2 Kings 2: 9 NIV
When they had crossed, Elijah said
to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your
spirit,” Elisha replied.
Do You Have The Salvation of Jesus?
I
have several times been stunned by what people of various ages and backgrounds
don’t know. What seems to me to be
common knowledge is not always. Perhaps
you too have been surprised by someone’s lack of familiarity with what you
thought everyone understood. Maybe you
spoke with someone who did not know why Christmas is celebrated or where the
oil should be put in a car or what a trapezoid is or how many days there are in
June. None of us know everything and you
don’t either but sometimes we can be caught by surprise when an intelligent and
normal person has never considered what something was that you thought everyone
understood.
Salvation
is one of the most common terms used in Christian conversations and yet it is
not really understood by many of us. How
does salvation look? What is salvation
for you now? Can salvation be recognized
when you see it? Would someone who spent
time with you be able to tell that you have salvation? What characterizes salvation?
A
good place to begin this discussion is by considering someone that Jesus
Himself said had salvation. Zacchaeus
may be the most famous tax collector of all time. He of course climbed a tree to be able to see
Jesus over the crowd surrounding the Lord as He passed through Zacchaeus’s
town. Spotting the diminutive Zacchaeus,
the Lord warmly called for Zacchaeus to come down from the tree and take him
home for lunch. Some would call Jesus
audacious for making such a demand but Zacchaeus was thrilled. Instantly Zacchaeus announced to Jesus and
the crowd standing about that he was giving half his possessions to the poor
and to all who claimed Zacchaeus cheated them by charging too much for taxes he
promised to pay them back four times the amount he had taken. Our familiarity with this account drains off
much of the electricity it generated when first witnessed by the original
onlookers. Immediately after Zacchaeus
made his proclamation of his new way of life, Jesus announced, “Today
salvation has come to this house because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” (Luke 19: 9 NIV)
In
Jesus’ declaration we have the assertion of God that at least in this instance,
salvation had a decided look to it. We can see two distinct manifestations of
salvation in Zacchaeus. He threw himself
upon God to bring him happiness and contentment. He did not need all the wealth he had
accumulated nor the perks it brought him.
Zacchaeus was happy just having Jesus in his life. We have in scripture numerous examples of “anti-salvation”
too. Consider the reaction of the elder
brother in Jesus’ parable of the Father who welcomed home his young profligate
son. The older brother became furious that
his father received his brother back with such enthusiasm and extravagance. His chief complaint was that for years he had
been loyal to his father and never was thrown a party, never given precious
gifts. The father must have been
devastated by his older son’s blatant lack of satisfaction with him. Clearly
his dad picked up on this part of the son’s complaint when he pleaded with his
son to welcome back his brother. “”My
son,” his father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is
yours.” (Luke 15: 31)
Salvation,
at least for Zacchaeus, made him happy just to be with Jesus. He stopped caring so much for whatever else
he had or didn’t have. The older
brother, on the other hand cared very much what he had or didn’t have and was
not too interested in his father at all.
The father had to point out to the older son, “you have me”, as if the
older son either did not know that or care.
Jesus did not have to point out to Zacchaeus that Zacchaeus had Him; having Jesus was all that mattered to him. Zacchaeus was well aware of his life with
Christ and was thrilled to have Jesus regardless of anything else coming or
going from his life. Does your salvation
look like that?
There
is another aspect to the salvation of Zacchaeus that must be noted. His salvation could be seen in his response
to his past. Illuminated before him in
his mind was the wrong he had done and the ways he had cheated people by
exacting unwarranted taxes from them. Zacchaeus; when he really saw Jesus and
the salvation He offered knew he was a sinner through and through and had no
mind to hide any of it from God or anyone else.
Zacchaeus started his new life with God by despising his sinning and
choosing to live a good and honest life.
Does your salvation look like that?
If
it were not for the great spiritual insight it offers, the account of Elijah
and his effort to leave behind his apprentice Elisha so he wouldn’t be present
when the Lord took him is almost comical.
When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to
heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah
said to Elisha, "Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As surely as the Lord
lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went down to
Bethel…Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me
to Jericho." And he replied,
"As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you."
So they went to Jericho… Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; the Lord has
sent me to the Jordan." And he
replied, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave
you." So the two of them walked on.
(2 Kings 2:1-6 NIV) When finally
the two arrived at the Jordan River, Elijah took his cloak, struck the water of
the Jordan with it and the Jordan River parted, allowing the two to cross on
dry ground. At that point, Elijah asked
his apprentice what he could do for him.
When they had crossed, Elijah
said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from
you?" "Let me inherit a double
portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. "You have asked a difficult thing,"
Elijah said, "yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours
— otherwise not." (2 Kings 2: 9-10 NIV)
What
an interesting request! Elisha wanted a
double portion of Elijah’s spirit…whatever that was. Essentially Elisha wanted lots of what Elijah
was inside of himself. He was asking for the nature and personality
of Elijah to be his. And he got it. As soon as Elijah was taken by God up to the
heavens in a fiery chariot, Elisha left and came to the Jordan River. Elisha did the same thing he saw his master
do before; he took off his cloak, struck the Jordan River with it and voila,
the water parted once more and Eisha was able to walk across it on dry
ground. Elisha saw many more miracles
take place, even more than we read for Elijah.
He really did receive a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit!
The
Bible tells us that like Elisha, we can have the spirit of another in us…the
Spirit of God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the
Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead
because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give
life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:
9-11 NIV) How was Elisha to know if he
was going to possess the spirit of Elijah?
If he witnessed Elijah being taken away by God, then he could know
Elijah’s spirit would be his. How do you
know if the Spirit of God is in you? If
you are not controlled by the sinful nature but rather by the Spirit, then He
lives in you! Does your salvation look
like that, like the Spirit of God lives in you and controls the way you live?
There
is one more report in Scripture that we must consider when it comes to our
salvation. At the end of Luke is
recorded a fascinating account of Jesus, after He was crucified and died,
returning to life in a new resurrection body.
He suddenly appeared as two of His friends were walking from Jerusalem
to the small town of Emmaus. The
disciples didn’t recognize him the entire time they walked but along the way
Jesus explained how the Bible in the Old Testament told about everything that
happened to Him and why. Once they got
to their home though and Jesus sat down with them to eat, the disciples made an
astonishing discovery. When he was at the table with them, he took
bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they
recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our
hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures
to us?" (Luke 24:30-32 NIV)
Jesus
did two things for the disciples. He
opened their eyes so that they could see Him…not as a stranger or just another
teacher but as God. He also opened the
Scriptures for them so that they could see Him there too. How can you tell that salvation has come to
you? First, you realize by experience
that Jesus Christ is real and He is Lord of all. This is no longer a curiosity for you or an
intellectual exercise of debate but a surety within; a decided matter. Secondly, the Scriptures become a driving
force for you and a fascination that skeptics and critics cannot shake loose
from you. You read the Bible and have a
powerful drive to read the Bible. You
see things in it you did not notice before you had salvation. The Bible becomes personal for you, the
source of strength and wisdom you need and want.
When
salvation comes to you, Jesus Christ becomes a part of you and what matters to
Him matters to you and the sort of character He has gets worked into you just
like it did in the Apostle Paul and Peter and John and James and Mary Magdalene
and Mary the mother of Jesus. It cannot
be missed, your resemblance to Jesus and how He thinks when salvation comes to
you. Salvation is not a place where you
go but a person you become. The new you
becomes free of sin and full of Christ living through you. Every time you obey God, more of Him comes
out of you and the world as a result, is a better place.
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