Tag: forgiveness

Jesus, the Word of God

Another profound revelation given in the first chapter of John’s Gospel that is often read at Christmas time is the use of the expression, “Word” to signify the Lord Jesus Christ. This is clear in John 1.14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. 

The Gospel opens with the words “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. This is a phrase both dense and difficult to fathom – but it deals with both the nature of God and the incarnation, both of which are supernatural themes not easy to access. Let’s examine it more closely.

“In the beginning was…” – this both evokes the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created…”; and yet the verb “was” depicts not an action but a presence. “In the beginning” brings us back to the very dawn of creation – or even to the deep mystery before creation took place. The “Word” was already there!

“The Word was with God”. Here the “Word” appears separate from God, but closely connected with him. “He was in the beginning with God” (verse 2). But who ever could have been there with the Creator at the beginning of creation? The Word was in eternity at God’s side; could he be God’s equal?

“The Word was God”. Now we are really confused: the Son, Jesus (the Word made flesh, v14) was not only with God. He was God! Later in the chapter John recounts the testimony of John the Baptist at the start of Jesus’ public ministry: “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (v34). The beginning of this Gospel therefore introduces us to the Son of God who was with God the Father at the eternal moment prior to creation. Christian theologians, reflecting on this and other passages of the New Testament where mention is made of “the Spirit of God”, concluded that in the one divine true God there is a tri-unity of Father, Son, and Spirit. This has always seemed out of reach of our human understanding, but that is the whole point: a god you can fully comprehend does not deserve the title of God. The Almighty Creator must always exceed our human grasp. “My thoughts are higher than your thoughts”, he says in Isaiah 55.8-9.

Next, John reveals that the Word was none other than the Creator: “All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made that was made” (verse 3). The Word, the eternal Son of God, was uncreated; indeed, he was the Creator of “all things”! So in Jesus’ birth, we see the Creator visiting his creation – even entering his own creation like the “undercover Boss”!

All this is true of that tiny babe in Bethlehem! “God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man”. Or as John puts it, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (verse 14). Well may the angels of heaven burst out to worship at the sight of the one who had forever dwelt in the heights of heavenly glory taking on the nature of humanity! 

John evokes however the greatest of tragedies: “He [the Word] was in the world, and the world was made by him, yet the world did not know him” (verse 10). Some, however, did come to know him, and to receive him and love him. Are you one of them?

Why not take time to read and meditate on those first 18 verses of John’s Gospel?

Clive Every-Clayton

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God became visible

One of the problems for faith is that God is not something or someone that you can see: he is Spirit, which means he is invisible. How can you prove the existence of someone who is invisible?

In the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John chapter 1, a biblical passage that is often read at Christmas time, an answer is given to this issue. Later in the Gospel (chapter 4.24) Jesus himself teaches that “God is spirit”, so Christianity does not try to hide the fact that God cannot be physically seen.
Indeed, John 1 verse 18 acknowledges that “No one has ever seen God”, but the apostle goes on to bring a clarification that is absolutely mind-boggling: “the only-begotten God, [i.e. Jesus] who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known”. The more modern New Living Translation renders this as: “the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us”. Let’s unpack that profound sentence.

The verb “beget” signifies the fathering of a child. The mother “gives birth”, and the father begets. The biblical expression “only-begotten” implies the unique communicating of divine life from the Father to the Son, Jesus. So Jesus teaches in John 5.26, “As the Father has life in himself” [i.e. divine life], “so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself”. This is unique to Jesus – the “only-begotten Son”. He uses this word himself in John 3.16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. 

So the “only-begotten God” is Jesus: he has made God the Father known. This is a major truth. The vital fact here stated is that: “Jesus has revealed God to us”. The word “revealed” brings us to a completely different level of reflexion on this difficult search for God. We have our ideas, (both small and confused and often far from correct) about God. But if God reveals himself – if the invisible becomes visible – we can have meaningful access to truth about him. This is indispensable if we are ever to know God. And this was one of Jesus’ essential roles in coming into the world.

Though we cannot see God in this life, he has shown himself in Jesus. That’s why Jesus could say, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14.9). In his sinless life of love, holiness, and compassion, Jesus showed forth the very nature of God. He lived among people who could realise that he was indeed “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1.15).

