SAVED FROM, SAVED FOR (JUNE 9)

". . . by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:4).

THE QUESTION 'NOW WHAT?' IS ONE OF LIFE’S MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. Unfortunately, many of us who have sought salvation from our sins do not understand what salvation is for. Like ancient Israel, we’ve been rescued from “Egypt,” but we don’t have a good grasp of the goal God had in mind when He set us free.

THE PAST. It is not a good situation if the Christian has “forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Now that we follow Christ, the dominant note in our lives should be gratitude: “thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17). But we dare not define ourselves solely in terms of the things we don’t do anymore.

THE FUTURE. Nature abhors a vacuum, as they say, and the gospel was meant to do more than subtract the evil from our lives (Luke 11:24-26). The question is, why did God want certain things removed from our lives and what does He now want to put in their place? We are not what we used to be, but what comes next?

Having forgiven us, God wants us to “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). His plan is to repair the damage of sin (Peter described it as “corruption”) and transform us into people who think and act as creatures made in His image. In fact, He plans to makes us into people who have the same character as His Son, Jesus Christ. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29).

So a glorious destiny awaits us in Jesus Christ, and even now, we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And it’s not just our character but also our conduct that is being renovated. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). So let’s be frank: are we participating in God’s plan . . . or not?

"We have been holding the letter of truth while at the same time we have been moving away from it in spirit because we have been preoccupied with what we are saved from rather than what we have been saved to" (A. W. Tozer).