Salvation: the end, or the beginning?

I love being a follower of God under the new covenant. A few years ago I think I never really had a clue about what it meant to be in the 'new covenant', or why it was all that much better than the old. I always placed the significance of the new covenant solely on salvation...the miracle of Jesus' blood sacrifice for our sins. After all, the new covenant didn't exist before Jesus. However, while this miraculous act is certainly worthy of our adoration for all of eternity, it is not the end of the Christian experience by any stretch. As Pastor Josh Finley put it in his sermon last week, salvation is not the end, but the beginning.

If salvation is the sole power of the work of Jesus' life, why are there old testament believers in heaven? Think about the transfiguration experience Jesus had. Think about Elijah and Enoch being taken to heaven. Think about all the time David talks about the reality of eternal life. Clearly, the Bible illustrates that God's followers went to heaven, even those living under the old covenant. So, if salvation is not simply fire insurance for us, where is the additional potency in the saving act?

The truth is that you and I, once we put our faith and trust in Jesus as the Savior of our souls and Lord of our lives, begin the experience of eternity from that point on. Because of what Jesus did, we have unhindered access to God through our faith in Jesus. In addition, since Jesus has all authority and all power, and chose to give that authority and power to us, we have the capacity to destroy the works of the devil while we are here on earth. In fact, we are mandated by Jesus to do so. Let's face it: we won't be spending a whole lot of time in heaven destroying the works of the devil in other people's lives. It's a privilege we can only access in this time, in this season.

So, basically, since we live under the new covenant, heaven's expectation of our lives is to first, be in intimate communion with God as sons and daughters, and second, to accomplish the impossible by bringing the kingdom of God to earth.

I know we often have a hard enough time maintaining a relationship with God that the second part can seem out of reach. However, we cannot limit the power of the new covenant to meet our deficient Christian experience. Rather, we must be compelled to pursue that which is clearly ours according to what the Bible says, so that our Christian experience can be raised to the high water mark of Biblical standard. There is no other option for the believer who truly wants to be like Jesus.

When we become believers, there is a heavenly expectation that we will conquer something with our lives. If we get ahold of that revelation, Christianity becomes the most exciting adventure possible. Instead of solemn duty or obligation, our mission to minister the reality of heaven to people becomes something I like to call Christian recreation:) I'll chat some more about that next time. Until then, talk to you soon!