What is the greatest thing that has ever happened to you? Completing a college degree? Acquiring your dream job? Getting married? Having children? No doubt, these are some great things. And when it comes to getting married and having children, they are major life changing events. Having a family is a gift from God.
But when it comes to the greatest thing that has ever happened to us, for those of us who are “in Christ,” I would have to say that our response needs to be our salvation.
In Romans 1-11, Paul writes of the excellencies of the riches of God’s grace in saving us, reconciling us, and restoring us as his rebellious children through the death of His son. Most likely you have read through Romans and know the depth of his writing in explaining our salvation.
When Paul begins to conclude this section of the letter explaining our salvation, just before he begins writing what I like to call the “practical” or “living it out” section, he reflects back upon the ways of God in saving us and writes a most glorious response. He writes:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
Paul is most overwhelmed by the ways of God in saving us. His depth we cannot fathom. His knowledge is beyond are grasp. And His richness in mercy and grace leave us awestruck. His plan to rescue us is by Him, for Him, and through Him. God is the source, instrument, and goal of all things. All glory, therefore, belongs to Him.
Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (1856-1932) wrote these words…
I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner condemned, unclean.
How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!
We do well to think about the great salvation we have in Christ. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in one of his sermons, asks us to make such thinking a habit and to let our understanding of our salvation spill over into those around us. He says:
Do you habitually think of your own salvation as the greatest and most wonderful thing that has ever happened to you? I will ask a yet more serious question: do you give your neighbors the impression that you have found the most magnificent thing in the world? I have a terrible fear that many people are outside the Christian church because so many of us give them the impression that what we have is something very small, very narrow, very cramped and confined. We have not given them the impression that they are missing the most glorious thing in the entire universe.
So, what’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to you?
Be First to Comment