SALVATION
Conclusion
1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. NASB
Brothers and Sisters, if you have not yet embraced God’s intentions for your life, I urge you to do it now. Pray today that God will pour out his grace and mercy on us and give us the desire to desire the life God has always intended for us. It is time to embrace our salvation and walk in it; as a testimony to the world. It is time to live our lives as citizens of the Kingdom of God, not residents of this fallen world. Christ in us, our hope of glory, should distinguish us from among the lost and mark us as children of God. The Apostle Peter gives us a step-by-step, practical, daily outline of how to embrace and walk in our salvation.
2 Peter 1:2-11 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to up everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Now for this reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble, for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. NASB
The night is far spent, the dawning is at hand. If these are not the last days for our world, they are certainly the last days for each of us as individuals. Jesus redeemed our lives with His own Holy and precious life. Can we afford to squander even one more moment, wasting His sacrificed life by living for ourselves? We must be more diligent, not only to make more certain God’s calling on each of us, but to add our efforts to those of Jesus Himself, and extend reconciliation with God to the lost around us. If Jesus, the Returning King, doesn’t come back in our lifetimes, death awaits each one of us. Why not die to self now and live as Christ while there is still time for our present lives to be worth something in eternity?
2 Peter 2:10-15a But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; NASB
The end is written in far more certainty than in stone. Nothing can change it. Our place in eternity has yet to be written and we hold the pen. Yield now to the Spirit of God. We must release our willful grip on our own lives and die to self to live in Christ. We must embrace our salvation and walk in this world as a citizens of Heaven, proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s redemption of humanity until He returns. Remember, salvation awaits those who hold fast till the end. Don’t passively wait for the end, the Kingdom of Heaven is won by those who charge after it, (Matthew 11:12, Philippians 3:13-14).
