I used to be really confused with the whole business of salvation! I mean in one verse you have
Romans 10: 9: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Another verse says in
Philippians 2: 12-13: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
So how does this really work? One verse says that if you just confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, that he arose from the dead, then you will be saved! Another verse says that we need to fearfully work out our own salvation. So which is it? Why are there two contradicting statements here about our salvation?
The truth really lies in Romans 10: 9, you see, if you truly ‘believe in your heart’ then you would be automatically fearful about how you handle your salvation. Salvation is not a free pass to do anything we like and be forgiven, salvation is our chance to have a personal relationship with God, to be filled and guided by his Holy Spirit, and because of which, we live in love, awe and fear of offending him. So unless you are afraid of offending or hurting God with your actions, words or thoughts, unless you are constantly and consistently mindful of the price Jesus paid because of your earlier sinful ways, you really have not been saved.
Romans 8: 13-15: For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,"Abba! Father!
Wow! So even if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord but continue to live according to the desires of your flesh, you are taking a u-turn from your salvation and heading back. And this means that our salvation does not come without our true transformation or true change of heart. When we listen to the Holy Spirit and walk according to the word of the Lord, then we know that we are truly believing in Jesus as our Lord, but if we continue to lie, gossip, be jealous, selfish, greedy, immoral, assuming that at the end of the day we can confess our sins and God’s just sitting there to forgive, we will be sadly mistaken! Salvation is a state that we are working towards in our daily walk, not an automatic pass for sinning. If we fail on occasion in our walk, we are of course forgiven, but that does not apply to willfully living in sin and claiming to be believers.
Let us pray to the Lord to forgive our shortcomings, our ignorance of the truth and our sinful nature, and ask him to grant us the grace to overcome our flesh by the power of his Holy Spirit.
A sweet recipe for today, Vermicelli Kheer (Semiya Payasam).
Ingredients:
BrokenVermicelli - 1 ½ cups
Thin Coconut milk – 1 litre
Thick Coconut milk – ½ litre
Condensed milk – 1 can
Sago (Chowiri) – ¼ cup
Cashew nuts – ¼ cup
Raisins – 2 Tablespoons
Powdered Cardamom – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – as and if required
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Ghee – 6 Tablespoons
Water – ½ cup
Instructions:
1.Boil ½ cup water and pour into the cup of Sago, stir well and keep it aside.
2.In a non-stick cooking dish, heat 4 tablespoons of ghee, add the broken vermicelli and stir fry in the ghee till golden brown.
3.Turn down the flame and add the thin coconut milk, turn the flame to medium and stir intermittently for 10 minutes, then pour in condensed milk.
4.Allow the milk to simmer and boil while stirring every few minutes to be sure that the milk does not stick to the bottom of the dish.
5.Now add the soaked sago along with the water and allow it to continue boiling for 10-15 minutes, all the while stirring in between. Add salt.
6.Once the consistency of the milk appears thick, turn down the flame to minimum and add the thick coconut milk, stir well and bring to boil. Then turn off flame.
7.Check for sweetness and add more sugar if you need. Then add the powdered cardamom.
8.In a kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of ghee, fry the cashews and raisins, then pour it into the kheer along with the ghee. Stir well and serve hot.
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