Your Daily Bread – Salvation Is From Sin By Love Into Life

Salvation is from sin by love into life into life. What’s the one thing a dead man needs most? Not a coffin. Even more than that, life, life. And you see, this is what Paul is trying to say here. He’s going to make you alive. And he says it in verse five, even when we were dead in sins, he hath made us alive together with Christ by grace ye are saved. Now here’s his whole point here. The point is, if you’re doubting the power of God in your life, it is the power that raised Christ.

It is the power that raised you. See that? So when somebody comes along and says, well, I’m sorry if you haven’t had the second work, if you haven’t had the special baptism, if you haven’t had this little special thing, you don’t have the power. I say to them, garbage. The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead has already acted in my life in raising me out of the deadness of sin. You see, that’s his point. And he’s saying, look, if you’re worried about whether God can get you off this globe and onto that pearly city, whether he can get you out of here and into there, whether he can handle you going in the grave and coming out again at the resurrection, remember he already raised you once spiritually.

The physical part is easier. You see, he’s trying to show you that you can have confidence in God’s power. Man Christian, get a grip on who you are, what you’ve got, and what God’s already done in your life. Salvation is into life. He made us alive. When you became a Christian, you were no longer alienated from the life of God. You came alive. You all of a sudden were sensitive to God. You opened the Bible and it said, oh yeah, that’s what it says. The Spirit of God was in your life and things made sense and you saw the meaning of history and you had a real reason to live and you felt God at work and you knew Christ.

And there was an immediate brotherhood with other Christians. You became the possessor of the common eternal life. That’s living. That’s living. And he did it when he made Christ alive. He made us alive together with him. We were there when he rose from the dead. We were there when he came out of the grave. We were raised with him and God’s power has already been displayed on our behalf. So salvation is from sin by love into life. Fourth, salvation is from sin by love into life with a purpose. So what’s the purpose? Well, what’s this purpose? Verse 6, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

Now, this is so good. When God raised you from the dead, he didn’t leave you in the cemetery. You know, when Lazarus came out of the grave, I thought of an analogy just now. When Lazarus came out of the grave, he was alive. And then what did Jesus say? Loose him and let him go. The guy can’t live the rest of his life in those grave clothes. And when Jesus raised you from the dead, it wasn’t just to let you roam around the cemetery in the grave clothes. He picked you out of the grave.

A miracle of resurrection. And then he did a second miracle of ascension and exaltation. Verse 6 says, he raised you up and gave you a seat in heavenly places. Look, illustration number one of God’s power, he raised Jesus and exalted him to the right hand. Illustration number two, he raised you and exalted you to the right hand of God. You’re already seated in the heavenlies. Is that super? Past tense. It’s already done. If you’re a Christian, you’re already seated in the heavenlies. Your citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3 20. You’re no longer of this world.

You’ve been transformed out of this world. You have eternal life. And you just happen to be walking in this dead world. The very opposite of being dead in this world. You’re alive. And your life is in heaven, hid with Christ and God. He didn’t just raise us and leave us in the graveyard. He exalted us. He took us up into the heavenlies and we’re blessed with all spiritual blessings. Now, what do you mean by being in the heavenlies? You say, do you mean you’re in heaven? No, I’m right here, but I’ll tell you, my mind exists in God’s domain.

Doesn’t yours? That’s what it means. All my blessings are there. I talk to the Lord there. I talk to the Father there. I talk to the Holy Spirit there. I think about the Apostle Paul who’s there, all the people who’ve gone to be with him. That’s my home. That’s my dominion. All my commands come down from there. All my services go up to there. All my sacrifices are offered to there. You see, that’s my world. And so he not only raised me from the dead, but he raised me to his hand, his right hand.

You say, well, why did he do all this? Why would God want to make a bunch of cruddy sinners come alive and bring them up to be with him? Why? Verse 7, here’s the purpose. In order that in the ages to come, and you know when the ages to come begin, immediately after you’re saved, the moment you’ve saved, the ages to come begin. And in the ages to come, he wants to show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Do you know why God saved you? In order that he could be kind to you forever.

