When our Salvation will be Complete

Isaiah 62:1-3 NIV

 

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,

till her vindication shines out like the dawn,

    her salvation like a blazing torch.

The nations will see your vindication,

    and all kings your glory;

you will be called by a new name

    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.

You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,

    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”

 

When we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We are delivered from our slavery to sin so that we will no longer be enslaved to sin but so we would now be slaves of God and of his righteousness. So, daily by the Spirit we are to be putting to death the deeds of the flesh and to be walking (in conduct) according to the Spirit until Jesus returns.

 

But we still live in flesh bodies. We are still tempted to sin. And we still have a propensity to sin. And Satan is persistently fighting against us trying to get us to retreat and to go back to serving him and to not living for the Lord Jesus. And our flesh regularly fights against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And so we read in the books of the New Testament many words of exhortation, correction, and urgings to the church to put away the things of our old lives and to daily put on Christ and his righteousness.

 

For our salvation and our walks of faith are progressive. They are a process which won’t be complete until Jesus Christ returns to take us to be with him for eternity and our marriage to him is consummated and our salvation is complete. Meanwhile, we are saved (past), we are being saved (present) and we will be saved (future) when Jesus returns, provided that we continue in him steadfast in faith in forsaking our sins and in walking in obedience to his commands until the very end.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 8:24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6, 14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 1 Jn 2:24-25]

 

Isaiah 62:4-5 NIV

 

“No longer will they call you Deserted,

    or name your land Desolate.

But you will be called Hephzibah,

    and your land Beulah;

for the Lord will take delight in you,

    and your land will be married.

As a young man marries a young woman,

    so will your Builder marry you;

as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,

    so will your God rejoice over you.”

 

When we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives we enter into a marriage covenant with him. He is not only our Lord and Savior, but he is our husband. But this marriage is more like the Jewish marriage as described in the Scriptures. It is a marriage contract (covenant agreement) but it is more like an engagement period, for the couple are not living together, and the marriage is not consummated until the groom makes a home for his bride and then one day he comes to get her to live with him.

 

When Jesus Christ left this earth he told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them and that one day he was going to come back and get them and take them to be with him forever. So this parallels over to the Jewish marriage covenant. And when he does return, and he takes us to the home he has been preparing for us, only then will our marriage (Beulah) to him and our salvation from sin be complete. And this is why the Scriptures teach that we must walk according to the Spirit to have eternal life with God.

 

Isaiah 62:6-7 NIV

 

“I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;

    they will never be silent day or night.

You who call on the Lord,

    give yourselves no rest,

and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem

    and makes her the praise of the earth.”

 

In the meantime, while we still live on the face of the earth, God has posted watchmen (and some women) to look out for the church, to continually encourage (cheer, reassure, inspire, exhort, urge, and admonish) her toward holy living and faithful service and obedient walks of faith, and to warn her against falling back into sin, and of the consequences thereof, and to warn of enemy forces coming against her intended to unsettle her, to make her afraid, or to lead her back into sin or into following another god and gospel.

 

For our enemy Satan is working against us in two main different ways. First of all he attempts to deceive us and to tempt us to go back to living in sin and to desert our “first love,” and he does this mainly through trickery and manipulation and through the twisting of truth to make his lies appear as truth and the truth appear as lies. And he has quite a large following now using these manipulative tactics to deceive the masses into embracing his lies and into rejecting the truth.

 

But if he cannot deceive and manipulate us to follow after his lies and to reject the truth, then he goes on an all out attack against us, and he uses other humans to persecute, reject, falsely accuse, mistreat, and censor us, or to try to make us afraid in hopes that we will give up, and that we will back down, and that out of fear we will stop exposing the lies and that we will cease proclaiming the truth. And this is why we must daily put on that armor of God with which to fight off his evil schemes against us.

 

And at the end of it all, if we don’t give up, but we persevere, and we continue in the faith which God provides, and which we must put into practice in our daily lives, by his grace, and in his power, we have eternal life with God. And one day, when he returns, and he takes us all to be with him forever, our salvation will be complete, our marriage to Christ will be consummated, and we will forever be with our Lord (with our husband).

 

Sweet Beulah Land

 

By Squire Parsons

 

I'm kind of homesick for a country

To which I've never been before.

No sad goodbyes will there be spoken

For time won't matter anymore.

 

I'm looking now, just across the river

To where my faith, shall end in sight

There's just a few more days to labor.

Then I will take my heavenly flight.

 

Beulah Land I'm longing for you

And some day on thee I'll stand

There my home shall be eternal

Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8W7RXg6AA

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