The serious business of salvation

a verse or two

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. Mark 1: 14

Spiritual Walk and Musings: : The serious business of salvation

This is going to sound blunt – I guess it is – but then again I’m just saying it as it is. Some things that God ordains, plans, stuff God puts into action, has dire and sad consequences from a human perspective. In order for God to achieve his plan, at times there is a direct effect on human life including good people’s lives being cut short. And in our politically correct world, in the cocooned top of the south, in our minds and lives we struggle with this kind of information. And when calamity strikes we understandably cry “God-is-love, how could this happen”. Yet look at John the Baptist and his life; put in prison for preaching (Mark 1) and then it was cut short (Mark 6). Jesus said of him “among those born of women there is no one greater than John” (Luke 7: 28). The span of years we live, having wealth, health, prosperity and plenty of offspring, are not what God values but a life lived in obedience to him.

Think about the meaning of life from John the Baptist’s perspective – did it have any meaning, was it fair this young guy died at the hand of a spoilt little brat? Here is John preaching in the desert, being faithful to God and then Herod’s daughter gets his head brought in on a tray, and John is dead. It’s not fair. Yet for Jesus to go forward, John had to decline. For God’s plan of salvation to happen – tragedy had to occur. So, do we say “hey…God is cruel and mean”? Or do we realise the very costly and serious nature of salvation. That events involved in the implementing of God’s salvation plan are far more important than we understand. And that while some people try to explain what happened as results of the culture of the day – God was actually working hard to bring to pass his plan of salvation and this cost human life.

With all the political correctness and bending-over-to-always-be-nice that is around us, there is a risk we undermine what God is trying to achieve, and in turn we risk denying the seriousness of salvation and the fact people need to know the good news. The good news is ‘there is salvation’, but both Jesus and John the Baptist preached ‘repent and turn from sin’ as well as ‘the kingdom is near’ – the repenting and turning from sin was part of the good news, that is part of salvation. Selfishness and sin not only wrecks lives in the here-and-now but also in the hereafter.

Something to do: We’ve got to tell people the good news.

We can’t just go on living innocent nice lives and not tell people the good news. We can’t just go on doing nice things for people in the name of Jesus; we also need to share the good news with them. We need to lead folk to Jesus Christ – and this includes a repenting and turning from sin. Early church tradition states all the disciples except John, died for their faith – so serious was the telling out of their message it cost them their lives. We’ve got to get serious as well (and it might mean being uncomfortable for the sake of the good news). The thing to do this week – decide who you will pray for, so that later in the year you will introduce them to Jesus Christ the Saviour.

To Ponder and Pray: Who will you pray for?

Who is it this year you will tell of the good news of God’s love for them. Who is it you will tell the good news, of how Jesus Christ won for them forgiveness of sin, life eternal and relationship with God. Pray for that person(s).