Salvation by Participation

Bulletin

Dan Peters
02/18/24 - Salvation

Many want a salvation without any participation, which is utter nonsense. They want Jesus to save them, but they will not put on the yoke. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30). They will not put the yoke on, they rebel against Jesus’ commands, no matter how easy. Jesus has done, and is doing, the hard work. The apostle John who put on the yoke of Christ said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1John 5:3).
“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. (Mark 8:34). So you see, you cannot have Christ without his cross. Our cross is light compared to his cross.
The apostle Paul longed for the resurrection from the dead, but he knew that he must participate in the suffering of Christ first. He said, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11). There are two words in that passage that bring out the idea of participation. One is the word “fellowship”, which one of the meanings is, “participation, sharing” (BDAG). We must participate in his suffering that we might participate in his resurrection. The other word or rather phrase is “conform to his death”. I must have some participation in his death.
Another passage that talks about our participation, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,” (Romans 6:3-5). So we see we must deny ourself, our own will, in order to do his will, which is not ”burdensome”. We participate in the light, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1John 1:6-7). Those who participate in the light, receive the blood of Jesus. Dan Peters