Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Easy Road to Salvation?

Whatcha think? Salvation is an easy thing? I have heard it said–it’s easy to be saved.
One side of the fence says, “Just believe and you’ll be saved.”
The other side of the fence says, “Work, work, work and you will earn your way into heaven.”
Scripture says something different. Ask the apostle Paul. Was it easy for him when he was saved? How about Peter? Was his salvation a walk in the park?
How about the greats all down through history? From Spurgeon to Washer to every soul saved by the sovereignty of God. Salvation is never easy. It wasn’t easy for Christ to procure salvation for His chosen few nor is it easy for that salvation to be born in us.
Salvation is born out of humility, suffering and violence. It takes tears, pain and a tearing down of the walls of pride and ego.
Humility:
The proud will never find himself in heaven. The proud will be cast out into outer darkness where he can curse and rail against God. The one God saves must be brought low and stripped of all self-reliance.
Suffering:
Have you been saved dear reader? Then you will understand the suffering one must endure while being crushed and broken by the just and holy hand of God. To be brought to the end of one’s self. To have the strong hand of the God you have sinned against, hold you up off the ground, as it were, eye to eye with the Lamb you killed with your sin–if you don’t suffer with this reality, you are indeed beyond saving.
Violence:
The Gospel of Christ forces itself upon the minds of men and only those who are chosen by His sovereign predestination will bow to it. The others will rebel, fight, and reject it with all hatred and anger. The devil has set his sights on you and will fight tooth and nail to keep this Gospel from finding its way into your heart. There truly is a fight in the spirit realm where God reefs the damned soul from the selfish clutches of the adversary. Only those God has violently rescued shall enter into salvation.
Salvation is God birthing children. Mothers is giving birth a violent process? Point made. I have read that there is no greater pain than when a woman gives birth. I concur being in the room with the births of my four children. It would take a small army to get me to go through that I can tell you! The process of birthing a Christian out of sin and rebellion is a process that is so grand that heaven celebrates when someone is redeemed.
The soul who is born again undergoes a fantastic change. From a sinful, damned worm to a justified and redeemed butterfly…well, everything changes! God works the greatest miracle in creation when He saves a soul.
Leonard Ravenhill said it best (paraphrased), ‘The greatest miracle is this, God takes a sinful man out of the world, makes him holy, puts him back into the world and keeps him holy.’
Salvation is not an easy thing. There is no such thing as ‘Easy Believism’. The only easy thing to believe is a lie. 

Originally posted at Paul the Slave

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