Isn’t that amazing? You say, why does God want to be kind to me? I don’t deserve it. Yes, you’re right. Neither do I. But God is what? Love. And Paul says, love is kind. Love is gracious. God is love. And love wants to be kind and gracious. This is the purpose, beloved. You were saved not primarily to keep you out of hell. You were saved primarily so that God could just shower his grace, and shower his blessing, and shower his riches on you. Now, for somebody to come along and say, well, when you get saved, you don’t get anything.

That’s to take your fist and just give a shot to God. You’re denying the whole point of salvation. From the moment you are saved, from the rest of the ages throughout eternity, he is unloading on you the riches of his grace. It’s all yours. He doesn’t withhold anything, anything at all. He gives you everything through Jesus Christ. Oh, what a wonderful thing, people. You don’t miss anything. It’s all yours in Christ, all yours. And then you know what he does? When he gets all done pouring out all his grace on you, he just holds you up, Ephesians 3.10 says, and shows you off to the angels, and says to the angels, now do you see what a wonderful, gracious God I am? And all the angels sing the hallelujah chorus, and in the end he gets what? The glory.

That’s the purpose. So don’t ever think you don’t have any resources. God saved you for the very purpose of unloading on you every rich, kind, gracious thing conceivable to the mind of God, so that you might be so filled with his riches, and filled with his kindness, and filled with his grace, that you can be held up to the angels, and that they can praise him for being such a loving, gracious, kind, and wise God. So his own glory is at stake, and he will never diminish his own glory. Therefore, if he gets glory by pouring out grace on you, he’ll do it.

That’s what he says. Salvation is from sin, by love, into life, with purpose. Fifth, through faith. It is through faith. Verse 8, for by grace are ye saved through faith. Faith is simply believing, simply believing. It’s not that complicated. It’s a gift of God, not of yourselves. And it’s not of works, because if it was, we would all do what? We’d boast, and then who’d get the glory? We would. God wants the glory. It’s not of works. The work is done. It’s all finished, tellest I on the cross. It’s finished. I always think of the story I told you some years ago about the guy who came to the revival meeting the night it closed.

They were taking down the tent, and he came running up to one end working with a peg, and he said, oh, what do I do to be saved? What do I do to be saved? What do I do to be saved? And the man was taking all the tent apart. The evangelist was gone. The place was dark. And he turned to him and said, I’m sorry, it’s too late. It’s too late. Oh, no, he said, what do I do to be saved? What do I do to be saved? You can’t mean it’s too late.

Yes, it’s too late, he said. You see, it’s already been done. He was right. There wasn’t anything to do because it has already been done, hasn’t it? Jesus did it. It’s not of works lest any man should boast. It’s of faith. Faith is simply believing. And we’re all every day of life. Every time you pop a lid off a Coca-Cola and drink it, it’s an act of faith. You don’t have any idea what’s in there. You go into a restaurant and you eat what they give you. You don’t know what’s really going on behind the golden arches.

I’ll never forget reading in Reader’s Digest about a city that converted from a storage water tank system to a pipe system. And they drained the old water system. And they found at the bottom of this tank that people had been drinking out of for 45 years. Dead dogs, dead rats, animals, dirt, silt. And they all got retroactive dysentery. I mean, you turn on your faucet. You don’t know what’s playing in your pipes. You just drink the water. You get on a bridge. I thought about that when I was driving over the Bay Bridge in Oakland one time.

Wouldn’t it be funny if there was an unlucky lane with a hole in it every day and somebody just went through, you know? You don’t believe that. You go down a highway you’ve never been on and you drive 60 miles an hour without any fear that there’s going to be a stone wall in your lane around the next bend. You live by faith every day of your life. And it’s that ability to live by faith that’s basic to human nature. And it’s that that God uses to draw you to himself.

And if you can trust the people that make hamburgers and cokes and bridges and take care of your water, you ought to be able to trust the God of the universe. And that’s the essence of faith. It’s believing, just believing, just accepting, taking the gift. And when you take the gift, you come alive in that instant. And that’s a great miracle, people. And God has already released his power, if you’re a Christian, in your life to do that in the past. You don’t ever need to question God’s power. You’ve seen it. Do you realize how dead you were in verses one to three? And now all of a sudden, for by grace you’re saved through faith.

