Saved...

I am not a Bible scholar but I do love the Word of God. I didn't always but one day God gave me new glasses and everything changed. The glasses He gave me were glasses of Grace; He removed the glasses of Law I had been wearing and put on new glasses of Grace. Everything changed!

Saved.

The scholars tell me that the word translated 'saved' is the Greek word, sozo.

'...that is you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (sozo)...Romans 10: 9

'And He [Jesus] said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well (sozo)...Mark 5: 34

'Those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had been made well (sozo), Luke 8: 36 

I have been on holidays lately and I have had a lot of thinking, meditating, contemplation (call it what you want) time.
I wrote another post a few days ago entitled Salvation (http://graeme-lifeofpurpose.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/salvation.html), you might like to take a look.
Basically I shared some thoughts I had on the subject of 'salvation.'
Salvation, I believe, is more than our traditional view and teaching on the subject and I feel that our lives could be transformed if we embraced all the meaning and wonder encapsulated in our salvation.

Traditionally salvation, being saved, is considered to be that moment when we decide we can't reach God on our own and we avail ourselves of the 'bridge' of Jesus (He is our Way, John 14: 6) and we believe and are saved. We are, in that moment, saved from sin, saved from hell...we are saved and there is nothing anyone, or anything, can do about it ( Romans 8: 38, 39). Hallelujah!

But as we can see from the few verses I quoted at the beginning being saved means more...it is sozo which means not just being saved from hell but also to heal, preserve and make whole.
Also the word rendered 'salvation' in English is the Greek word soteria which certainly means the gift of eternal life but also means deliverance from enemies, diseases, depression, fear, all evil, and preservation safety and salvation. What a wonderful thing!

As I have contemplated all this since the Lord has shown me a verse, again, that I have read many times, and I feel to share it with you this morning.

'I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.'

Now the purists might say that this was written in Hebrew and not Greek but too bad. I sit on this side of the cross so salvation to me is the salvation of Romans 10: 9.
There is much I could say about this verse from Isaiah but please note with me the perfection of scripture for it says 'garments (plural) of salvation' and a 'robe (singular) of righteousness' and I think great truth is held in this simple perfection.

Our righteousness is based in Jesus. He is our righteousness. We have no input into our righteousness. It is not based in any works that we have done or will do, it is totally based in Him and His finished work, His shed blood being accepted by God as propitiation for our sins (1 John 4: 10). Our righteousness is singularly based in Jesus Christ, our Righteousness and we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

But salvation is plural because our salvation is so much more than just that blessed moment in your life when you made the choice to believe in Jesus and received the gift of eternal life. In fact that decision was just the beginning of our 'salvation.' Ephesians 6 encourages us to armour up with the helmet of salvation. This is because the enemy likes to attack in this area. He would like nothing better than to steal the full wonder and magnitude of your salvation from you (please see John 10: 10) but, beloved, Jesus hung on a cross to give you the full magnitude of His salvation, His soteria. Luke 4: 19 describes it as the 'favourable year of the Lord' or 'the year of the Lord's favour.'

So how do we receive this soteria? This morning I open a devotion and this is what it says...

'My friend, if you want God's promises to be sure in your life, you cannot depend on yourself. If you depend on yourself - your obedience, goodness, service and even faith - you will not be able to receive God's promises. But when you depend on God's grace - His unmerited, unearned, undeserved favour toward you - that is when His promises become sure in your life.' (Joseph Prince)

 Hallelujah! You know whenever I read stuff like that I physically feel the truth of Matthew 11: 30 when Jesus said, "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." What a burden releasing truth!
My soteria is not dependent on me, it rests solely and totally in Him, in His Grace, in Jesus Christ, in His finished work.

We are waiting on God for His breakthrough in our ministry (WTL).
We receive the promises of God but we receive the provision of God, Jesus Christ, He is our Saviour, our Healer, our Deliverer, our Provider, for it is 'by grace you have been saved [please note, have been, past, meaning it is already done, we are already saved in the cross of Jesus, His finished work 2000 years ago] through faith; and that not of yourselves [no input from us], it is the gift of God [who is, what is, this gift of God? Jesus Christ, of course, He is THE GIFT and in Him we have our salvation, our soteria].

See His Grace today and He will see your faith [in that order, not the other way around] and you will receive your breakthrough.

We give thanks to the Lord for He is Good.

Hallelujah!

His Love, Mercy and Grace endure forever and ever, for me, for my family and for WTL.

Amen.