As we study the life of Jesus in the Gospels, we see God in human form. Or as Charles Wesley put it poetically: “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see / Hail the incarnate Deity / Pleased as man with man to dwell / Jesus our Emmanuel”. The biblical word Emmanuel means “God with us” (Matthew 1.23). That is who Jesus was – a totally unique incarnation of God. That’s why Christmas resonates with amazement and worship. For the only time in History, God entered the world as a small baby boy who grew up to live a sinless life, to teach about God as his Father, to do miraculous deeds, and when rejected and crucified, he rose triumphant from the dead and was seen and heard for forty days by hundreds of people before returning to heaven.

Nothing like that has ever happened elsewhere. God has revealed himself through Jesus. We do well to pay attention to his revelation.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Answers? The basics

As people look for answers to our existential questions, the options are fairly easily categorised: there are basically two. 

The answers may come from human beings, or may be given by God. Centuries of human intellectual pursuit have failed to provide the answers that our hearts crave – answers that both clearly correspond to reality and that provide meaning and purpose to our existence. 

God may give answers. Indeed, if he is our creator, he would have the infinite wisdom to know why he created us the way we are; as any human inventor or creator, he would have a purpose in mind for his creation. If he created us with the capacity of communicating, he would logically have the ability to communicate also. So he could get a message through to us, answering our many queries.

But it would seem there are many gods with many conflicting messages about how we are to find fulfilment. How to be sure we have the real God?

Very few religions teach that God is our Creator. It is on the first page of the Jewish Bible; it is repeated in the Christian New Testament; it is alluded to in the Koran. What makes the difference  between these three? The fact that in Christianity alone, we have God becoming incarnate – coming down into our world in human form in the extraordinary person of Jesus. Both Jews and Muslims deny this; the Christian New Testament affirms, however, that the Lord Jesus Christ was himself the creator: He is presented as “the Word” who one day “became flesh and dwelt among us”; and he, “the Word” was the Creator, because “All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made that was made” (John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 1-18). “By him all things were created”, the New Testament repeats; “in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1.16-19).

As “the Word”, the Lord Jesus Christ had the divine wisdom of the Creator, and was able to communicate God’s will and truth to us human beings. He himself lived a sinless human life, taught profound truths about God and human goodness and, when he was rejected and crucified, he demonstrated his divine nature by rising alive from the dead three days later.

“I have come,” he said to the people, “that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John’s Gospel 10.10). “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth” he declared (John 18.37). He therefore communicates truth we need to know in order to have abundant life. In other words, he brings the answers we need to our existential questions. 

By the historic life of Jesus, we can finally have access to the unique source of true answers; all we have to do is read and understand what he taught in the New Testament Gospels which, written by his close disciples, record his words of wisdom and truth. 

Speaking of Jesus, the New Testament explains, “all things were created by him and for him” (Colossians 1.16). Think about that for a moment: all things – including you and me – were created not only by Christ, but for Christ. We find fulfilment therefore, when we find Christ – for we were made for him. Our human confusion is that we are cut off from the only one – Christ – who can love us, forgive us, cleanse us, make us right with God and even dwell within us when we pray to him and ask him to come and save us from our sins. He is alive; he is divine; he can hear and answer our prayer as we call upon him. This is the way we will find the fulfilment our heart craves.

Clive Every-Clayton

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How should I read the Bible?

Normally you begin a book at page one and read it through to the end. Of course there is sense in reading the Bible like that, but it would take quite a long time to get to the central message. It is, however, very useful to read the early chapters of Genesis, (the first of the 66 books contained within the Bible) for they lay the foundation of all that will be developed through the many pages to come. Genesis also introduces Abraham, called by God to become the father of a numerous posterity, the Jewish people.

The Bible is a book of history, and recounts the development of God’s people throughout numerous generations. The second book, Exodus, tells of the escape of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, and how God gave them the Ten Commandments. Succeeding books reveal God’s dealings with his people through the centuries.

The central message of the Bible becomes clearer in the New Testament, where the four Gospels relate the life, teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and this is the heart of the Bible’s message, so it is quite acceptable to move quickly into that. One way of reading the Bible is to read each day a chapter both of the Old Testament and of the New Testament. 

