Emblems Of The Infinite King: An 8-Day DevotionalSample

The Doctrine of Salvation

Election is the King’s solid, sure, unbreakable plan to save a people for himself for his glory and for their joy. Before he laid the foundations of the world, the King laid out his mission to rescue that very same world.  He sacrificed himself in order to buy his people back from their slavery to sin. His death breaks the bars of sin and death’s prison, while his resurrection frees us from the tomb to enjoy eternal life. 

God doesn’t only want you to know what he did; he wants you to believe. He wants you to hear his promises so that you reject your past life of sin and rebellion. Everyone is spiritually dead until the Spirit makes them spiritually alive. This is why God speaks so much about new birth and being born again. The Spirit brings you back to spiritual life. 

You no longer stand under God’s just judgment; you stand free. God does this by declaration. Like a judge, he announces before all hearers that sinners who place their faith in him are no longer guilty; they are righteous before his holy and pure eyes. Based on Christ’s work, you can trade your sins for his righteousness. The King’s grace and mercy turned traitors against the kingdom back into citizens of the kingdom. The King restores peace. 

Those who were alienated and separated from him can now run into his arms as his most loved children. He can make you a son or daughter of the King. Both the King and the kingdom can be yours. As if that weren’t enough, your adoption also gives you a family of brothers and sisters who, just like you, are happy and free in the King’s kind grace. 

In this, you become one with the one who saves you. That is how you benefit from his death and resurrection. In union with Christ, his death can be your death and his resurrection can be your resurrection. When the world looks at you, they see your Savior. 

Sanctification is the joint work of the Spirit and the Christian to make the Christian more like the Death Killer over time. If you belong to Jesus, you are going to do everything in your power to become like Jesus. You are going to read about him, pray to him, kill sin that keeps you from him, and try to follow him wherever he takes you. At the same time, the Spirit is working in you to help you want to do all these things and to help you keep doing them. He is there to convict you of sin and empower you to follow your Rescuer.