Morning By Morning #57

Salvation comes from the LORD.

Jonah 2:9

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Salvation is the work of God, for it is He alone who brings a soul to life, just as Paul said, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive” (Eph. 2:1, 4-5). And it is also He alone who maintains a soul throughout its spiritual life, for He is “the Alpha and the Omega” (Rev. 1:8).

“Salvation comes from the LORD.” So if I am prayerful, it is God who makes me prayerful. If I have been gifted, it is God who has granted those gifts to me. If I live a consistent life, it is because “the LORD upholds [me] with his hand” (Ps. 37:24). I do nothing whatsoever to accomplish my own preservation except what God Himself first does in and through me.

All the goodness I have within me is totally from the Lord alone. When I sin it is from me and is done on my own, but when I act righteously, it is wholly and completely of God. When I am victorious over a spiritual enemy, it is the Lord’s strength that empowered my arms. If I live a life of devotion before others, it is not I for “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Have I been sanctified? If so I did not cleanse myself, for God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Have I been weaned from the things of the world? It is only accomplished through God’s correction and discipline of me for my own good. Am I growing in knowledge? It is the great Instructor who teaches me.

Every jewel I have was fashioned by heaven’s Hand. In God I find all I want and need, but in myself I find nothing but sin and misery. “He alone is my rock and my salvation” (Ps. 62:2). Do I get nourishment from God’s Word? His Word would provide no nourishment at all unless the Lord made it food for my soul and enabled me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna that comes down from heaven? What is that manna but the incarnate Jesus Christ Himself whose body and blood bring me nourishment. Is my strength continually being renewed? “Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD” (Ps. 121:1-2). I am helpless without Him. Jesus said, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4 – 5).

What Jonah learned in the depths of the sea may I learn this morning in my prayer closet: “Salvation comes from the LORD.”

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

God is sovereign in everything, including salvation. Yet many people, even some Christians, believe they play a part in salvation, denying God’s total sovereignty. Peter said this is shaky ground: “There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord” (2 Peter 2:1).

David agrees with our text verse today by saying, “Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death” (Ps. 68:20). Later Jude equates our Sovereign Lord with Jesus, when he calls Him “our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 4). Then John equates Him with God and eternal life itself by saying, “Jesus Christ…is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

Sovereign Lord, thank You for giving me Jesus Christ, who is eternal life.