Salvation Belongs To God

 

About 2 days ago, the Holy Spirit woke me up with the first line of this song wringing in my ears. Salvation BELONGS to our God.  But the point that became clear to me was that the emphasis was on the second word “BELONGS”. This made me start to think about ownership, and the implication of what “OWNERSHIP” really means. Many of us think about ownership in the “natural realm”, as we continually think about our possessions, the things that we can claim “are ours”, because we “own them”.

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If the car is dirty, it is the “owner’s” responsibility to clean it and wash it, to make it look nice, as the appearance of the car, is a reflection of who we are (on the inside). The same applies to our house and many other things that we claim “are ours.”  Even what we say to our children, what we allow them to wear, where we send them to school, and what rules we set for them, indicates the inner heart desires we have for “our children”.

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But now let us look at “the spiritual side of ownership”. Some of you will be thinking, “This is kindergarten stuff”, and you would be right, but I am sure a little revision is always good for the soul.  Jesus came down to earth, with a pre-determined mission statement given to him by His Father. Isaiah 61: 1-2.

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“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, (why?) Because the Lord has anointed me, to bring good news to the suffering, and the afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted, to announce liberty to the captives and to open the eyes of the blind. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the times of God’s favour to them has come, and the day of wrath to his enemies. Jesus came and fulfilled this mission statement, and then He freely gave up his life, as a ransom, as a perfect, “once for all-time sacrifice”, for the sins of the world. [Past, present, & future”.]

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Now, when we accept this eternal gift from the Father, working through the Son, our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus and our sins are forgiven, and forgotten, and remembered no more.

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Jesus now claims us to be one of His followers. He has “paid the price for us”, and therefore we “belong” to him. Jesus can now rightly proclaim before all of heaven and all of the demonic forces; “This child belongs to me now, you no longer can make any claim against him, because my blood covers him.”

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Now like the “natural example I gave above about the car, it is the owner’s job to clean it up and make it look nice. And so it is the job of Jesus Christ to clean us up also, so that we reflect his attitudes, so that we become a reflection of the attributes of our new owner. That is why it says when we accept Jesus Christ we become a “new creation”. ~~ Jesus is in the process of “cleaning us up” to be a worthy example of His love to fellow man here on earth.

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No longer does Satan own us. There was a spiritual transaction made. You (me) made a decision to accept the offer made for us by Jesus Christ on the cross. He now owns us, and now we have a legal responsibility to respond to the rules that he sets in his word for us, just like the rules we have set for our own children. Just like we have discipline and punishment for our children, when they disobey our “man-made rules”, so we can expect punishment when we disobey “God-made rules”. This is clearly laid out for us in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament.

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Now I am sure that there are a few people who are thinking; “Hang on a minute” ~~ we live under grace, we are not under the law” and you would be right ~~ but does that give you the “spiritual right” to rebel against Jesus?  Jesus said; “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If you have to obey commandments, then you are placed under a degree of accountability before the Father in Heaven.

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Now you cannot say: “I love Jesus, but I refuse to keep his commandments; who does Jesus think he is, ordering me around”? Well, stop right there! You are trapped by the words of your own mouth. (Proverbs 6:2)  Jesus loves everybody equally, and it might come as a surprise to you, but he loves the unbeliever, with the same love as the believer, because He came to this earth, so that not one soul should be lost.

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Now, I did not say that every soul is going to be saved ~~ that is crazy! Jesus came so that there is an opportunity for everyone to hear the message of salvation and then for each of us to make a choice, to have eternal life, a place with Jesus forever, or be damned for eternity, separated from God’s presence forever.

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Jesus made all of creation and he knows each person before they were even born, so He has an interest in us right from the beginning of time.  In fact Apostle John got the revelation, we did not choose Jesus, He chose us, He pursued us until we made a commitment to accept his gift and become (once again) part of God’s family.  

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I say “once again” part of God’s family, because when sin came into the world, we were cast out of God’s family to live a life with spiritual death. But praise God, acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Saviour allows us once again to come into God’s presence and experience His eternal love for us.
 

• Can you honestly say that you “belong to Jesus”?

• Are you prepared to follow His rules, without any thought for your safety or well-being?

• Do you love Him enough to go and love your neighbour?

• Do you love him enough to go visit the sick and the helpless?

• Do you love Him enough to feed the hungry?

• Do you love him enough to fight for justice, where you see injustice?

• Do you love him enough to fight for righteousness, where you see unrighteousness?

This is the test of “belonging to Jesus”.

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