Rescued or Resurrected? Thoughts on God’s Great Salvation

This is post #2 in this series. To see the first post, click here.

Last week, we saw from Ephesians 2:1-5 that we are dead in sin and unwanting of rescue. We do not, in our natural state, see any possible need for God or the salvation that he provides. Romans 8:7-8 adds more bleakness to the picture:

• Our natural mind (lit. “mind of the flesh”) is hostile to God
• It does not submit to God’s lawIt CANNOT submit to God’s law
• Natural people CANNOT please God.

Jeremiah 17:9 adds “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Our hearts are beyond sick and diseased. Our minds are hostile to God. We cannot, by anything we do, please him.

But we also saw last week that God, though he has no reason to, loves us and will make us alive with Christ. This week, I want to look at how he does that. God tells us how this happens in the Old Testament, primarily in Ezekiel 36:26-28 and Jeremiah 31:33. These passages are part of what is called the New Covenant. God says that he will:

• Remove the heart of stone (Ez 36:26)
• Give us a new heart of flesh and a new spirit (Ez 36:26)
• Put his Spirit in us (Ez 36:27)
• Put his Law in us and write his Law on our hearts (Jer 31:33)
• Cause us to walk in his ways and obey his rules (Ez 36:27)
• Be our God (Ez 36:28; Jer 31:33)
• Make us his people (Ez 36:28; Jer 31:33)

When we were flat-lined, he removed our old, dead heart and gave us a heart of flesh. When we were more interested in our own desires, he put his Spirit in us and wrote his law on our hearts. When we were children of wrath, he made us his own children. When all we wanted to do and could do was disobey, he caused us to become obedient to him. The New Testament refers to this act in several ways:

• Jesus calls it being born again (John 3:3, 3:5, 3:7)
• Luke tells us that God “opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14)
• Paul says that God “made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:5)
• He also says that God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6)

How Does God Do This?
How is God able to give us a new heart, to make us born again, to be able to walk in his ways? Listen to Jesus’ own words: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Jesus, when he died, bought this new covenant for us. With his own life he bought our new hearts. He bought the indwelling of the Spirit. He bought us to belong to God, that we could call him our own. Jesus’ death bought these things for us, God’s people.

So as we look forward to Christmas’ coming, remember that Jesus’ birth is not the main event. That he was born to die is. And, most importantly, he was born to die to purchase our salvation. Not just to make it possible, but to give us what we needed to be saved.