Different parts of the Bible have differing emphases and usefulness. For example, the Psalms are prayers of God’s people in a large number of diverse situations; they express their need of God in various ways, and uplift the spirit by their expressions of praise to God. The Book of Proverbs contains short adages of practical advice; the Book of Ecclesiastes illuminates the human dilemma, life seemingly meaningless without God. In the later prophetic books, we see God speaking to the Israelites words of reproach and warnings of judgment as well as promises of mercy and predictions of blessing when they repent. 

In the New Testament one of the Gospel writers, Luke, wrote a second book, the “Acts of the Apostles” which continues the history of the disciples of Jesus from AD 30 to AD 62. It shows how the early church began, what the apostles preached, and how they dealt with various issues as the Gospel went further out into the Roman Empire. This is a fascinating historical read.

What is very helpful for the believer are the letters written by the apostles, Paul, Peter, James, John, and Jude to the first believers. They contain eternal truths that all believers hold, especially developing the way God saves sinners through Christ. They also give numerous exhortations about living as Christian disciples in the world. These letters speak directly to the believer of today and are extremely helpful for our spiritual growth. Some are more complicated than others, for God’s truth is very deep and requires our serious study.

But how should one read? It is good to start by praying that God will speak to you through his Word and enable you to understand it. Then read with an open spirit, attentive to what God might say to you through the passage you read. The Bible is a living book: God still speaks through its pages to the hearts of believers today. 

Don’t rush your reading; take the time to think through what it means. It has been well said, “It is better to read little and think much than to read much and think little”. And as you think – or meditate – on the Bible’s message, you can also have a notebook and pen handy, to jot down any particular thought that inspires you or is applicable to your life. It does no harm to underline in the Bible those verses that speak to you. 

There are some helpful “Study Bibles” for sale that have notes assisting the reader to understand those passages that may seem unclear. Most of them are excellent and you may want to invest in purchasing one. Conversely, you may find it helpful to have a pocket New Testament that you can carry around with you, or download a Bible on your smartphone. That way, if you have time spare before your next activity, you can nourish your faith by a quick Bible reading.

Bible reading is meant not only to inform you, but to change you more into the likeness of Jesus. So don’t let your reading be merely to gain head knowledge – useful though that is. Keep asking yourself, what does this mean in my life? How should I apply this statement or this promise or this commandment in my life today? Reading the Bible with an open heart, submissive to God’s teaching, will enable you to grow in faith, love, and commitment to your Saviour.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Why the Bible?

There are all kinds of religious works penned by sages and prophets in various countries: what’s so particular about the Bible that makes it stand out above all the rest as the world’s best-seller? What makes it so unique?

First of all, its note of divine authority. By its often used expression, “Thus says the Lord”, it communicates that the almighty Creator himself is speaking to mankind. About 2,000 times in the Old Testament expressions occur such as, “Hear the word of the Lord”, “The Lord spoke to … saying…”, “God said”, “The Word of the Lord came to …”, “the Lord commanded” etc. This means that 2,000 times the Bible claims to bring the actual words of God himself. This is either true or constitutes 2,000 lies about the Almighty.

Secondly, the high call to holiness that is expressed throughout the Bible. Nowhere else can one find such a high and holy mandate for human behaviour. All sin is fully condemned and all kinds of virtues are required. The moral teaching of Jesus, and in particular his Sermon on the Mount, are acknowledged to be of such purity and so demanding as would convince an honest seeker that this must come from the high and holy Creator of humankind.

A third element in the Bible, attested in the Pensées of Blaise Pascal, is the phenomenon of prophecy whose fulfilment has been confirmed. God alone can know the future, and the Bible contains a number of clear predictions that were subsequently fulfilled. The most striking is the 53rd chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah which depicts the sufferings and death of the Christ. Jesus himself predicted his own resurrection from the dead. He foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles which occurred seven weeks after he had left this earth and gave birth to the Christian church. 

Another element of this is the promises that God gave – for example to Abraham that he would have a son and innumerable descendants, when he was old and his wife was barren. The existence of the Jewish people attests to the fact that God makes and keeps promises, for they are the fruit of God’s “impossible” prediction.

The profundity of biblical thought is another indication of the Bible’s divine origin. The eternal plan of the Creator is progressively revealed in its pages – a plan that no human mind could have invented, for it included the divine incarnation, death and resurrection in history of Jesus, the Son of God.

Together with that, the Bible unfolds a true and realistic account of who we are, both in our intrinsic value as persons made in God’s image, and in our grievous lack of real goodness; it informs us of why we exist, how we should live, and where we go after death.

