THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION

From time to time, in my evangelistic ventures, I come across a lot of people who want to or even try to reason out the salvation that we’ve got in Christ Jesus. They want to understand with their mind why they should be born again. They want to reason out facts and figures that would convince them beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus Christ is what He claims to be. I’ve thought about this matter over and over again and sometimes even come to the conclusion that they have the right to have this information in order to accept the Lord Jesus. But one day after the Holy Spirit ministered to me deeply during a moment of contemplation on the Word, I could only come up with one thing: The whole idea about salvation is a miracle! Everything about the Christian life is simply supernatural! It is impossible for the unrenewed mind to grasp spiritual or supernatural things. How can you explain that God has a Son having not married? How can you explain the fact that a virgin could give birth to a holy child without sin or any defect? How can you explain that the Almighty Holy Ghost tabernacles in the body of a human being? Please stop the search and accept the Truth (Reality) from God’s Word and simply live! We that are saved may be able to narrate how we got saved (our salvation experience) but can never explain why we got saved! The Holy Spirit worked on our hearts to show us the need to be saved, that’s all we can tell. This is the reason why those looking for reasons to be saved might never get saved and may end up dying in their sin and go to hell to spend eternity with the devil who has given them the reason to embark on an endless and unrealistic quest. It’s too expensive a thing to do. How unfortunate! I don’t want to go to hell because I am a profession who wouldn’t accept the Truth until I understand it. Sometimes school too could be a problem! We can know too much to accept the basics and simplicity of things to our own hurt.

One thing every believer must understand is that the successful work of evangelism can never be accomplished through logic but in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord never sent us to convince the world of anything. We were sent to preach – declare, announce, proclaim, shout out – the Gospel (Good news of the Kingdom) to a dying world and to leave the conviction to the Holy Spirit. It is very important you understand this because if you don’t, the work of evangelism will continue to be a mystery to you. Someone said to me the other day “I have become scared of evangelising lately.” As I talked with this fellow, I discovered that he was already stepping out of the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was trying to understand the Gospel through philosophy! You see, we live in an age when people want to attempt to explain everything logically even spiritual things which could only be received in the spirit. This becomes an obstacle and leads to delusion and deception.

I Peter 3:15 says “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” This doesn’t mean that you should try to logically explain the Gospel to people. Notice, it says for you to sanctify the Lord in your heart which means that you must have a personal conviction of the Lord and His workings in your life as you expose yourself to His Word having been saved. Then it says for you to prepare yourself to explain to every man that asks you the reason for your HOPE. Notice again that it didn’t say ‘a reason for your believing in Jesus.’ But it says ‘a reason for your hope’ which means, having been saved, as you study the Word you’d be able to see through the eyes of the Spirit the hope we have in Christ just like Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian Church (See Eph. 1:15-18). We must prepare ourselves – on purpose – to tell the world the Hope we have in Christ. That hope is only in Christ. Glory to God! The world is hopeless and helpless without Christ. This should concern the saint and push us to reach out passionately to a dying world. The Lord has given to the Church a Gospel that contains the Hope that the world needs. Yes, real hope is encapsulated in the Gospel we preach! We must shout it on the roof top – all over the world – that there is hope in no other but Christ Jesus who suffered and died for the sins of the world! This is good news to the hopeless. This is good news to the helpless. This is good news to the disillusioned. Glory to God! We’ve got the message of hope for the world. This is the message that produces the miracle of salvation to all who receive it! It’s the message that works. That’s why we must, of necessity, declare it with excitement and everything inside us! That’s why we must intercede for the lost with every passion in our hearts knowing that until they receive this message of hope, it cannot work for them. They don’t need to stay out there wondering what it is all about. They need to come into the fold to understand what this thing is all about. They will be eternally changed by this miracle-producing Gospel of Hope in Christ Jesus! PREACH THE WORD!