A Brief Reminder of so Great a Salvation
God’s assessment of man, revealed to man on the pages of the Holy Bible, is not good. In the beginning, when God created man, male and female, the assessment was very good. The downgrade came, when tempted by the serpent, man chose unbelief and disobedience in response to God. In the judgment, man was sentenced to death.
The death of man’s soul meant a broken communion with God. Separation from the garden paradise meant great toil; and the loss of the knowledge of God meant that man was disoriented during his brief years upon the earth. Trouble has been with Adam’s posterity ever since. It is appointed once for a man to die; and then comes the judgment (Heb 9:27).
Death is a product of sin (Rom 6:23). Dead souls are eventually released from dead bodies; but the ensuing judgment comes with the sentence of the second death. This is eternal punishment in the fiery hell of the lake of fire (Mt 25:41, 46; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). The conscious bodily torment is forever. According to the Bible, this is the eternity for the great majority of humanity, joined with the devil and his angels.
Oblivious to this trajectory of pending doom, man occupies himself with meaningless pursuits. Despite his life being but a vapor (Jas 4:4), there is no end to the vanity of his vanities (Eccl 1:2). Simply put, humanity is distracted on its way to eternal destruction.
It would be perverse for people to know these universal realities and ignore them. People, however, do not want to hear the bad news of their demise into outer darkness. They are blinded from seeing the truth of their existence in a world in gross rebellion against the Holy God. The deceitfulness of sin hardens their hearts when they hear of God’s salvation. Stated another way, people do not want to hear the bad news any more than they want to hear the good news.
Without the knowledge of his plight, coupled with the void of knowledge of salvation, man travels the wide way leading to nether gloom, forever. Thus, the knowledge of God is salvation to those who hear of it and who believe the preacher’s report of what God has revealed to humanity about heaven and hell.
Preachers are sent by God to herald the Gospel of God. This is the message of eternal life. It tells sinners about God reconciling the world to Himself, by addressing and resolving man’s sin (separation) problem. People should rejoice, giving thanks to God when they hear the preacher tell them about so great a salvation. The irony is how people have treated these truth tellers throughout history.
The prophets of God, who prophesied of the advent of the Son of God were often killed. When the Son of God came into the world, He was despised and rejected by His own people, which was also prophesied beforehand. Humanity continues to reject God and mistreat those with beautiful feet sent to them with a message of redemption and restoration.
Not everyone rejects the preacher or his message, however. In fact, as many as receive Christ Jesus, the Savior sent to us, God has given the right to become children of God. In the eternal purpose of God, the decree has been issued, revealing the will of God to save a chosen people for himself. It is God’s mercy, alone, that even one of us is delivered from an eternity in hell.
God is glorified in both the just judgment of sinners and in the salvation of His elect, whom He gave to God the Son before all ages. Those who were selected for mercy and grace were redeemed by Christ, the God-man at the cross of Calvary, where he suffered and died to save His people from their sins. He died in our place of punishment, having received the totality of our sins, as the wrath of God was poured out upon Him who knew no sin, Himself.
In raising Jesus from the dead, God sent His message of approval to the world of men. Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice for sin was accepted for forgiveness to be issued and for the cancellation of the entire debt of sin in all those now justified by the application of the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Messiah.
The Gospel of our salvation brings great joy to those born again of God’s Holy Spirit sent to occupy our hearts, to give us faith and the new life given to us as a gift from God. It is the Holy Spirit who sets God’s elect, redeemed people apart from those in the world who are without the Spirit of Christ.
It is every Christian’s duty to bear witness of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. His Spirit indwells every saint, and the life of God manifests the fruit of the Spirit, which is further evidence of our salvation, Christ in us, the hope of glory.
My dear reader, it is no mystery that the God of Israel has put this testimony before you, today. It should be your delight to once again read of our great God and the salvation He Himself has accomplished on behalf of His beloved, Christ’s church, the Israel of God.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
October 18, 2024
