The How of Salvation

 

 

Can anyone tell me

How salvation works?

Spare me all your credentials

Or that you’re an expert.

 

If you can tell me

Just put your hand up,

I’d love to wait on you but I can’t

You are out of luck.

 

Some do behave

Like they have the answer

But I believe they don’t:

Neither Madam nor Sir.

 

Let me hasten to add

That neither do I,

If at some time I told you I did

That was a lie.

 

So, why this topic

When they’re so many more?

Well, because some believers

Seem rather sure.

 

They argue about it

And sometimes cause division

Trying to explain

The “how of salvation”.

 

It’s like you’d better know

If you truly want to be saved

So, they go to great extent

In their rant and rave.

 

They would dig a hole

And deeper they would get

Pulling in the mold over them

To everybody’s regret.

 

 

Calvinists and Armenians

In the ages long debate

Trying hard to convince the other

Of their mistake.

 

Pitting God’s sovereignty

Against man’s free will

And at the end of every debate

Both confused still.

 

Trying to be God

Which they can never be

Plunging headlong into depths

Deeper than the sea.

 

What does it matter

Whether or not God saves all

Or, on the other hand,

Saves none at all?

 

Unlike as with ethnic Israel

Salvation is personal,

And what is even more critical

Salvation is eternal.

 

 

To teacher Nicodemus

Jesus would only say,

“Ye must be born again!”

It’s the only way.

 

This is not about how,

It is about the what,

It is not about who gets saved

And who does not.

 

“What must I do

To be saved?” asked another,

Believe on the Lord Jesus!

Is that a bother?

 

Fact number 1:

Almighty God is sovereign!

Fact number 2:

Man has his freedom!

 

That is freedom to decide

Whether yes or no,

Saying yes to Jesus Christ

Or with the devil go.

 

Whichever he chooses

Does not thwart God,

God delivers on all his promises,

He is never a fraud.

 

I cannot say the same

For you know who,

Satan will promise the world

But that he can’t do.

 

 

He tried it with Jesus

Though it was not his to give

But that is how con-artists work

And their adherents live.

 

Let’s forget the how

Which is not our concern,

Instead, let us be more like Jesus-

This we should learn.

 

The how is what God did

In sending us His Son,

The other how is the born again

And what the Spirit has done.

 

Go and tell, is our mandate

Tell them to come,

It’s an invitation to God’s kingdom

And that of His Son.

 

It’s one kingdom

Most definitely not two,

There’s not one for the Gentile

And one for the Jew.

 

 

 

The “how of salvation”?

Not our concern,

Calvinists and Armenians

Have a lot to learn.

 

Better to spend time

Conforming to Christ

For knowing the “how of salvation”

Can never suffice.

 

Stewart Russell © April 20, 2024