God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS FROM REVELATION

A SALVATION WORTH ACCEPTING

In the previous meditation when we looked at Jesus as a Saviour worth trusting [Revelation 1:5] we saw that the salvation he offers to sinners includes:

Deliverance from death and from the fear of death. Jesus is called ‘the firstborn from the dead’, a title that infers the promise of physical resurrection to those who believe in him.

Deliverance from our sins by his blood. This refers to the complete forgiveness of our sins and the just penalty and punishment incurred by our sins, by means of the sin-bearing, substitutionary death of Christ in which he bore all the guilt, all the wrath of God, all the condemnation due to those who believe in him.

In both of these we see the extreme cost of salvation: we are redeemed [rescued, delivered, set free] not by silver, nor by gold, nor by anything of monetary value, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God [1Peter 1:18,19]. This high cost alerts us to two facts related to our salvation: [1] the extremeness of our need – nothing less than this death of this person has the ability and the authority to save us; [2] the extreme love of God for those he saves – this death of this Son is the measure of his love for us. This costly deliverance, this costly salvation, proves two common human misconceptions to be wrong: the perception that we can by some means save ourselves, and the perception that God is not the God of love he claims to be.

In Revelation 1:6 two further aspects of salvation are identified:

Christ has made us to be a kingdom.  This has already been accomplished by Jesus Christ. The ‘kingdom’ is not only something that we are waiting for, it is a reality that has already been established: that all who believe in Jesus Christ are ‘a kingdom’. Jesus is already the King. Indeed, he is the ‘King of kings’ [Revelation 17:14; 19:16], and those who believe in him are already members of his kingdom. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus God ‘has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us safe in to the kingdom of the Son he loves’ [Colossians 1:13]. Through Jesus our substitute, God ‘has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light’ [Colossians 1:12]. Already, the Scripture teaches, believers ‘reign in life’ [Romans 5:17]. Already, believers are ‘a royal priesthood’ [1Peter 2:9].

Christ has made us ‘priests to serve his God and Father’. Again this is something already established by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As indicated in 1Peter 2:9, those who believe in Jesus Christ are ‘a royal priesthood’. The key concept in ‘priesthood’ is service rendered to God, especially service viewed as a form of worship. As unsaved sinners, humans are banned from God’s presence; as unsaved sinners, even our prayers are rendered unacceptable by our sin [Isaiah 59:2]. In the Old Testament only priests, and particularly High Priests, were permitted to enter the symbolic presence of God, and only priests could offer acceptable service in the Tabernacle and the Temple. But in the salvation established by Jesus Christ everyone who believes in him has present, permanent access into the presence of God [Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:14-16, 10:19-22]. The sin barrier has been removed. The disqualification incurred by sin has been replaced by the perfect qualification of Christ credited to us [Colossians 1:22; 2Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 7:14]. Nothing can ever again separate from God those who by faith have received Jesus Christ [Romans 8:31-39].

In saving us through the death of his Son God has undone the impacts of Genesis 3. The death that entered there is replaced with spiritual life and the assurance of physical resurrection. The separation from God that entered there is replaced by present and eternal unimpeded access to God. The guilt and condemnation that entered there has been taken from us and placed on Christ, never to be applied to us again.  

Truly, this is a salvation worth accepting!

© Rosemary Bardsley 2015