It isn’t of you at all. It’s a gift of God. There’s no works involved in it. Because if there was, you would boast. And God wants to boast, not you. If you breathe spiritually, it’s because God slapped you on the back. If you can hear the hearing of faith, it’s because God unstopped your ears. No self-congratulations. No religion of human achievement. It’s all of God. None of us. Salvation didn’t come to you by your confirmation, by your baptism, your church attendance, your church membership. It didn’t come to you by giving money. It doesn’t come to you by communion, keeping the Ten Commandments, living by the Sermon on the Mount, giving to charity, believing in God, being a good neighbour, living a respectable life.

None of those things. In fact, hell will be loaded with people who did all of those. Salvation is through faith. From sin, by love, into life, with purpose, through faith. And last, salvation is unto good works. The result is good works. Why? Because John 15 8 says, Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. When God saves you, he wants to see in your life good works, because that manifests his power. He had the power to save you, and the manifestation of that power in your good works is to his glory.

Now, the Bible talks a lot about works. There are the works of the law which can’t save, in Galatians 2 and 3. There are the works of the flesh, in Galatians 5, 19-21. There are the works of darkness in Romans 13 and Ephesians 5. There are the dead works of Hebrews 6. These are not the kind of works we’re talking about. We’re not talking about works that save, because none do. We’re talking about the works that are the result of salvation. What happens afterwards? Look at verse 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

Watch this. Unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Listen. If God before ordained that you should walk in good works, believe me, he also gave you the power to do that when you were saved. That’s Paul’s point. You don’t need somebody to prove to you the power of God, the exceeding greatness of his power toward us. All you have to do is look at your own resurrection, your own exaltation, and your own power to do those things which are good works in the eyes of God.

You are to be filled with good works, Paul said. The word workmanship is a Greek word, and the word really came to mean a masterpiece. We are God’s masterpiece, and he has designed from before eternity to conform us to Christ, to mould us unto good works. And he does it his power. Listen. God’s power is at work in your life, shaping you, moulding you into the image of Jesus Christ. That power you saw it when you were saved, and you see it every day as you live under his pressure to conform to Christ.

You’re his masterpiece. You say I’m not much of a masterpiece. Well, you’re getting there. I always think of the junior teacher who had a little kid, and he was teaching about the creative power of God, and God made this, and God made this, and God made us, and so forth. And this kid was being real naughty and goofing around. And finally, in frustration, the teacher said, who made you? And the little guy said, God did, but he ain’t done yet. And none of that is going on. And the good works are part of it.

Listen. Who is the true Christian? The one who does the good works. You can have all kinds of people who claim to be saved, and claim to be born again, and claim to be Christians. And you can look and do you see in their life good works being produced by the power of God to the glory of God, because salvation is unto good works. I hope you know more than just religion. I hope you really know the salvation. I always think about the drawing room function I read about years ago. A famous actor was there, and everybody was asking him to recite famous pieces, and he had an unlimited repertoire, and he kept doing it.

And there was an old preacher there. I don’t know how he got to the party, but he was an old preacher. So he yelled out to the actor, and he says, why don’t you do the 23rd Psalm? And the actor knew it, and he said, well, that won’t be good for this occasion. He said, I want you to do the 23rd Psalm. And he said, all right, I’ll do it if you do it. And the old man thinking that’s even better, that’s twice. He said, I’ll do it. And the actor began, and his intonation was flawless, and his diction was masterful.

And he handled the 23rd Psalm with dignity and grace and beauty from beginning to end. And when he was finished, there was applause. And then the old preacher got up with his gravel voice after years of shouting and preaching and not too good of diction, and not such hot intonation. He went through the 23rd Psalm. And when he finished, there wasn’t any applause, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Tears came down the cheeks of the people, and the actor turned to him and said, sir, I see the difference.

I know the Psalm, but you know the shepherd. And that’s the difference. A lot of people who know the extremities and the externals, but knowing the Christ of God means to be alive. And that’s the message Paul wants to give. And if you’ve been made alive in Jesus Christ, you don’t ever need to question the power of God available in your life right now. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of salvation is from sin by love into life. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong and continue to shine your light in the world.

To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddess government.com. Goodbye. And may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].