Wednesday 07 September 2022

Psalm 43

Background

I’m unhappy with the notion that I need to be saved. I’m deeply grateful that our great God chose to be human and chose to go to such lengths to achieve my salvation. I’m unhappy with the idea I need salvation because I really would rather believe that ‘just as I am’ is good enough and everything I think and do is ideal in God’s sight.

This thinking can be corrosive, damaging a potential relationship with God. ‘I’m fine as I am, God doesn’t mind what I do, God loves me anyway’, can become a personal credo which leads to rejecting the need of salvation and consequently the rule of God. Revelation 7:9-17 reminds us of the location and the place of our salvation. Here, we see that there is a disconnect between any attitude I may have that tells me that salvation does not require Jesus' death, because as verse 14 says: "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

The ‘bloody’ imagery here is not pretty. But when we pause and look thoroughly at the ‘blood of the Lamb’, it is not the red, sticky mess for daubing lintels at Passover, it can ‘make white robes’. Salvation is good. It is purposeful and transforming. Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne. Salvation involves the surrender of our will and attitude to the one on the throne. And that may need us to get down from occupying said throne! Salvation does not originate in us. It is not found in our theories or philosophies, our enlightened minds or policies or practices. Salvation belongs to our God. We can’t dispense it. We can’t claim it. We have no right to it. It is not ours.

And yet we need it.

Salvation also belongs to the Lamb. The one who was the sacrifice is also the holder of salvation. It belongs to him. There are consequences to receiving salvation from the Lamb. One is that we are transformed to be fit for worship around the throne. Salvation is not ‘made over to us’, it still belongs to God and to the Lamb. We now belong to them. The ones receiving salvation gravitate around the throne and respond with worship and an outpouring of love for God.

To Ponder:

 Have a look at Wesley’s summary of the requirements of faith. Which ones do you warm to and which do you struggle with? What does salvation mean to you?

• All need to be saved.
• All can be saved.
• All may  know themselves saved.
• All may be saved to the uttermost.

Where is your salvation and how do you live it out?