What Are We Saved For?

WHAT ARE WE SAVED FOR?

By Rodney W. Francis

There is a lot more to Bible Christianity than getting saved and spending our time in church meetings. Every born-again, Holy Spirit-filled believer has been chosen and called of God to represent Him on the earth in a very particular way. The way He chooses for you may be very different to the way He chooses for me. That is why it is very important that we get to know God’s purpose for us in representing Him in a sinful world as soon as we can after we have received Jesus Christ in reality into our lives.

Yet, sadly, so many Christians do not know their purpose or calling in Christ Jesus.
How do we know what to commit to if we do not know God’s will for our life?
We will simply finish up being a ‘man-pleaser’, doing what other people think we should be doing.
But what God has for us is very different to what man has for us.
His ways are far higher, better and more fulfilling than the ways of mankind.

Bible Christianity is about a living relationship with the Living Jesus Christ through the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is alive right now and desires to speak with us so we will be able to fulfil His plans and purposes for our lives every day.

Knowing His voice and recognizing how He speaks to us is vital if we are to be accomplishing the work of God in and through our lives.
How important is that to you to know God’s will personally?
How much do you desire the will of the Lord to be done in your life?
If you are not sure of God’s will for your life, what are you doing to find out from God why He has saved you?

God’s heart for us is that we not only know the will of God for our lives, but that we can so know it that we can prove it:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed (“fashioned in the same way”) to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (“will”), that you may prove (“discern, examine”) what is that good and acceptable (“well-pleasing”) and perfect (“complete”) will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).

These verses make it very clear and plain as to what is required of Christians in order for us to know His perfect will for us.

It is a complete and total surrender to Him and His purposes.
It is being totally different to the world’s standards.
It is a transformed life-style that is totally committed to pleasing God and doing His will.

When we do things His way, then they always turn out to be much more effective and fruitful than our trying to accomplish things in our own strength. We are part of God’s Kingdom now and so we have to learn to live with His Kingdom principles working in and through us. And Kingdom principles are far different and higher than anything the world can give to us. They are more right than any other beliefs or ideas of mankind. They cause us to produce results that will last throughout time and into all eternity. Nothing else can do that.

THE NATURAL MAN AND MIND CANNOT RECEIVE THE THINGS OF GOD

The Bible is clear in telling us that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Holy Spirit: “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared (“made ready”) for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed (“to make manifest”) them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches (“view closely, examines”) all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing (“to judge, or sift together”) spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:9-16 – read the whole chapter and meditate upon what it is teaching us).

This helps us to understand why the world persecutes true Christians. The world is not anti-religious; it is anti-Christian, because they do not comprehend or understand the truth of Bible Christianity. They have to be born-again by the Holy Spirit before that can happen for them. Religion is man’s mind trying to comprehend God, and that is not acceptable to God.

DESIRING MORE OF THE WILL OF GOD

More than anything else Christians should be desiring more of the will of God, and to have the will of God fulfilled in and through their lives. For that to truly happen we have to hear from God for ourselves. He is the only Lord and Saviour, and He has chosen us to know and do His will in this life. Paul prayed this: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding (“heart”) being enlightened (“to give light to, to shine”); that you may know (“to have knowledge of, to know”) what is the hope of His calling (“summons), what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power (“dunamis” – “natural capability, inherent power; capability of anything, ability to perform anything; power in action” – Bullinger’s) which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality (“rule”) and power (“authority”) and might (“power”) and dominion (“lordship”), and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:17-23).

Wow! What a great privilege it is to be on the receiving end of this mighty power that God has revealed through Christ and now desires to be working in and through us for His praise, honour and glory! It is all possible for us, for it is the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead WHO NOW LIVES INSIDE OF US! That makes the fulfilling of the calling of God in us to be happening in a wonderful and powerful way. Let us not doubt what Jesus Christ has come into our lives for. The fact He has sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us shows us what confidence He has in us, and in our fulfilling our calling in God today.

If you do not as yet know the calling and will of God for your life, then it is time for you to set apart time to seek God, to listen to His voice (He speaks to all who will listen), and then to commit to doing what He asks of you. Do not waste time any longer, but press through to God until you know what He desires you to do from this day forward. You can do whatever He asks of you, for He makes His mighty power available to those who do what He has saved and called us to do. This is not time for making excuses, but for yielding to all that God has for you, so you can accomplish things to His praise, honour and glory. Remember “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base (“insignificant or lowly”) things of the world and the things which are despised (“treat as contemptible”) God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-31). We do not have to be highly educated for God to use us ~ just available to Him. God bless you!

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