Salvation comes from the Lord. But salvation comes to us when we do what the Lord says to do. It’s not something He does and we do nothing. It’s not something we do and He does nothing.
Jericho was a walled city. As such, there were basically two ways to conquer it: (1) set a siege which effectively cut off the city from the outside and starved the inhabitants until they surrendered; or (2) find a way to knock the walls down. God was willing to miraculously knock the walls down, but He required the Israelites to do something: to walk around the walls for seven days with the priests blowing the ram’s (holy) horns and on the seventh day, for the people to shout as loud as they could.
If God told us to conquer a modern day enemy by walking around their country, blowing horns, and on the seventh day shouting, wouldn’t we feel silly? And yet, it was obedience in these things that exactly led to the destruction and conquering of Jericho, to the victory in the battle. God Himself had already secured the means of victory, but it required that the Israelites choose to do what He commanded them to do.
Salvation is given to us in the same way. God provides salvation through the unlikely method of His Son dying on the cross. Just as Jericho wouldn’t have been conquered any other way, salvation is provided by this solitary method: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6 NRSV). As much as people might like to believe there are many ways to God, there is only one way, one method, one salvation and that is through repentance and accepting the Lord Jesus’ death as propitiation for our sins. But Father God created salvation as an interactive process. He saves, but He requires that we participate in our salvation. But there is more to our part than just that initial step. Just as the walls of Jericho came down through a series of obedient acts, so our salvation is garnered through more than a single decision. Each and every day we must again decide to turn to Him, to serve Him (through the power of His Spirit), to yield our will to His. Salvation comes from the Lord, but He will not coerce us to love Him or to serve Him. Those choices He leaves to us.
© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).
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