SALVATION: GOD'S WORK

I Cor. 1:30 God alone made it possible for you to be in Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Christ to be wisdom itself. He is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy, and he gave himself to purchase our freedom.  NLT

      It begins and ends with God. God makes it possible for us to be saved, and it is God who completes the process of our salvation. God prepared the way for us to be saved. No matter how long it takes, God is at work leading people to Him. For some people, it may take a lifetime of work, for others they are saved at an early age. Some people have to go through great tragedies of life, others don't. God alone knows what each person needs to happen in their life before they will repent. Some people don't get it and it takes many opportunities before they finally get it. Some never do listen, but if they don't, it's not God's fault. He made it possible for them to be saved, but they rejected it.

     Jesus is our wisdom source. He makes life with God reasonable for us. Without Jesus, we would not understand God as a relational presence in our lives. Jesus helps us to understand that we can connect to God in a personal way. God is not an alien reality to us; He is very real. He does not exist apart from us, He lives in us. Jesus helps us to understand the life of God as something to be grasped and not as something far removed from us.

      Jesus gives us understanding on not only our need to change, but how it can happen. He shows us the way to purity and holiness of life. He helps us so that our whole nature changes and we no longer are the people we once were. He helps us to understand the freedom of forgiveness. He shows us how to live in that freedom. And, He never gives up on us or stops working in us, until He takes us home to heaven.

       We simply cannot make it to heaven on our own; we need Jesus.  He can do what we cannot do.  He alone can make us acceptable and pleasing to God.