Salvation, a Precious and Miraculous Work of God

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:26)

This is one of the greatest statements in the Bible. Our faith, belief in Christ and our reliance on Christ for salvation has made us sons of God. I didn’t expect this when I first believed on Jesus. This was extremely good news to me. I don’t know what I thought about the fact that we prayed to the Father. I just thought that was a general way of saying God was in charge of all things as a father might be. I accepted many things without understanding when I first came to Jesus. I just knew that God had done a miraculous thing in me. I knew it to be real. And I knew it had come about with my life surrendered to God. I accepted that and was grateful that He’d come to take my sin away. That was the extent of my knowledge. It was very limited. But one thing was peculiar. I had a hunger for knowledge of God. I knew it was in the Bible. I enrolled in a Billy Graham Bible course for new believers. And I was so privileged to start attending a church that was getting a new pastor, who taught the foundations of salvation up to baptism for a whole year. And I was baptized the following year, a year and four months after receiving Christ as my Lord and Savior. I am grateful to the Lord for my love of the Word of God. Any knowledge and understanding come from meditation of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is still opening up wisdom and knowledge in God’s Word after fifty years.

In this short lesson, I hope to detail the miraculous and spiritual born again process that is such a precious and beautiful miracle. Only our mighty God could have pulled this off in a world where the devil is the prince. After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31) The devil still roams the earth, but illegally. He’s been conquered at the cross. His only weapon is lies. People who believe his lies are destroyed. We have to be alert and wise not to fall for his lies. “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Anything that doesn’t agree with the Word of God is a lie. Beware.

One thing that happened immediately after believing and relying on salvation through faith in Jesus is that the Holy Spirit comes to indwell. “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6) That’s how we know that we know without a doubt that Jesus is the Son of God, sent from the Father to die for us, to take our punishment and pay the payment for sin so that we are free of sin and free to live holy and pure lives. It’s made possible because of the sacrifice on the cross by Jesus. Before salvation we may have tried to be “good.” But we were unable to sustain it. We couldn’t do it. We had the flesh, which we still have. But worse, we had the sin nature. We loved sin. We loved darkness. The light of God was absent. We didn’t know how to live righteously. We thought we did, but our thoughts and desires were wicked and contrary to righteousness.

After believing and relying on Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to indwell, His light shines in the darkness. Without any teaching, we just know we want more light, more joy, more peace and more of Jesus. We don’t want to return to the darkness. We know that we are not the same even if we don’t know what it is. We love it and don’t want to return to fear, doubt and darkness. I didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit in me, but I perceived God telling me what I had to do and what I wasn’t to do anymore. And I didn’t want to do anything that would take that joy and peace away.

So what did happen? The supernatural miracle is that God who lives in the past, present and future at the same time, saw us receive Jesus and the provision was made available through Jesus. Our old sinful person died on the cross with Jesus those thousands of years ago. “...knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin. For he who died has been justified from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7) But in the present, when we believed on Jesus, we are just realizing the death of the old sinful person and the rebirth by the Spirit of God a new person, with God’s holy nature. “So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) Our spirit is reborn of God, holy and pure. Unfortunately, we still have to deal with the flesh.

Over and over Jesus and the writers of the New Testament tell us not to love the world. The world is controlled by the devil and is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. This is what motivates those who love the world. “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1John 2:15-17) Our flesh was not redeemed. Our soul (mind, will and emotions) are influenced by either the reborn of God spirit or the flesh. When we don’t spend time with Jesus nor read the Bible and grow in the Lord, the flesh will rule in our lives and our Christianity will be weak and faulty. We must read the Word of God because it is alive and life to our spirit. God gave us gifts to help us grow. If we don’t go to church and hear the Word of God, we won’t grow. “And truly He gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And this until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we no longer may be infants, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, in the dishonesty of men, in cunning craftiness, to the wiles of deceit.” (Ephesians 4:11-14)

When we fill ourselves with the Word of God, our human reborn of God spirit grows in the knowledge of God, is strong in faith and able to influence our soul (mind, will, and emotions). “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another; lest whatever you may will, these things you do.” (Galatians 5:17) God’s Word is able to transform our minds. And we will be able to overcome the flesh and its desires. “I say, then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)

Yes, this is a little simplified, but in essence is what happens. Reading God’s Word, hearing God’s Word and walking in the spirit is what determines our growth in the Lord. Knowledge of the Lord determines our walk, whether it’s a walk of the flesh or the spirit. “And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God is perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.” (1John 2:3-6)

To put it briefly, the precious and miraculous redemption and salvation of man is all God’s work, from beginning to eternity. The only thing we have to do is believe and rely on Christ and grow in the knowledge of the Lord through His Word. This also is grace from God, the undeserved favor of God over our lives. And Jesus will complete the work He has begun in us. “...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, (Philippians 1:6).”