Sunday, April 3, 2016

The Cup of Salvation


Psalm 116:12-13 What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”


My friend Scott once heard a radio preacher ask: If everybody is going to heaven, what is the ticket that gets them in? Here is a remarkable question and the answer to the ticket issue. This quick little devotional I found, cuts to the chase, stating that to everyone born into the world, God has given multitudes of benefits. “He gives to all life, and breath, and all things” - Acts 17:25. Some receive more than others, but all receive many, so the question is what we should do for the Lord in return. The answer is simply to receive His great gift of eternal salvation. On one occasion the people of Capernaum asked Jesus: “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” His answer must be profoundly surprising to anyone who believes that he can please God and earn salvation by doing good works. “This is the work of God,” said Jesus, “that you believe on him whom he has sent” - John 6:28-29.



The truth is we can never pay for our sins by good deeds. If one is ever to be saved from their sins and to obtain salvation, it must be received solely by faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. “For the wages of sin is death,” but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us so that the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Therefore, when a repentant sinner calls in faith on the wonderful name of our gracious Lord, they drink of the healing cup of salvation and receives everlasting life. Because Jesus drank the bitter cup of God’s righteous judgment on our sins, we can drink deeply of the “living water . . . springing up into everlasting life” - John 4:10-14, and we can say with the psalmist: “My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” - Psalm 23:5-6

Blessings in Christ.

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