The Reason for Your Salvation
How would you complete the following three statements?
1. God saved me because
2. God's purpose for saving me was
3. I am most like Jesus when I
The purpose for my opening this Bible study with a little quiz is not to put you on the spot, but, rather, to
set the proper framework for our discussion of servanthood. The answers that I am seeking to these statements are
these:
God Saved Me Because He Loves Me.
The sole reason that God sent His Son, Jesus, to this world to die for your sins and mine was because He loved
us. God forgives us, grants us eternal life, and gives us the gift of His Holy Spirit out of His immeasurable love
and grace. There is no other reason.
Many people seem to believe that God saves a man or woman because of the person's good works or service. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. There isn't any amount or any type of service that can earn salvation. The apostle
Paul made this very clear when he wrote to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). Even the faith
by which we believe God forgives us and saves us is a gift of God that flows from His love!
If God saved a person on the basis of works, we each would have to ask ourselves, “How much good service is
enough?” Such a question cannot be answered. There is no amount of good service that can equal the shed blood of
Jesus Christ. There is no way to quantify how much service is necessary for salvation or to qualify which types
of service lead to salvation. The gospel is: Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross of Calvary to purchase salvation
for you and for me. He did so voluntarily and willingly in obedience to His heavenly Father, who was completely
and totally motivated by love when He sought your redemption and mine. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life.”
Just as a person is not saved because of his past good works, neither is a person saved because he has potential
for future good works. God does not look at one person and say, “You have the potential to be a preacher, so I
am going to save you” and then look at another and say, “You aren't worth much, so I won't save you.” God's gift
of salvation is offered freely to all who will receive it. God created each one of us with a unique set of talents
and traits that can be employed for His service as He wills. No person is without merit in His eyes; all are worthy
of salvation.
Equally so, there is no inherent “goodness” in any person that warrants his or her salvation. No person has
the prerogative to stand before God Almighty and say, “I deserve to be saved.” Rather, we each must confess, “I
need to be saved.” Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means
all.
This point is critical for you to understand at the outset of this study on service: Developing a servant's
heart is something that we do in response to God's gracious gifts of salvation, eternal life, and the Holy
Spirit. It is never something that we do in order to earn—win, warrant, or put ourselves into a position
to deserve—salvation.
God's Purpose for Saving Me Was to Bring Him Glory.
God saved you and He saved me so that we might be His “trophies”—we might be examples to others of God's love
and mercy at work in and through a human life.
Many people seem to think that the only reason for salvation is so that a person might go to heaven when he
dies. Eternal life is part of God's forgiveness plan for us, but that is not the sole reason for our salvation.
We are saved so that we might be “redeemed”—a word that implies that we once were in bondage or slavery to something
that was evil, but we have been rescued and set free from sin so that we might live a life of righteousness before
God. If God's only purpose for our salvation was so that we might go to heaven, He would be doing each of us a
great favor by saving us and then immediately slaying us.
God's purpose for saving us is so that we each might reflect His nature—we might be His people on this earth,
doing the kinds of works that Jesus Himself would do if He were walking in our shoes, through our world, during
our lifetime. God desires to manifest His character through our personalities and giftedness. When we allow His
Holy Spirit to work in us and through us to others, we become vessels of His love in action. We reflect His compassion,
love, and mercy to others. And in so doing, we are His witnesses. We bring credit, honor, and glory to Him.
God does not save us in order that we might be part of an elite group of “good people.” He saves us in order
that we might reach out to all people with God's goodness. He does not put us in the church so that we might soak
up several decades of good sermons, Bible conferences, prayer meetings, and seminars. He puts us in the church
so that we might be of good use to those who are in need—so that we might function as His body, each of us using
our gifts, talents, and skills as the Holy Spirit directs to help one another, and in the process, experience a
refinement of our own spirits, souls, and minds.
This is an important point for you to consider as we begin this Bible study. God did not save you simply so
that you can say to others, “I'm saved,” that you might fill out a church membership card, or that you might have
the assurance that you are going to heaven one day. He saved you in order that you might live every hour of every
day of the remainder of your life in faithful service and obedience to Jesus Christ—going wherever He leads, saying
and doing whatever He prompts you to say and do by His Holy Spirit, and engaging in whatever forms of ministry
and service that He calls you to pursue.
I Am Most Like Jesus When I Serve Others.
The foremost characteristic of the life of Jesus Christ was and is service. We are most like Him when
we serve as He served.
Many seem to think that a person is most like Jesus when he preaches like Jesus preached, teaches like Jesus
taught, heals like Jesus healed, or performs miracles like Jesus performed miracles. They look only at the outward
manifestation of a person's witness and ministry.
They need to look beyond the outer manifestation to the motivation for Jesus' life. That motivation was
always service. Jesus preached, taught, healed, and performed miracles in order to help others, never to
call attention to Himself. He poured out His very life so that others might be saved, never thinking for a moment
to save Himself. Time and again, Jesus said to those He had healed or helped, “Don't tell anyone what has happened.”
The reason for this was that Jesus didn't want others to respond to Him as an earthly political savior. He didn't
want them to focus on His potential to rule over them, but, rather, to focus on our loving heavenly Father and
on Jesus' role to serve humanity as Savior, Deliverer, and Redeemer.
The critical point for us to recognize at the outset of this study is this: God has called you to serve others
just as Jesus served others. He didn't save you or call you to service so that you might be exalted, praised, glorified,
or put on a pedestal. He saved you so that you might serve others and in so doing, bring praise and honor to God's
holy name.
The good news is that any person who is saved can serve God and bring glory to Him. The nature of the
ministry task or calling is not what is important; what is important is the motivation behind our service.
God loved us so that we might love others. That's what the Christian life is all about.
Having a clear understanding about why God saved you and what He expects of you may very well be the most important
aspect of this entire study. As you prepare to engage in this Bible study, ask yourself these important questions:
• What do I expect from God now that I'm saved?
• On what grounds do I base that expectation?
• What do I expect from myself as a Christian?
• What does God expect from me as His faithful and obedient child?
From Developing a Servant's Heart by Charles
Stanley. Copyright 1998 by Charles Stanley.
