Behold, God is My Salvation

Isaiah 12:1-3 ESV

 

“You will say in that day:

‘I will give thanks to you, O Lord,

    for though you were angry with me,

your anger turned away,

    that you might comfort me.

 

“’Behold, God is my salvation;

    I will trust, and will not be afraid;

for the Lord God is my strength and my song,

    and he has become my salvation.’

 

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

 

When we humans are born into this world, we are born with sin natures in the image of Adam, the first man who sinned against God. We are separate from God and we are unable within our own flesh to be acceptable to God. But when God the Father draws us to faith in Jesus Christ, he persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness and of our own sinfulness and of our need to repent of (to turn from) our sins to follow Jesus now in obedience.

 

Then we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Our old self is crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we will no longer be enslaved to sin. Thus, we are to let not sin reign any longer in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its passions, for Jesus freed us from our slavery to sin so we would now be servants of his righteousness.

 

In sending Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, God the Father condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So, as those who have been brought from death to life our lives are now to be dedicated to following Jesus Christ in obedience to his commands (New Covenant) and we are to no longer live for the flesh.

 

[Rom 3:9-26; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Co 15:21-22,42-49; Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Eph 4:17-24; Tit 2:11-14]

 

Isaiah 12:4-6 ESV

 

“And you will say in that day:

 

“‘Give thanks to the Lord,

    call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,

    proclaim that his name is exalted.

 

“’Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;

    let this be made known in all the earth.

Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

    for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.’”

 

Now we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world and we are his witnesses. And we are to go and to make disciples of Christ of people throughout the earth, and we are to teach them to obey the Lord’s commandments (New Covenant).

 

[1 Pet. 2:9; 1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 5:13-16; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom. 10:14-15; Jn. 4:31-38; Jn. 13:13-17; Jn. 14:12; 1 Jn. 2:6]

 

And then, as the body of Christ, we are to minister God’s love and grace to one another. We are all given gifts of the Spirit which we are to use to minister to one another, and we have all been assigned by God specific body parts within the universal church which we are to fulfill in the power of God’s Spirit living within us. And then we, as the body, we are to speak to one another the truth in love so that none of us are deceived by human cunning and craftiness in deceitful scheming and so we all mature in Christ.

 

And every part is to do its work. We are all necessary to the proper working together of the body of Christ. And we are to address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in our hearts to God. And we are to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 

[Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-21; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13]

 

Near the Cross 

 

Hymn lyrics by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869

Music by William H. Doane, 1869

 

Jesus, keep me near the cross;

There a precious fountain,

Free to all, a healing stream,

Flows from Calvary's mountain.

 

Near the cross, a trembling soul,

Love and mercy found me;

There the bright and morning star

Sheds its beams around me.

          

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,

Bring its scenes before me;

Help me walk from day to day

With its shadow o'er me.

 

Near the cross I'll watch and wait,

Hoping, trusting ever,

Till I reach the golden strand

Just beyond the river.

        

In the cross, in the cross,

Be my glory ever,

Till my raptured soul shall find

Rest beyond the river.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5gong-PNmY

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