This Thing Called Salvation

ARE YOU SAVED?

The reality of our salvation is so layered, what does it mean to be saved and how do we possess and live out that salvation? When Paul guides the church in Ephesus to put on the full Armour of God, part of that ensemble includes the Helmet of Salvation. If your salvation is part of the protective armour needed to engage in spiritual warfare then we must understand our salvation.

'For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast. '
Ephesians 2:8-9

When Paul points out in the above scripture that we are saved by grace through faith, what are we saved from? In the preceding verses he speaks of how we all were dead in sin, living according the standards of the world and satisfying the desires of our flesh. That a life lived by the standards of the world and satisfying the flesh is a life of disobedience, which is fostered by the ‘spirit of the air’ aka the devil. However, God’s love, evident through Christ made us alive, obtaining that life comes freely as a gift of grace when we move to belief through faith.

We are saved from a life lived according to the standard of the world, that seeks to satisfy the flesh. We are saved from the death we deserve for our sins.

In Hebrews 3 the bible says that God would not permit to enter His rest those who disobeyed, ‘therefore they did not enter His rest because of their unbelief’ (Hebrews 3:17,18). If unbelief - the sin that keeps us from salvation - is equated with disobedience, then belief - the door by which we access grace’s salvation - is equated to obedience. When the bible says you have been saved, your salvation must find expression in your life.

'Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. '
Philippians 2:12

While you have been saved, there is still a work that must done to evidence your salvation. The walk of obedience. Obedience is not only seen in your actions, in the thing you do. If that was the case it will bring in to question Ephesians 2:9 which says our salvation is not by works. It is also alluded to in the armour of God, that salvation is represented by the helmet, the covering of the mind. Obedience comes by living no longer by the standards of the world but when you have a biblical mindset no longer operating from human wisdom.

THE ROLE OF ENDURANCE

'But the one who endures to the end will be saved. '
Matthew 24:13

Jesus Himself said, it is he who endures to the end that will be saved. Salvation is not a feeling or an emotion, it is not temporary or fleeting. Salvation isn’t that warm feeling you get when someone talks to you about God, or during a heated session of praise and worship. You don’t walk out of a church service saved and permitted to live life as usual and bank on that feeling to keep you. Salvation endures. Salvation is saved for those who remain unflinching in their faith, through all forms of trials, circumstances and extended periods of uncertainty. 

If I were to move from Lagos, Nigeria to London England I would become subject to a new set of rules, cultures, mindsets and environmental laws that will change how I live. Salvation does the same for us, your mind is under a new rulership, the cultures that guide you are different. You cannot move to and fro between these two states of being, but take permanent residence in the culture and domain of salvation.

We must learn to wear the hope of our salvation and live from the lens of that salvation.