Saved And Kept.

You find yourself in a burning building filled with smoke, passed out from smoke inhalation, I doubt a firefighter would be asking you if you accept him as your savior before he actually saves you and move you to fresh air for paramedics to do the rest.

Why do we expect Jesus to be asking the world the same question? The gospel tells what God did in Christ to our benefit.

The telling of that firefighter’s heroic work to save that person from the burning building is that person’s gospel as it concerns his natural life.

Better yet, God’s salvation of us cannot be compared to one being saved from drowning or whatever natural disaster for one simple fact. The saved cannot be unsaved. Those he saved, he keeps.

“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

A paramedic can maybe resuscitate a person who’s no longer breathing. But God made us alive with Christ when we were dead in our sins.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:1-10)

The gospel is a message, Christ Jesus the new covenant.

“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:29)

Saved and kept.

Praised be His name, Jesus, to the glory of God, Amen.