Salvation is a gift; the greatest gift we could ever receive, but it doesn't end there. It has to be "worked out" meaning we need to continue to grow in Christ and mature spiritually. We need to be continually working on being more like Christ and less like our fleshly, worldly nature. That work needs to be approached however with "fear and trembling." This doesn't mean that God wants you to be afraid of Him but rather that you approach your salvation, the fact that God chose to save you, with a reverent awe. It means there is not a hint of arrogance about it because we had nothing to do with it. Paul dealt with this issue in his letter to the Romans:
What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3: 9-18
These are pretty harsh words about the true nature of who we are without the blood of Jesus covering us. None are righteous but yet some in western Christianity can seem pretty righteous in their condemnation of people. These verses should be sobering and remind us that we have enough to work on in ourselves and we shouldn't be so pre-occupied with others. That is one of the schemes of the enemy. To get you so focused on someone else so that you cannot work out your own salvation. Too many fall for this. The result is damage to the overall witness of Christ. Less people at the foot of the cross for God to save.
There is a sharp difference between the love of Christ and the morality of Christianity. The love of Christ covers all and accepts all who are willing to come to repentance. The morality of Christianity provides a code to be lived up to and judgment when that code is not met. It is Pharisaical in nature. Remember, the Pharisees also had a corner on morality. They too had religion but their insistence on code blurred their view of God. They had religion but no relationship. God is all about relationship. How much does God love us?
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
The most popular verse in the Bible says that God loved the world, not just the people who look like you or I. It says that "whoever" believes in Him shall have eternal life not just a specific set of people. This goes for everyone. All should know the love of God and have the opportunity to be grafted in to the branch as we were. So often we only concentrate on a verse like John 3:16 and fail to see what the surrounding context is but let's look at the next two verses:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. John 3: 17-18
Jesus did not come into this world
to condemn anyone but to save the world. Not just our corner of the world. Not
just our country or those who may be pre-disposed to what we believe. Everyone. There is a story in the Gospel of Luke that
highlights the arrogance that we can so easily slip into simply because we now
walk with God. In the time of Jesus and the Apostles, the Samaritans were the
despised people to the Jews. They were considered half-breeds and the disdain
for them was well documented. If there were email back then, Jews would have
been forwarding emails about how bad the Samaritans were and how much we needed
to hate them. As Jesus was close to His passion, He sent people ahead to make
way for Him to
