Beyond the Weekend: Saved
Your Past, Present, and Future Rescue
The word "saved" gets used a lot in church. But what does it really mean to be saved?
In this series, we look at how salvation works. It's not just something that happened to us in the past. It's something God is doing in us right now, and something he will finish one day.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Sanctification Will Happen
Read: 1 John 4:7–8 | Listen: 1 John 4
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. 1 John 4:7a
John is one of Jesus's closest friends. He walks with him, eats with him, lives life with him. Years later, as an older man writing to the early church, John's letters reveal one theme that rises above the rest: love. John teaches that one of the clearest outward signs of sanctification—someone truly growing in following Jesus—is loving God and loving others. Once someone grasps the great love of God, they're able to turn around and love others in return. It flows out of them, not because they're trying hard, but because it's the evidence that they are being sanctified.
Here's the good news: if we have been saved and justified, sanctification will happen. Growth doesn't happen evenly—some seasons will feel intense, and others will feel quiet. But if we've truly been justified, we will grow over the course of our lives to look more and more like Jesus. Often, we don't see the growth day to day, but we see it when we look back over years of following him. We may notice we're quicker to forgive, that love flows more easily, that we complain less, or that we don't get angry as fast. This means the fruit is growing. And if there's no fruit in our lives at all, that's worth paying attention to. It may be time to ask Jesus to do that work in us, and to surrender to whatever it requires.
TODAY: Listen to our worship team sing "This Is Our God," and let it lead you to a simple response: "I'm back in," or "I'm still in." Then thank God for who he is and for the growth you can look back on in your own life.