The most convincing of all is that the Bible promises not only to forgive the sinner, but to radically change his or her whole life; and this promise can be put to the test by anyone who reads the Bible and takes it as true. By believing in the Jesus who is revealed in the Bible, by following his instructions to repent and obey, anyone – you included – can discover for themselves that this book comes from a God who stands by his word and fulfills his promises: the profound change in the life of those who put their trust in the Saviour is testable personal proof. Millions have found this to be true in their experience, and this proof is open to anyone who, like the immoral philosopher become great theologian, St Augustine, heeds the call to “take up read” this extraordinary book, the Bible.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Walking with God

Our relationship with God is likened in the Bible to walking with God. Right at the earliest time in humanity there was at least one, Enoch, who “walked with God” (Genesis 5.24). In fact the New Testament uses the idea of walking to depict one’s way of life. For example, there are the unbelievers who “walk in darkness” (John 8.12); indeed, Paul describes them as walking “in the futility of their minds” before they came to know the Lord. Subsequently, they who “are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 4.17, 5.8).

This theme, recurring through the bible, teaches us something important: the Christian life is not just believing some facts or doctrines, nor just in practicing some religious acts. It involves maintaining a relationship with the Lord: walking with him means sharing our lives with him, talking to him about everything that worries us, asking his help in all kinds of situations. 

This is both a blessing and a challenge. To share our lives with Jesus is the way we show our love and attachment to him as our loving Saviour. It’s a way of speaking of our intimate prayer life. If you ever go for a solitary walk, that’s an opportunity to literally walk with God, opening up your heart to him, sharing your joys, your sorrows, your temptations, and your plans with him. It can be a time to offload your burdens, to entrust your difficulties into God’s hands, and to renew your confidence in his promises to help you.

But there is a challenge here too. 1 John 1.6, 7 points this up: “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth”. But in verse 7 he adds “if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another” and with God himself. He goes on to encourage his readers to confess their sins to God, for as we keep close to God in our walk, we need to be cleansed of any deviations from the right path. So walking with God, keeping up a living relationship with him, will keep us from erring into sinful behaviours.

Here is a verse that is worth memorising : Paul, writing to converts in Colossians 2.6,7, exhorts them: “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving”. This reminds us of how we started out on the Christian walk – we “received Christ” as our saviour and Lord. So we keep on, becoming more established in the faith, and growing in our obedience to our Lord.

To other believers he wrote similarly, “as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, … do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4.1). Let’s learn to maintain an open and clear relationship with the one who loved us and gave himself for us, and is now living within us by his Spirit. So we will become more and more like him, so as to “walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2.6).

Clive Every-Clayton

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A love relationship with God?

God’s purpose and desire in creating people in his likeness is that we experience a harmonious relationship with him; this is the real purpose of life, ignored or disregarded by so many.

And this harmonious relationship should be one of love! God is love, and he made persons in his likeness that he could love and that could love him in return. But loving God seems bizarre: so many people deny his existence, avoid him, or even hate him. But since loving God is our raison d’être, those who miss out on that harmonious relationship end up truly frustrated. Indeed, those who spurn God’s loving presence wander aimless, lost, and confused – and their bad relationship with God is the source of their inner distress.

The Bible says that God loved us first: he is the one who desires a good relationship with us. Human sinners don’t want God to get close and personal, for God is holy, and we feel his disapproval. Yet he is kind to the unworthy creatures that we are and comes looking for us. “God so loved the world [therefore, you] that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish [in an aimless existence here and hell hereafter] but have eternal life”. He loves us so much he sent his Son to save us – at the cost of his horrendous suffering on the Cross; and he warmly invites sinners to be reconciled to him. When we are converted and start to follow Jesus, doing what he taught us, then God loves us in a further way; for Jesus said, “He who loves me will be loved of my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14.23). God is glad to find hearts that open to his love and respond in loving obedience to him. He is pleased to find people in tune with his heart and purposes.

Jesus radically laid down the first of all God’s commandments: to “love the Lord your God with all you heart and… soul and… mind and… strength” (Mark 12.30). This is his main command, because he loves us and wants us to love him in return. In fact, “we love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4.19). He wins our love by granting us salvation by grace – undeserved love; our gratitude for being saved is the beginning of our love for God.

