Salvation

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13

The importance of our soul far outweighs all our needs and wants. It is imperative that it is well nourished and has the right master. In the Bible, we see King David talking to his soul in various contexts,

1. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence. Psalms 42:5
2. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. Psalms 116:7
3. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Psalms 103:1

One of my favorite verses from bible comes from Saint Paul, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day. 

Although there is a considerable diversity of opinion on the verse, most commentators agree that he is talking about his Soul.

Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician writes the below lines “The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.”

Jesus Christ asks the question, “What does it profit man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”

 Yet, we don’t spend much time thinking about it. Especially in the young age and in the youth. William Hazlitt writes, “There is a feeling of Eternity in youth which makes us amends for every thing. To be young is to be as one of the Immortals. One half of time indeed is spent–the other half remains in store for us with all its countless treasures, for there is no line drawn and we see no limit to our hopes and wishes.”

 But the Bible reminds us that our flesh is like a grass, a wild flower that fades. If we were to keep our soul and eternity in mind, we are bombarded with lots of questions, as our Soul is at stake. What happens after I die? How should I then live? To whom am I accountable? Which God should I then follow? What is right and what is wrong?

Hinduism believes in the concept of reincarnation of souls, wherein a soul reincarnates again and again till it attains perfection and union with its Source. Buddhism does not encourage the concept of soul, they merely categorize it as illusion, like a child thinking that a rainbow is real. Islam does have the concept of soul, and some of them believe in its three stages, the one which is prone to evil, the one which is conscious to evil, and the one which attains full rest and satisfaction.

When we look at Bible, it shows the souls as a helpless entity, that is dependent on God. It became weak and corrupted due to it’s inherent sinful nature. No amount of good deeds, acts of benevolence, meditation, or rebirths will ever deliver it from its corruption. How can pure come out of impure? How can righteousness come out of sinfulness? Yes, we can go to certain extent and be the most charitable philanthropist ever to exist, which is not going to take us to heaven.

I saw this quote in a Television series, “The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one”. The problem is us. We read this in the Book of Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

So, when there was no hope for us so that the Old testament prophets laments, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”,

Christ came for us, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment to truth.” MacLaren, a biblical expositor writes the following for the above verse , “On no man has sin fastened its venomous claws so deeply but that these may be wrenched away. In none of us has the virus so gone through our veins but that it is capable of being expelled. The reeds are all bruised, the reeds are none of them broken. And so my text comes with its great triumphant hopefulness, and gathers into one mass as capable of restoration the most abject, the most worthless, the most ignorant, the most sensuous, the most godless, the most Christ-hating of the race…Christ looks upon a world of men smitten with madness, and in whose breasts awful poison is working, with the calm confidence that He carries in His hand an elixir, one drop of which inoculated into the veins of the furious patient will save him from death, and make him whole. ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’ ‘He will not break,’ and that means He will restore, ‘the bruised reed.’ There are no hopeless outcasts. None of you are beyond the reach of a Saviour’s love, a Saviour’s blood, a Saviour’s healing.”

 Indeed much has been written of his Divine and most beautiful work, the Salvation of mankind. Even when we were careless about ourselves, someone did care for us and gave the most valuable gift we could ever get. The gift of salvation for our souls. Something which we cannot achieve by our own means. Something not gained by intellectual pursuit, or years of tremendous hard work.

To quote an example, its very difficult to obtain citizenship in Austria. Permanent residents must live in the country for a period of 15-30 years before being eligible to apply for a citizenship, and if approved, applicants must renounce any other citizenship. Compare it with what hope we have in Bible, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Many a time I used to think, would I be saved, if I had to have a list of qualifications and have a waiting period of 10 – 15 years, and have a credible report of good works for attaining salvation?

But, we have this beautiful verse, “…For whomsoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”

Dears, Salvation is not just your run of the mill accessory, God, the creator of the universe had to come and die to get you that. I love how Nietzsche the German philosopher puts it, “What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives”  The strange scene of a man who hung on the cross two thousand year back still echoes at the heart of every man waiting to be accepted, waiting to be loved, waiting to be one with us. Jesus Christ loves us.

John Murry an American song writer talks about his near death experience due to drug overdose in a song “Little Colored Balloons”, He dies for several minutes, and the paramedics give him shots to bring his heart back up. In an interview, he says  “The song is a prayer of sorts, I suppose. It’s a plea. For mercy, for salvation from myself, for Lori(his wife). I wanted saving but didn’t want help. I wanted death, but didn’t want to die. In the end, I got a life I ought not to be living; one I don’t deserve. One I’ve seen stolen from too many people stuck at that intersection; those crossroads. Better people than me. “

We are living the life we borrowed from Christ, the life we ought not be living, the one we don’t deserve. The life that He gave us. The life that belongs to Him. So, keeping this in mind, let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Knowing that we are accountable for the precious gift of salvation given to us and that, one day we have to stand before Him on the day of judgement to answer for this magnificent salvation.

Bro. Gideon Paul Rufus

God’s Love Missions Family