Articles
Salvation Comes from the Lord
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"But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord."
(Jon. 2:9)
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Jonah learned the hard way not to second-guess God. His attempt to run away from God's mission had landed him in the belly of a great fish, and the experience brought clarity to his thinking. If God would only spare his life, things would be different going forward. Shouts of grateful praise! Vows fulfilled! Sacrifices offered! Yes, Jonah would be a new man, an humbled man.
So God delivered Jonah, and the prophet completed his assignment in Nineveh. Yet the truth Jonah was so eager to embrace in the belly of the fish, he could not extend to the Ninevites. Blinded by a fierce prejudice that could see no worth in these godless pagans, Jonah was outraged by God's mercy toward the city. Jonah believed that salvation comes from the Lord--but only if it benefited him.
Does this sound familiar? It is good that we recognize the grace of God in our lives. We are saved, not by our goodness or our achievements, but by an exercise of divine mercy. God owes us nothing, and we owe Him everything. But if we cannot see God's grace extending to others in their flaws, our praise of His salvation is nothing more than ego stroking. We are hoarding God's mercy for ourselves, and withholding it from everyone else. How selfish!
People are not saved or lost based on what WE think of their performance. Salvation comes from the Lord, not us, and we must respect His right to make the call. Like Jonah, we have a duty to share the word of the Lord to those who are lost, and we should do so with conviction. But in the end it is God who will decide who is lost and who is saved, not us.
We should be grateful that it is so.
--David
