We know of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf and accept Him as our Savior. Among other things, He's the sacrificial Lamb of God who gave His life in our place to pay for the sin that had previously separated us from the Father. What an unparalled and awesome thing to think about in itself! - To imagine the value that He - a GOD - THE God places on our fellowship - US! He chooses to value the prospect of our friendship and kinship so highly that there was no limit to the humiliating, selfless, flesh tearing, bone crushing price that He Himself, - God! - willingly paid. This was just to provide the opportunity for us to be allowed to choose to be reunited with Him. He did this just to give us a chance. How He loves us! Think about it!
But what if this step is only the beginning of our Salvation? Confused? I want to talk about something related to a term I mentioned earlier ... initial salvation. I used this term because there's more to our complete salvation than the initial act of accepting Christ as our Savior. It's something that our brother the Apostle Paul spoke of at length. Paul was speaking to Christians in Rome when he said "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. (NLT)" The people he was talking to were like you and I - people that already believed in Christ and accepted Him as their Savior. But Paul's talking to them about - transformation. The entire New Testament really deals with this subject. It's about being changed. "But changed to what?" you might ask. You might say "I believe that Christ is the Son of God and I've accepted Christ's sacrifice. According to scripture, I'm a new creature in Christ - I AM changed!" True, but when you were born as a new baby, a new creature in this world, you had to learn how to walk, how to talk and how to think. If you haven't gone through this transformation - then it's very likely that you're still a spiritual baby. Does this upset you? I hope not. I just found my toes last week! :) But the reality is that you can be a Christian 30 years and still be an infant in Christ. It all depends on your willingness to submit to the transformation and your acceptance of His leadership as the continuing Savior in your life.
For many the things that we've learned in the world now set the precedent for how we act and what we believe for the most part without even thinking about them. They've already been established, so now we operate in this world primarily by a set of understandings that shape our actions and beliefs. But now, being a new creature in Christ, a new spiritual creature, how do we operate? What core spiritual understandings determine our actions? Our actions don't necessarily determine who we are - we're still imperfect beings. But who we are (and are becoming) can and definitely should determine our actions. In the world, we're transformed intelllectually from ignorant babies to adults by coming to understand how things work. In God's kingdom, the truth of things, the way things are, has been clearly determined by Him. So our spiritual transformation from ingorant spiritual babies to maturity in Christ is completely dependent on our ability to learn His ways and operate according to them. Establishing His way of thinking as our way of thinking is a major and critical part of determining our successful spiritual maturity and growth in Christ.
We may have learned much in the ways of the world and it's thinking, but those things are worthless in His far-greater kingdom. In fact, they may very well be a major obstacle. We can find it hard because of what we "know" to have faith to believe that God can and will do what He says. A major part of being transformed involves learning that our God's not bounded by our worldly knowledge and that His ways are far superior to the ways we may have learned elsewhere. But even this transformation - being "saved" from the dead limitations of our worldly "knowledge" and ways of thinking is a choice. One that if made correctly, will begin to transform us into beings able to relate to an amazingly superior God - into truly Christ-like beings. We can become someone He can relate to, and that has the capacity to relate to Him. Thus fulfilling the purpose He created us for - fellowship and relationship.
We can know from experience that it's hard for two people who have nothing in common and completely different beliefs and values to have meaningful relationship with one another. They would have to find some "common ground" on which to build a true relationship. But in this case, the other person is the unchanging, already perfect God. So if we desire relationship and fellowship with Him - we're the ones who have to change. And we can't do it! It's only by having the humility to recognize our situation and accept His wisdom and His grace, that we are saved from our worldy values, beliefs and thinking - to become transformed by His hand into His image - an image that He can relate to.
Please get this! Because if you can understand this now, you can spend the rest of your life here in an attitude of acceptance and submission to His far greater wisdom and ways. This will ensure your continuing salvation from worldly thinking and ways and render huge rewards in understanding and growth in relationship with our loving God. It'll lead to the fulfillment of His purpose in our creation and allow you the ability to relate to the God of all creation - He wants to share His life with ... you. You're a one of a kind work of His hand, unrepeated in all of creation and he deeply longs to know you and be known by you!
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