“…how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him?” Hebrews 2:3
From the very beginning of creation, God has been speaking, not only of His attributes, nature, ways, and glory, but of a coming salvation. Even in creation He speaks of that which is NEW, which He alone creates and maintains. He speaks of the revelation of His glory, not only by the majestic mountains, the mighty oceans, and depthless, changing skies, but His beauty, wisdom, goodness, and power to do all that is in His heart, and according to His purpose with regard to humanity, the pinnacle of His creation. It is the affirmed testimony of God that He was totally previous in His provision and power before the fall of man, when Adam and Eve sinned, to provide a perfect solution for the sins of men, and man’s sinful nature, the effects of which would end in death, both physical and spiritual.
This salvation was first declared to Adam and Eve when the Lord said: “And I will put enmity between you (the serpent Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15) The promise of a Redeemer was thus given, and the hope for humanity was declared for that moment until the end of time. From that moment of the unfolding magnitude of God’s perfect redemption of men, their salvation from unforgiven sins, Satan’s control, and their sinful nature, would begin to be revealed. Through God’s dealings with Adam’s descendants, Abraham and the patriarchs, the prophets of the Old Testament, leading up to the time when John the Baptist came as a “voice crying in the wilderness” to announce the coming of the Messiah, God was working to reveal the greatness of His salvation, exhorting men to seek Him for it, and to embrace it by faith. However, with the coming of Christ, and the revelation of God with us, “full of grace and truth,” there is the crescendo of the rising, magnified revelation of God to declare to all men that a perfect salvation had come to all, in answer to saving faith and obedience to His call.
The crucifixion of Christ, his burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven were the critical, clarifying points of God’s revelation of this salvation which would be applicable to every man. So perfect was the revelation, and the accomplishment of the work of Christ, that only by the outpouring of the Spirit of Pentecost could it be realized in the hearts and minds of men. Every aspect of Christ’s ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection was essential for mankind to begin to understand the enormity, and the glory of God’s wondrous provision of salvation. When the Spirit of God was poured out upon all flesh after the ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father, the wondrous provision of God that was coupled with the eternal truth of the Gospel, was the provision of His power, not only to know the reality of such a salvation, but to experience it. The suffering, and victorious Christ who ascended on high would now come into the hearts of men by His outpoured Spirit, giving to them a new birth, a spiritual birth by which, not only would Christ dwell in the heart by faith, but He would reveal the glory of God in the individual heart, and in even more fully, in the living body of Christ, His church. The great, and full salvation would have its bedrock and essence in Christ Himself. The fundamental, and essential truth, of living in a right relationship with God the Father, and the Son by the Spirit, was the matter of one’s union with Christ, the believer having been placed IN Him.
When Christ’s power came by the Spirit at Pentecost, the catalyst and enablement came to every believer, to believe God for the outworking of His great salvation.
Dear Father, Fill us with Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.