Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I remember when I had just been saved, I came up to my buddy and I said, I'm a brand new person. I thought that all my addictions and my compulsions would just disappear because I’d become a new person. I just got saved. Little did I know that I would be under construction for the rest of my life, and that God would want every part of my life. He wanted my time, my energy, my money, my mind, and my sexuality. He wanted it all.
Salvation Is Available to Anyone
Our text today is very encouraging because it reminds us that salvation is available to anybody. Paul starts by saying, "anyone who belongs to Christ"—there's this invitation. No matter how dark your background is, where you come from, or what nationality you are, salvation is available to you. I don't know about you, but that is good news. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to work your way to be saved. You can become a brand new person because the invitation is to come to Jesus.
What I love about the Bible is that there's so many men and women of God who come from very dark backgrounds. Take someone like Apostle Paul. He had one goal: to kill Christians. Then God captured his heart. He went from wanting to kill Christians to defending Christians and defending the Gospel. That's a beautiful reminder that no matter how dark your past is, God can still make you brand new.
Under Construction
After you say yes to Jesus, just know this: you're going to be under construction for the rest of your life. It's important to understand that salvation means deliverance. We're delivered ultimately from the wrath of God. As Christians, we are not under wrath. We're under the mercy of God, and salvation is threefold. We are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.
Stay with me now. We are saved. That means when you say yes to Jesus, you're forgiven. You're redeemed. You're placed in the family of God, and nothing and no one will snatch you out of God's hand. You're saved. You're secure. You have assurance of salvation. I have security of salvation, assurance of my salvation.
Then we're being saved. The big word there, sanctification, simply means to make holy. That's the process by which we become more and more like Christ.
Then we will be saved. The big word there is glorification. That's when we get new bodies. And there's coming a day when Jesus will come back and we will have glorified bodies. We're not going to fight sin anymore because we will be in our glorified bodies. Until then we're here on earth, and we have to fight sin.
The Holy Spirit's Role
Just know this, that we have the Spirit of God living on the inside of us because we're saved and we have the Spirit that gives us strength to overcome. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. Before I came to Jesus, I was sinning and I wasn't convicted because I didn't have the Holy Spirit. Now that I'm saved, when I sin, the Holy Spirit will convict me and say, no, that's not who you are. Turn from that sin and turn to Jesus.
The call today is simple. Turn to Jesus because you can become a brand new person.