We are therefore called, by our conversion, to develop a love relationship with God, responding to his great love for us. To love God is to seek to please him. We find ways to show him we love him: we can cultivate closeness and intimacy with him in prayer, we can submit to his perfect will for our lives, we can depend on him for help, unite our hearts with his and seek to fulfil his purposes for our lives. It’s a whole new relationship to cultivate, with a loving Saviour who is ever close to us.

Then as we learn to love Jesus, we become more like him. Indeed, we learn to love our neighbour as well, showing others something of the love that has touched our hearts. Furthermore, Jesus even calls us to love those of our neighbours who we consider our enemies; loving them, says Jesus, will show them how God loves; for he loved us when we were either indifferent to him or rebellious against his will, living in sin. “As I have loved you,” said Jesus, “you are to love one another” (John 13.34).

Clive Every-Clayton

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What about our failures?

There is one further aspect to the Christian’s struggle with ongoing sin in his or her life that I need to deal with. It is the universal experience of believers, albeit born again justified and children of God, that at times they still sin. Indeed, the new Christian may well feel more conscious of his moral imperfection after his conversion, whereas his sins didn’t bother him before. The new believer may be distraught when he sees that despite his conversion, he still falls into sin sometimes. (I refer principally to what we may consider lesser sins such as selfishness, ill temper, untruth, pride, jealousy, and covetousness – though this problem would also arise with worse sins). What does a good Christian do when he is conscious of having sinned? Might our sins annul our justification?

Here again, the Bible has the answer and it is good to read the first letter of John chapter 1 verse 8 to chapter 2 verse 2. This passage shows that no Christian is perfectly without sin. So we all have to deal with our failures as Christians. The passage tells us what to do, and gives a wonderful promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9).

To confess our sin means to acknowledge the wrong we have done and to tell God we are sorry. We need not confess our sins to any person, unless we have sinned against someone and we feel we should apologise for what we did. But as we confess our sin to God, we recommit to living as best we can without sinning.

God’s promise is that as we confess our sin, “he is faithful and just and will forgive our sin”. He is faithful to his fatherly promises to be gracious to his children; we can count on him to wipe them all away and never to come back at us to reproach us about them. When he forgives, he forgets. More: the promise says he will “cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. Christ’s blood was spilt so that we might be cleansed from our sins, and God’s faithfulness renews his fatherly forgiveness whenever we confess.

Technically, there is a difference between God’s fatherly forgiveness of his saved children and the full legal forgiveness granted as supreme judge, when he justifies the sinner when he believes, freeing him of all condemnation. God’s legal forgiveness is forever given. God’s fatherly forgiveness is ongoing: as we repent and confess sins committed in our Christian walk, he forgives them and cleanses them away. By this fatherly forgiveness, he renews his love towards us, his erring children, and as we return from our devious ways, submitting afresh to him in repentance, our fellowship with God is renewed.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tacitly recognised the imperfection of his disciples, when he taught them to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who sin against us”. In our confession, we ask and receive by faith the forgiveness our Father promised. But we are reminded in this prayer that we must show to others the like kindness that God has shown in forgiving us. This is a kind of spiritual law: the one who is forgiven must forgive. Indeed, refusal of forgiveness, according to Jesus, is a serious sin. We are to forgive others because we have been forgiven. Harmony is restored in our relationship both with God and with others as we confess our sins and forgive others. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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Already saved? So why not sin?

The believer may count on the promises of the saviour, that he is saved, forgiven, and has eternal life: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5.24). The believer who is justified by faith in Christ is accepted by God as righteous and needs fear no final condemnation in God’s ultimate judgment. 

So one might wonder: why not therefore sin as much as I want, since I am justified and accepted at God’s final judgment? This question has its full answer in the teaching of the Bible. 

First, as I wrote in the previous post, the justification of the one who repents and believes in Jesus remains intact. God has promised it and we can count on him. Jesus in the verse already quoted promised “he will not come into judgment”: the ultimate salvation of the true convert is assured.

Two factors in our experience confirm this truth for us: first, at conversion, we repented and made a commitment not to sin any more. We obviously cannot stretch out our right hand to receive God’s forgiveness while our left hand continues committing all kinds of sin. We are saved from sin – not only from its punishment, but also from its grip on us. We dedicate ourselves therefore, as sinners forgiven by grace, not to betray God’s kindness. Rather, motivated by gratitude for our salvation, we will honour our commitment to follow Jesus as our master and Lord by doing his will, overcoming temptation and refraining from sin.

