Salvation is not a business deal where we bargain with God for His favour on the basis of our good deeds and what we promise to offer Him.  Salvation is God’s idea, literally executed by Him, in which Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price … so that we could be given mercy and grace we do not deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9). The life of the Son of God was exchanged for sinful people who could add no value to His kingdom.  Salvation is a supreme act of grace on God's part, paying the highest price for the lowest value (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Yet to us who are saved, the benefit is overwhelmingly and eternally massive, and God gets the glory.

To become a Christian is not like joining a club or having a cultural experience: it is to be radically transformed (Romans 12:2).  To be saved … is to be rescued from the eternal wrath of God against our sins.  To be saved … is to be washed clean; to be made pure and totally free from the filth of the world.  To be saved … is to be born again, having a new Father, a new identity and a new family.  To be saved … is to be made new on the inside with a new set of appetites and desires because the Holy Spirit of God has agreed to come to us and fill our personal space.  To be saved … is to receive the extravagant generosity of God.  To be saved … is to have all our sins taken away by Jesus so that we are declared 'not guilty' in the court of heaven.  To be saved … is to become an inheritor of heaven itself.  So, when we know we are saved, we must live with a confidence that all God has started in us will be completed when Jesus comes again.

So why does fear confuse our hearts, or the lust for fading pleasures promote foolish ambitions?  It is because we have forgotten the greatness of our salvation (2 Peter 1:5-11).  We have presumed upon our privileges as children of God but have forgotten the cost to Him and the value to us.  It is time for God's people to wake up to the enormous value which God has placed upon us, and how much He has done for us (1 John 3:1).  When we start to appreciate all that we have been given through Christ's sacrifice, we will learn to worship with our whole lives (Psalm 40:16).

Then we will witness gladly with our whole hearts and serve with everything we have.  There will not be an 'ordinary day at the office' or 'routine in the factory' or 'crisis with the accounts' or 'confusion of purpose' ... instead we will see ourselves as children of a loving Father, servants of the King, ambassadors of the Kingdom and inheritors of heaven.  All this is because we have been washed, reborn, renewed and justified!  How great is the salvation we have received!  Let us honour the One who has saved us as we live today.