those new positions are:
- Not experienced (with the emotions)
- Not progressive (they are instantaneous)
- Unrelated to human merit (they stand on Christ�s merit alone)
- By nature, eternal positions
- Only known through divine revelation
Christians must carefully distinguish between the things that are true of them based on their new standing and not on the ups and downs of their daily walks.� As believers learn very soon, their life in the world can severely test the truth of their profession.� Bouts of sin, severe disappointments, tragedies, and persecution often challenge what they believe, especially what they believe about themselves.� That is why staying in the scriptures and gathering with fellow believers is so mission-critical.
To illustrate, I had a friend who was a fighter jet pilot stationed in Alaska at a time when cold war tensions were still high.� His squadron was often �scrambled� at random times in all sorts of weather to test the pilot�s ability to survive a potential combat situation.� He related that the most challenging exercise of all was ascending into a thick fog bank that obliterated all visual references to the ground, resulting in severe disorientation.� He shared, �you would be surprised at how your seat-of-the-pants can lie to you,�� �You�d swear you are upside down, or rapidly descending when in fact you are flying straight and level.�� As a result, pilots were drilled to ignore visual cues or �gut feelings,� and instead focus on their instruments and believe what they showed despite all evidence to the contrary.� This was so difficult even for these seasoned pilots that they would often �cheat� by hanging their dog tags outside their uniforms.� If their dog tag was �hanging� straight up, they knew they were upside down, etc.
Likewise the Christian life is lived largely �by the instruments� of God�s word which contains countless promises that may not be obvious amid the din and stress of daily life.� Like those pilots, believers need to ignore the disorientation of day-to-day life and fix their eyes on what God says about them.� Here is a sampling of �readouts� that should be on every Christian�s �instrument panel� regarding what is true, right now, of every believer, from the least to the greatest, before God:
I am accepted:
I am not an accident, I am God�s child. (John 1:12)
I am not a stranger, I am Christ�s friend. (John 15:15)
I am not condemned, I have been justified. (Romans 5:1)
I am not alone, I am united with the Lord, and I am one spirit with Him. (1 Cor.6:17)
I am not valueless, I have been bought with a price. I belong to God. (1 Cor.6:19, 20)
I am not on my own, I am a member of Christ�s body. (1 Cor.12:27)
I am not a sinner, I am a saint. (Ephesians 1:1)
I am not an orphan, I have been adopted as God�s child. (Ephesians 1:5)
I am not ignored, I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18)
I am not God�s enemy, I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. (Colossians 1:14)
I am secure:
I am not under judgment, I am free forever from condemnation. (Romans 8:1, 2)
I am not �randomly selected,� I am assured that all things work together for good. (Romans 8:28)
I am not in bondage, I am free from any condemning charges against me. (Romans 8:31f)
I am not on probation, I cannot be separated from the love of God. (Romans 8:35f)
I am not unstable, I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God. (2 Cor.1:20-22)
I am not exposed and vulnerable, I am hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)
I am not uncertain, I am confident that the work that God has begun in me will be perfected. (Philippians 1:6)
I am not a �rolling stone,� I am a citizen of heaven. (Philippians 3:20)
I am not weak, I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
I am not lost, I can find grace and mercy in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
I am not abandoned, I am born of God, and the evil one cannot touch me. (1 John 5:18)
I am significant:
I am not dull and ordinary, I am the salt and light of the earth.�� (Matthew 5:13,14)
I am not a wild weed, I am a branch of the true Vine, a channel of His life. (John 15:1, 5)
I have not been passed over, I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit. (John 15:16)
I am not a lost soul, I am personal witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 1:8)
I am not just a physical body, I am God�s temple. (1 Cor. 3:16)
I am not an underling, I am God�s co-worker. (2 Cor.6:1)
I am not homeless, I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. (Ephesians 2:6)
I am not �a mess,� I am God�s workmanship. (Ephesians 2:10)
I am not an outsider, I may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12)
I am not weak, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
�Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.�
That spellbinding line from Martin Luther King�s speech, �I have a dream� transfixed a nation in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement in America.� His emotional refrain stirred a longing that lay deep within all human hearts�to be �free at last.�� While Dr. King was referring to the enslaving effects of racial discrimination, it reminds us of an underlying reality for people of every race, creed and color.� Whether we admit it or not, all of us are enslaved to something more odious, dictatorial, and all-pervasive�the �tyranny of self.�� Here is how one bible scholar explained it:
�There can be no real happiness in the heart, where self is enthroned. If you would have peace, you must seize, bind, and never again let loose, for self is the cruelest tyrant, the deepest shadow, and the blackest blot that darkens life. To be rid of the despot, you must begin by placing others first in all your thoughts and actions; at this the coward drops his head; he hates another to be first. Next, give him no thought or consideration at all, and though at this neglect he cry out piteously, heed him not, for now is the time to bind him hard and fast with the cords of forgetfulness; then cast him far behind, and be careful to allow neither the call of pain nor pleasure to entice you into loosening one jot or tittle of his bonds, or, once set free, the monster will rise again, hydra-headed, and, towering above all else, enfold and crush you within his clutches, until you are no more free, but a slave, bound hand and foot, in the deadly meshes of over-mastering self.� [iv]
The reason we aren�t aware of it is that �the self� is us!� Have you ever noticed, the one thing our eye cannot see is itself.� So it is with our inner self.� If salvation is anything, it is a release from having to answer to, and satisfy the continual demands of that �self.�� Blessed riddance.� Salvation frees us�not only from having to attend to our �self�s� every need, demand, and whimper, but also from having to present to God a �righteousness of our own,� through religious observance, �good deeds� and meritorious� services.� None of these things are sufficient to achieve right-standing and peace with God in the first place.� God has a much better idea anyway.� He unconditionally offers the righteousness [right-standing] of Jesus Christ as a free gift!� In one of the most freeing verses in all of scripture, Paul triumphantly declares:
�But�whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.�More than that, I count all things to be loss�in view of the surpassing value of�knowing�Christ Jesus my Lord,�for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,�and may be found in Him, not having�a righteousness of my own derived from�the�Law, but that which is through faith in Christ,�the righteousness which�comes�from God on the basis of faith,�that I may�know Him and�the power of His resurrection and�the fellowship of His sufferings, being�conformed to His death;�in order that I may�attain to the resurrection from the dead.� [13]� Imagine being set free forever from the demands of the law and the threat of eternal consequences for failure to live up to its demands!� That is why it is called, �So great salvation.�� Are you tired of the struggle?� Looking for rest?� Listen to the Savior�s plea:
�Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. �The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I�m not keeping it to myself; I�m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.� Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you�ll recover your life. I�ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me�watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won�t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you�ll learn to live freely and lightly.� [14]
�Death swallowed by triumphant Life!
Who got the last word, oh, Death?
Oh, Death, who�s afraid of you now?�
�It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three�sin, guilt, death�are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!� [15]
<< Back to previous page� � � ��Forward to next page >>
__________________________
Copyright � 2015 by D.C. Collier
All rights reserved.
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means�electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise�without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.
[1] John 3: 1-6 The Message (MSG)
[2] Romans 8: 9-11 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
[3] Romans 5: 12-21 The Message (MSG)
[4] 2 Corinthians 5: 14-20 The Message (MSG)
[5] Romans 5: 12, 15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
[6] Romans 3: 9-20 The Message (MSG)
[7] Colossians 2: 13-15 The Message (MSG)
[8] Romans 8: 1-4 The Message (MSG)
[9] 1 Peter 1: 3-5 The Message (MSG)
[10] Ephesians 2: 11-13 The Message (MSG)
[11] 1 John 3: 1-3 The Message (MSG)
[12] Hebrews 2:2-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
[13] Philippians 3: 7-11 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
[14] Matthew 11:27-30 The Message (MSG)
[15] 1 Corinthians 15: 57 The Message (MSG)
[i] Willard, Dallas. “Radical Evil in the Ruined Soul.”�Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2002. N. pag. Print.
[ii] Stott, John R. The Cross of Christ. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2006. Print.
[iii] Ortberg, John. Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
[iv] “The Tyranny of Self.” The Tyranny of Self. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2015.