The second factor is vital in this: no-one is justified by faith who is not also, at the same time, born again by the Holy Spirit. They are both operations of the same conversion experience. And being “born of the Spirit” is a life-changing dynamic, as the Holy Spirit comes to make his dwelling in our hearts, and there proceeds to the work of purifying us. He gives new aspirations for a holy life, new love for God and a desire to please him. The Holy Spirit communicates the presence of Christ within us: the result is that we no longer desire to sin, but rather to obey and please our saviour. This is, in fact, the deep reason why the true believer does not continue in sin. The believer who experiences this has reassuring proof that the Lord Jesus has indeed saved him.

So God justifies you by granting you full legal forgiveness and a status of being accepted as righteous before God; he can do that because he also gives you the Holy Spirit to energise you in the way of holiness with new desires and new power to conquer sin. You have to commit to continual repentance, of course, taking a stand against all sin in your life. You will understand progressively what that entails, but conversion involves the decision in principle not to displease your Saviour. He has called you to be his disciple, he has called you to holiness, and your growth in Christian living involves further repentance of whatever sinful deed the Holy Spirit reproves you of.

Having said that, we are not totally delivered from sin in this life; there will always be a struggle between the old sinful pre-Christian nature, the “flesh”, and the nature renewed by the Spirit: hence the call and the promise, “Walk according to the Spirit and you will not fulfil the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5.16).

Clive Every-Clayton

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What does salvation mean?

The Bible makes clear that everyone needs salvation, and it is wonderful to know that “By grace you have been saved, through faith” as the apostle Paul writes to believers in Ephesians 2.8. The Bible word “salvation” summarises a number of spiritual blessings that every believer receives from the moment he is touched by God’s saving grace. 

Notice three things of importance in that quote from Ephesians. First, you “have been saved”; salvation has happened to you if you have repented and believed in Christ. It is no longer something you have to seek after or try to obtain. The verb is in the past tense: you have been saved, or as Jesus put it, you have “passed from death to life” (John 5.24). Secondly – the reason for that is that God has blessed you “by grace”. That means without you having to deserve it. God is so kind, he grants salvation freely by pure grace to those who could never deserve or merit it. Paul adds in Ephesians 2.9, “it is not because of works, lest anyone should boast”. So, thirdly, salvation is by faith, the faith that receives Christ as Saviour and Lord. Saving faith is not merely believing some facts; it is entrusting your life and your eternity into the hands of the Lord Jesus, beginning a new life in relationship with him. It is called “saving faith” because by that commitment or conversion a sinner is saved from sin and its consequences.

What does salvation mean, then? It means the believer, counting on Jesus’ promise, may know that he has become a child of God, that he has eternal life; he is saved from being eternally lost at the judgment. He is now reconciled to God, in good relationship with God. Salvation sums up all that and more: specifically the forgiveness of our sins is an important part of salvation.

When we are saved we receive the full forgiveness of all our sins. God wipes them all away. Furthermore, the Lord declares the believer in Christ to be acceptable to him in the day of final judgment. We are saved from the eternal negative consequences of our sins – we are free from condemnation. We have been saved from hell. 

The technical word for this is “justification”: “Since we have been justified by faith,” Paul writes in Romans 5.1, “we have peace with God”. We do not have to fear final rejection at the judgment day; we are accepted in Christ. We live our Christian lives therefore not in order to be saved from that judgment, but because, by God’s grace, we are already assured by his word that we are saved, justified, accepted as righteous, and free from ultimate divine condemnation. This is no small blessing!

Justification abolishes our guilt before God. Forgiveness clears our conscience from all that might accuse us. It’s all gone; our salvation is assured, so Paul uses the past tense when he writes to his colleague, “God saved us and called us to a holy calling” (2 Timothy 1.9). And note, he calls us to a holy life.

You might be thinking, “If my final salvation is assured, I could commit any sins I want, because I’m already justified”. Interestingly, Paul saw that response coming: “Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound?” His answer is categorical: “By no means!” (Romans 6.1, 2). For as God saves, forgives, and justifies us, he also calls us to holiness, giving us the Holy Spirit to transform us into saints! My next post will explain that more fully.

Clive Every-Clayton

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