Title: To Achieve Salvation
Contents
Ephesians 4:13-15
to achieve salvation
Are you saved?
I was saved too. Are you sure of your salvation? Can I go to heaven even if I die now? If asked, I will answer yes without hesitation.
When I was in high school, I had the assurance of salvation. One day, a friend of mine, who was the secretary of the high school, pulled out a present from the high school locker room and picked me up. It was a gift for a friend who had a birthday in high school. But after several months, the owner of the gift did not appear, and my friend picked me up while cleaning up the kebinat. It was a small frame. It was a picture frame called the face of Jesus, taken in the snow. I got the gift and hung it in my living room. I didn't recognize Jesus in that picture. I didn't recognize Jesus' face because I had just been to church. Then one day, when I came home from the school, I saw the face of Jesus in the frame I looked at. How startled I was at that moment... But the moment I saw the face of Jesus in the frame, a thought came into my mind. “I am saved” is the thought. At that time, I had the assurance of salvation.
I would like to relate this to 2 Corinthians 5:17. Let's all look at 2 Corinthians 5:17. Then I became a new creature. The meaning of this word is that God created a new creation. Salvation means that God's work of creation equals the creation of the world.
When I was in high school, I became a new creature and I was convinced that I could go to heaven even if I died. I also came to believe that the cross of Jesus was for my sins.
Now that's it. Need more?
But in today's text, Paul tells us something strange. “I will make the perfect man, even to the stature of the stature of the stature of Christ”
I just need to believe in Jesus and be saved. What do I have to do to go to Christ? Some say that if you do, you will receive a great reward in heaven. But since elementary school, I was far from hurt. So, I'm not really interested in winning awards. I am satisfied with salvation. You don't have to get an award. I would say so. Aren't there many people who have the same thoughts as me?
The thought of achieving salvation through the cross creates another sense of damage. When I was young, I had a classmate in school. He was a friend of the Seventh Church in Incheon, and he had a really good faith. Where were you going with your friend? But the road was lined with bars. Along the way, the friend tells me, “I almost wish I had believed in Jesus a little later.” I was surprised and asked, 'Why do you think so?' Then the friend said, “Believe a little later and enjoy some things in the world, and then you can go to heaven even if you believe.
That friend was not living the life of faith with joy and pleasure, but was sacrificing it.
I had nothing to say to the friend. Something doesn't seem to be there, but I couldn't tell you exactly what went wrong.
What would you like to say to this friend?
The reason the friend fell into such an error was because he saw salvation and growth or sanctification as separate issues.
When a child is born, it does not grow on its own. Having a baby is hard work, but raising a child isn't easy either. That's why adults often say, "I know that I'm big by itself" when they make their children feel sad. Children do not grow by themselves.
In other words, it is natural for children to grow up. But if the child does not drink milk and sleep, the child cannot grow. However, a child not growing is not just a matter of not being tall or not gaining weight. A child not growing up is a matter directly related to survival.
The same is true of faith or belief.
A faith that does not grow, a faith that does not change, it is not a weak faith, it is dying. Sunlight and water are essential if you plant a pretty tree in a pot and wish it to grow well. If you don't water the pot, the tree will wither little by little. In other words, it means dying. There is no weak faith or weak faith. Dying Faith There is only dying faith.
I think of salvation as a table that has been accepted. However, salvation must be viewed with the same principles as when a child was born into the world. A baby cannot survive without taking care of it even for a moment. Likewise, if you don't try to keep growing your own salvation, you will become a child who doesn't exist and you will have a hard time surviving.
We have been told and believed that we can be saved if we just believe in Jesus. We were convinced that no one could take our salvation away. I comforted myself that no matter what life I lived, I would have been saved.
In other words, salvation does not come only through the cross.
World-renowned theologian John Stadt explains salvation in his book ‘Basic Truths of Christianity’: “Salvation is achieved through the redemptive cross of Jesus Christ, self-breaking through God the Holy Spirit, and the unity of the saints through the church.” According to this saying, salvation must also be the Trinity.
Salvation is achieved through the union of the cross of Jesus, God the Holy Spirit, and the saints.
It is in order to achieve salvation that we grow or mature. The Holy Spirit must come into me and purify the lusts in me. - This is called self-awakening, or self-denial. - You must have this kind of self-brokenness to achieve true fellowship with God. The purpose of the creation of man as a person is communion with God. Our lives are always in vain because this fellowship is not fulfilled because it is blocked by the lust of sin. God the Holy Spirit enables us to establish true fellowship with God through this process of self-denial. The process of accomplishing this is expressed as spiritual growth, maturation, or sanctification.
Therefore, why should we grow to the full measure of Christ? When we know God, we achieve true salvation. Your life is not a life of sacrifice for salvation, but a taste of true joy through fellowship with God.
The man who tasted this Paul hoped for heaven rather than life on this earth. It is not a place to enjoy the gorgeous scenery. It means the height of joy, the complete restoration of your relationship with the Lord.
Your salvation is not given by itself.
Salvation has life. If you leave it alone, it will die. Therefore, salvation must be taken care of to grow day by day, and we must strive to achieve salvation.
work out your salvation. May your faith grow to the full measure of Christ.