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 THERE IS PURPOSE WHEN GOD SAVES US

Psalm 67

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us— so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him."

The singular difference (and it is a monumental one) between those who belong to God through the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death, resurrection and ascension, and those who will not believe Him and receive the gift of eternal Life from Him is simply one has been born from above and the other is still dead in sin. One has received the forgiveness of God and the other remains under judgement.

The truth is that the believer is not more worthy than the unbeliever. They are both utterly dependent upon God if they are to become what God created them for: to be fully human, forgiven, rescued, redeemed, transformed, and filled with the Life of God. God has no favorites. He loved the world (all humanity) so much that He gave His one and only Son to the end that all who would believe in Him would not perish eternally but would have eternal life. Those humans who have been redeemed by the mercy and unmerited favor of God are meant to be signs to the rest of humanity to show that God alone saves us, that He can, indeed, restore us to wholeness of life.

Israel was not chosen because they were of greater worth than any other nation on earth.

Deuteronomy 4:32-35

“Now search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before? Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire—as you did—and survived? Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes. He showed you these things so you would know that the Lord is God and there is no other."

Deuteronomy 7:7-8
“The Lord did not set His heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and He was keeping the oath He had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."

Deuteronomy 9:4-6

“After the Lord your God has done this for you, don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people!’ No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that He is pushing them out of your way. It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath He swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people."

It is evident from how the Lord speaks to His chosen people, that it is NOT because they were better than other human beings, other nations, but that God was keeping His oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God keeps His covenant promises. In doing so, His people were meant to be a "light" to the other nations. Other people groups were to be able to look at Israel and see what the blessedness of living in covenant with God looked like so as to draw the other nations to the salvation of God.

That is what the Psalmist is declaring in Psalm 67, "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us— so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations."

Jesus Christ told His followers that they were to be "the light of the world" so that those who still walked in spiritual darkness, thinking God simply doesn't matter in human living, might SEE what life looks like when one's life has become the Life of God being lived in a person by the Holy Spirit.

Our salvation is not merely for our sake, but for the sake of everyone in our sphere of influence. They need to see that God can save, rescue, heal, redeem, restore and make ANYONE whole! If God could rescue me, He can rescue you, deliver you and fill you with Life that will never end, will never grow smaller, cannot be stolen from you and will only get bigger, fuller, more and more whole and peaceful, regardless of the chaos that may be swirling around you.

Therefore, as Jesus Christ told us, "Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to God." When God's goodness shines through fallible, frail and bone-headed people like us, others are able to recognize that the power to transform a human life comes from God and not from us. A saved and redeemed human being is not better than one who is still enslaved by sin and without God. They are just redeemed by the Only One who can save. It is not because of human goodness that a person is born anew by the power of God. It is only because He is gracious and does not want us to remain lost and spiritually dead. It's all because of what Jesus has already done, finished and completed for all who will believe Him.

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