Through the death of Jesus we indeed "were reconciled to God" and yet, "much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved" by His Life.
The first step in the journey of our walk with Jesus is the decision to Trust Jesus as our Savior, by which we were reconciled to God. This decision is usually made during a time of Crisis, calling out on our Lord to save us from the consequence of our sins. The Lord gives us this ability to chose to respond to the Gospel invitation or not to respond, which is by an act of our will. We call this faith. On the basis of this faith, our sins are forgiven, we now become sons and daughters of God and He gives us His Holy Spirit to reside in our Spirit. He makes us a new creation. The amount of faith that we have, is not significant, but the object of our faith is. It is very small conpaired to the size of the work of God to bring us to Himself. Like that of a mustard seed. God has limited Himself by allowing us to make the decision, otherwise we would be but robots or other lower animals which make their decisions by instinct, programmed reactions. The first step then is to Trust Jesus as our Savior. The unfortunate thing is that many Christians just stay there and never progress in their walk with Christ. The bible calls these "carnal Christians."
Now let's look at the second part of Romans 5:10. "Much more, we shall be saved by His Life." When I was a new Christian I kept wondering what the "Kingdom of God" was all about, as stated in the Gospel accounts. Matt 6:33, "Seek first His Kingdom..." The Kingdom of God is "JESUS." When we accept Christ as our Savior He combines His Spirit with our Spirit, He personally dwells within us. Again, He is the kingdom, He is all we will ever want or have. Apart from Him we can do nothing. He is our life and we are a new creation. God created us for the purpose of being inhabited by Himself. He is the oil for our lamp, the gas for our car. He desires that our eyes be His eyes, our voices be His voice, and our feet to go where He wants us to go. That is what we call sanctification. Being saved means to set things right in our lives. But just as He did not force you to choose Him as your savior, God will not force you to choose to be sanctified. Have you Trusted Jesus with your life, to sanctify you. The Much More of our salvation is to "Trust Jesus" to Sanctify you. Are you enjoying the Much More of your salvation. Again, all the faith you need is that of the size of a mustard seed. God will do and is doing His work, He has promised to.
Be Blessed, Terri and Bill Valley
BTW: Put on your calendar - Trust Jesus Crusade - Puyallup Fair - AUG 31st.
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