Bob Cassell, Messenger
Have you noticed the distinctions in salvation during different time periods on God’s divine calendar? It is evident that salvation does not include the same things in every age. Now, let’s proceed cautiously and be sure we are defining our terms lest something false is believed. In all ages, salvation from the penalty of sin and deliverance from everlasting death are identical. God saves in every age, and those he saves he keeps. It is in the matter of God’s objective with those who are saved that there is a vast difference in salvation in the different ages. For example, at a time still in the future,
“… all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Romans 11:25, Ezek. 11:19, 20, and 36:24-28).
Please notice, all Israel will be saved. What does that statement mean? It means they are in God’s perfect plan, and the entire Nation will be saved, but all are not presently saved!
Romans 11:25b, gives the reason they are not saved. “Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in.”
The fulness of the Gentiles is the completion of the purpose of God in calling from among the Gentiles a people for Christ’s name, the Church which is His body (Eph 1:22-23). After the completion of the Church age and at the end of the Great tribulation, the entire nation becomes saved and enters into an earthly kingdom over which the Prince of Peace shall rule.
No heavenly position is in view in this time period because Israel remains an earthly people.
Another segment of the redeemed will be saved out of a seven-year period following the present age and preceding the establishment of Christ’s 1,000-year millennial reign mentioned in the above paragraph. The last half of this period (three-and one-half years) will be a time of,
“… great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).
During this period of time,
“a great multitude… of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, shall be saved. Their destiny is to be “… before the throne of God, and they shall serve him day and night in his temple” (Revelation 7:7-17).
By means of God’s purpose the saved of that time shall be a heavenly people, but they shall be servants in His temple.
John the Baptist addressed himself as the friend of the bridegroom (John 3:29).
He was the last of the Old Testament prophets and this suggests that the position of the Old Testament saints, in their relation to Christ, shall be as the friend of the bridegroom.
Those who serve out of the present age of grace are predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son of God (Romans 8:29).
They are called the body of Christ (Col. 1:24), His Church, (Eph. 5:25-32).
They are to become one with God the Father even as He and the Son are one (John 17:21).
This is clearly the most exalted position to which any of God’s creatures shall ever ascend!
The greatness of this amazing salvation can be seen more clearly by comparing that which God did in creating the universe with that which He had to do in saving humanity. When God created the heaven and the earth He spoke and it came into existence.
“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made: and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Ps 33:6).
“By the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water” (2 Pet. 3:5).
Seven times in the first chapter of Genesis these words or their equivalent are found;
“And God said, let there be …”, and in each case that which He commanded was immediately brought to pass.
Jesus Christ created all things by means of the power of his word.
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him; and he was before all things, and by him all things consist (Colossians 1:16,17. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell (Colossians 1:19).
He not only created the heavens and the earth by the power of His word; He also upholds all things by that same power.
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3).
All that any human can see on this earth and all the life that is on it, all the forces of nature and all the stars of heaven, in their own gravitational forces, are held together by the power of God’s word. All that you see is beyond the imagination and cannot be fully grasped by our limited and earth-bound minds because these inscrutable things, all of them, reflect His glorious and immeasurable omnipotence!
God clearly expresses his will for those who are lost to be saved, but He does not indiscriminately or arbitrarily reach down to all and save all. He is not willing that any should perish, but many will; only because they go their own way and never realize or believe that his salvation is a free gift that can only be received.
Human efforts are produced by humans, and on their best day can never cause God to be more gracious that he is and has always been. His heart is mollified by only one thing and one person. That person is the unique Son. The exclusive and only one who was qualified to go the cross and do something about our lost condition.
In his obedience in going to the cross he did all that was necessary to purchase our redemption by dying and shedding his perfect blood in full payment of all our sin, blindness, and unbelief. Please, pause to allow the greatness this portion of God’s word to illuminate your mind and instruct your soul… that is the most known and famous scripture from the bible.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Apart from the giving of the “only begotten Son” all would perish and could not receive eternal life.
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had (past tense) the power of death, that is, the devil. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14,15).
It was through the death of Jesus Christ that the works of the devil were destroyed, and humanity was delivered from the fear of death.
“For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:1).
If Christ had not been put to death, He could not have brought humankind to God.
“He who knew no sin (God) was made to be sin on our behalf: that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21).
Only as human sins have been charged to Christ and paid for by His death can God reckon sinful man as perfectly righteous.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13,14).
Christ having been made a curse for mankind is the condition for receiving the Spirit through faith.
“… by the obedience of one (Jesus Christ) shall many be made righteous (Romans 5:19). His obedience was unto death on the cross and is expressed in the following:
“Who existing in the form of God, counted not being on equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even in death yes, the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:6-8).
These passages declare in no uncertain terms that salvation could not have been accomplished apart from the Son of God giving His life in the excruciating death on the Cross.
From His exalted position in heaven the Son of God spoke, and the heavens and the earth came into existence. When a rebellious and lost human race was to be saved, He who had made the universe left His position in glory and took upon Himself the form of sinful man and gave His life on Calvary’s cross to deliver humanity from the power of Satan and redeem him from the curse of the broken law that God might in grace save his eternal soul.
Apart from the infinite love of God as is so vividly expressed in the death of his Son there can be no salvation.
His “So Great Salvation” is not only provided by his perfect love, but also by his unsurpassed power. The Apostle Paul stated in the book of Ephesians that God exercised an unsurpassed power on behalf of all who believed. This power is the same as that which He exercised in raising Christ from the dead and in setting Him on his right hand,
“Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 12:19-21).
It is impossible to find a greater expression of God’s power than is expressed so ably here by the Apostle Paul.
All that required the death of the Son of God and the fullest exercise of God’s infinite power for its accomplishment can be termed in no less expression than as God’s “So Great Salvation.”
May I cautiously suggest to you, we are failing and weak humanity and need something greater than ourselves. That something is outside of us, and that outside something is none other than the sovereign of the universe, the King of Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you aware that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the Godhead and the exclusive Savior of mankind. He indeed, is the only way to heaven… he is the door, the way, the truth and the life. This magnificent God man has finished all the work that is required in order to pay the full price for your redemption.
You cannot save yourself! Please realize you are a drowning person and must be saved. You cannot go to heaven as you are; you must reach out and accept his extended arm by faith, and in so doing you will be rescued and taken all the way to heaven.
You will no longer be going down for the third time into oblivion, where there is no escape or redemption. You will be delivered and placed on Christ the solid rock to stand forever realizing that all other ground is sinking sand.
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