“Author Of Salvation”
What is the crowning achievement on your resume of life? What I mean by that is, what gives your life meaning, value, and worth? What do you find acceptance and significance in?
We spend our lives building our “resume” to prove to people that we belong, that we are worthy of their love and attention, that our lives have purpose and significance.
The problem is that in doing so, we are trying to fix something that only God can.
John 1:12-13 says:
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Here is the beauty of salvation: it’s not something we can list on our resume. We did nothing to deserve it and nothing to earn it. Yet, as Tim Keller says, “On the cross, Jesus was treated as our sins deserve, so that all that God has would be shared with us. We would no longer be looked at by our list of accomplishments or our sins, but we would be seen as ‘righteous,’ as good enough in the eyes of God because of what Christ did for us on the cross.”
Through belief in the work of Christ on the cross, we are adopted into the family of God and receive all the rights and privileges that come with being a part of God’s family.
This Sunday, we are celebrating the decisions of people who have chosen to step out in obedience and be baptized as an outward display of an inward reality that they have made Jesus Christ Lord of their life.
As part of our service, we will be singing the song “Mighty To Save.” The chorus of this song goes like this:
“Saviour, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave”
We sing of a truth that only God is able to save. He is the author of our salvation. He alone defeated death, and He alone rose from the grave.
Hebrews 2:10-11 says:
“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
The IVP Commentary puts it this way:
“Though the Father was in full control of all forces and events in the universe (for whom and through whom everything exists), it was necessary that He subject His beloved Son to a degree of agony and humiliation that could alone fit Him to carry out that purpose.”
“The act of making holy implies the impartation of new life, the life of God Himself since only God is holy. Those who by faith become sons of God are made holy (sanctified) because they share the life of the Son of God.”
Christ did what only He could do, so that we may benefit by being adopted into the family of God as a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
We are trying to find something in life that shows the world that we matter, that our contribution to this world and this life is not meaningless. The thing is, no matter how hard we try to accomplish that, we will come up short. We will never feel validated enough in our efforts for significance. But when we turn to God and put our trust in Him, we find the solution for what our souls crave.
We find acceptance in a loving Father who, in every moment of our lives, has been faithful and has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3).
As we gather for worship this Sunday, let us remember God’s goodness towards us—that even when there was nothing good in us (Romans 5:8), He was still willing to go to the cross as the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Adam