Salvation For All

I'm not an avid studier of the Word. I enjoy listening to teaching, preaching, and just soaking in a reading of it, but I never really delve in deeply on my own to look up historical context, refer to commentaries, and so on. I'm grateful for those scholars that take the time to really unpack God's Word for us to reveal nuggets that we really wouldn't see without knowing the details of the culture at the time various events occurred.

However, in most cases, I don't think we need that highly academic excercise -- God's Word is plain enough for us to understand, and the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of illuminated bits we find difficult.

In that light, I want to share something I just didn't get when I read it. It's not the text I didn't get, but rather the perspective of those in the first century who knew the scriptures well, yet were appalled that salvation could be meant for the Gentiles.

Check it out from Isaiah 56:

Thus says the LORD: "Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from his people"; and let not the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. "And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant -- these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered."

Okay, I'm no scholar, but to me, there's a whole lot in there that talks about others, not just Israel, being saved. I doubt I'm off in the weeds, as the heading for the section on Bible Gateway is, appropriately, "Salvation for Others".

Why some couldn't get it around their heads that the LORD was willing to offer salvation to all is beyond me. Yet another product of a sinful and hardened heart I guess. What a terrible thing it is to be in bondage to sin and not see how much God truly loves!

I almost was going to write that it is beyond me why many today completely reject God's offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. Now that the veil has been lifted from my eyes, it is perfectly clear that he is the way, the truth, and the life -- and the transformation he's made in my life is clear evidence of that. The only reason I'm not puzzled by it is that I know what it is to be an unbeliever, taking only a mere 31 years to see the light and receive Jesus as my savior and Lord!

Praise God for his patience while he draws unbelievers closer to him, and praise God for those moments where we can share the gospel and show Christ's love to a world that rejects him, so that some may be saved.

Grace and Peace friends