Saved by the Truth

 

DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

SAVED BY THE TRUTH

2 Thess 2:13-15

13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

NIV

It is a good thing to always thank God for our fellow believers. It is also good to remember that all believers are loved by God, as are all people, for God so loved everyone, the whole world that he gave his one and only Son to die on the cross for everyone. But we have to believe that, and accept the redemptive work of Christ. People are not automatically saved because of Christ, they have to submit to the work of the Spirit in their lives and come by faith in Christ Jesus. Here, Paul says that from the beginning God chose them to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. Here, again we have this word 'chose', which could be seen that he had some people he would choose and some he would not choose. But we think that is not exactly what this means in this context. First, looking at that Greek word translated as chosen, we find it has a meaning of taking for oneself which in this situation means he chose from the very beginning. God chose all men to be saved through the determined method. First, he came to the Jews, as a Jew, but he had already determined that he came for all people, which meant the Jews, and the Gentiles. This method he determined was through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through the belief in the truth, which is Jesus. So then we would have to say that God had this all planned out as to how His creation would be able to be saved. This also means that as he created Adam and Eve, he had the foreknowledge they would not obey him and fall from grace, by sinning, and need to be cast out of the paradise he created for them, yet he still chose to create them and set in motion the process by which they and all who followed them could be saved. This means both Adam and Eve could have repented because of the work of the Spirit and belief in the truth. As far as we know they did not repent and sin kept happening. They had to see one of their sons killed his brother and on and on sin began to reign in the hearts of men and it still is active today. We are the result of this process God determined from the beginning. The Spirit first did his work in our lives, causing us to see our sin and need for forgiveness, this is the act of purification done by the Spirit. Then we heard the truth, we heard the gospel message in some form, mostly through the teaching passed on to us from another person. We found the truth, we found the written form of the truth and we came to have faith in Jesus as the sacrifice for our sin and found total forgiveness from God and were reinstated as his children. Only God is able to accomplish his own plan. So, we stand in awe of His power, majesty, and grace. We cannot even begin to comprehend how he did all he has done, and why he chose to do it the way he did, but we are thankful God did it, and we are His because we believe in His Son Jesus for our salvation.