Salvation - The Beginning... not the End

The Apostle Paul - Rimbrandt

Romans 7:18, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not."

Why is it that we as Christians think that because of salvation we are suddenly perfected? Why do we believe that just because we have escaped judgment for sin, that we are no longer sinners? That is a great lie and a source of spiritual arrogance. This idea that one can be of less sin than another is used often by Satan to feed the lust of power and domination. The truth is far from that.

Paul, an apostle, writer of two thirds of the new testament says of himself, "nothing good dwells in me." He understood what he was. He time and time again had to look at himself in the light of the truth. Why is this? It is because he was in constant fellowship with Christ. He saw himself for who he was time and time again because with Christ in him he clearly saw the difference in who he was and who Christ is. After years of sanctification, after years of taking up the cross and allowing it to crucify his flesh, and for Christ to be resurrected in its place; he still could see so much in himself that was still completely other from Christ.

Is it this that we can say is the true mark of a Christian? Someone always aware of his/her otherness from Christ because Christ is always there in fellowship showing Himself.

We on the other hand receive salvation as an end and not a beginning. We accept the forgiveness and somehow believe in sinlessness from that point forward. Our life continues, seeking, hoping for, asking for God’s blessings on our efforts all the while Christ wanting to show us those efforts are not His -- even if done in His name.

But Lord, I built a mega ministry for you… Depart from Me, I never knew you. Why would He not say that if it will be said of those who and cast out demons, healed the sick, and raised the dead. (Matt 7)

Why do we try to repay the free gift of salvation? It is priceless and no amount of church attendance or service in the guilt of that gift will repay. In fact, to try is to cheapen the sacrifice of our Father and the obedience of our Lord.

The only thing that can be done is to seek Him, to seek His face, to seek to be aware of His presence and to spend time in that presence. To walk with God as He intended for Adam, and to continue to be prepared for the day when we, under Christ Lordship, walk in dominion. There is no repayment, but there is obedience. Obediently going where He goes today. There is humility that will allow everything that is not Christ to be stripped from us.

Listen to what T Austin-Sparks wrote on the subject, "But I am going to put that in another way. It is the breaking of the power and the stripping off of the whole natural life. The whole natural life of man now since the fall since Satan’s interference and man’s response to Satan’s interference is in itself the great obstruction in the way to God’s purpose in him and for him; and when I speak of the whole natural life I am not just speaking of that sinful life which everybody recognises and acknowledges to be evil. I am speaking about man as he is. According to this world’s standards, and according to the best standards of men, he may be called a good man, but God says: "There is none righteous, no not one." And the great apostle himself said: "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." That lies behind our religious life very often. Our very religious life can be energised by nature. Our interests for the Lord may be by the energy of our own natural life, and so we find the flesh sporting itself in the things of God, a kind of natural interest carried over into divine things: that just as you might be taken up with interesting things in this world, and study them, and apply them, and use them, and turn them to certain account for the furtherance of certain interests, so you have swung all the application of mind and heart and wisdom to the things that are divine, and you begin to manipulate things for God, and organise things for God, and govern things for God, and be something in the things of God. It is all the natural man brought over into divine things, which can be interesting, fascinating. Yes, the deep things of God making an appeal to that in us which can be so fascinated, things such as prophecy, the things to come."

Don't be fascinated with knowing about God. Be consumed with knowing Him. Don't believe salvation has changed a thing other than access to God. But know that knowing God, walking in constant fellowship with Him, aware He is alive in you, that His kingdom is in you - - that will change your life... whether you want it or not.