By Staff
The “great salvation” is that which is afforded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through the grace of God.
Jesus Christ is the “only begotten Son” of God (John 3:16). Jesus laid aside His heavenly glory and became a man. As a man He humbled Himself and was obedient to the will of God the Father and died on the cross for the sin of mankind (Philippians 2:6-8). After His death on the cross and burial in a borrowed tomb, God gloriously raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24) and exalted Him to His own right hand (Acts 2:33).
This great salvation purchased by the shed blood of Jesus Christ is available to all (Romans 1:16).
How great is this salvation? It is so great that we cannot imagine the glory of it.
We have an exalted opinion of ourselves. We like to think that God did not have to work very hard to save us. We believe we are or were already leaning God's way, and a gentle nudge has brought or will bring us into the family of God. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Paul declared in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Paul goes on to say in Romans, chapter 6, verse 23, “The wages of sin is death.” Apart from this great salvation in Jesus Christ, we are all dead in our sin.
How much salvation do we or did we need? Everything God provided. God did not overdo the process on the cross.
The earthly ministry of Jesus was preceded by John the Baptist. John was to prepare the way for Jesus. John said of Jesus in the gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 16, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”
Psalms, chapter 40, verses 2-3, states it well, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth-Praise to our God.”
We see a little bit of this horrible pit and the miry clay when we read the story of Jeremiah the prophet in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was a prophet and he proclaimed an unpopular message. His enemies put him in a dungeon (Jeremiah 38:6). There was no water in the dungeon, and Jeremiah sank into the mire. Jeremiah was stuck. He could not help himself. He could not move. He could not lift either foot out of the miry clay. That is a picture of us without salvation, mired helplessly in our sin.
A friend of Jeremiah, Ebed-Melech, proposed to help him get out of the clay and out of the dungeon (Jeremiah 38:7-9). Ebed-Melech asked the king and the king gave permission. Jeremiah's friend brought thirty men with him with ropes and old clothes (Jeremiah 38:10-11). Jeremiah's friends did not jump in the clay to help Jeremiah, lest they too became mired. They dropped the ropes and the old clothes. They told Jeremiah to put the old clothes under his arms to protect himself from the ropes and then pass the ropes under his arms and they would pull him up (Jeremiah 38:12-13). Jeremiah was lifted up out of the miry clay and delivered from the dungeon.
Grace for grace-absolutely! God is reaching down through His Son, Jesus Christ, to deliver us. We cannot help ourselves. We can only by faith accept His lifting us up through so great a salvation. We will not escape if we neglect God's great salvation.