The Offer of Salvation Never Expires!

"Since no man is excluded from calling upon God the gate of salvation is open to all. There is nothing else to hinder us from entering, but our own unbelief."  - John Calvin

The other day, I decided it was time to go through my refrigerator and purge whatever had long since passed its date of freshness; otherwise known as the "expiration date." I started with the obvious. I went straight to the vegetables and produce.

After some agonizing moments of tossing the wilted, shredded, decaying, and that of "unknown origin," I wiped, scrubbed, and cleaned the bins. Now, it was time to tackle the jars and containers. Of course, there was that solitary, jar with two olives, that was shoved way in the back behind the small can of mandarin orange slices, which expired in 2012!

Some more tossing, scrubbing, wiping up, and the job was done! Other than a few odds and ends, it really wasn't too bad.  Subsequently, as I was staring at my full trash bag, "expiration dates" kept bouncing around in my head.

I started to think how this might apply to Jesus Christ and our salvation. I know that his offer of salvation is a gift and is absolutely free. That's right, free! Additionally, salvation is the true gift of God in Christ, received by our faith in Him (John 1:12; 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9).

This is wonderful because we could never do enough good things to earn salvation on our own. That is, there are no "good works" that will save us. There are some who might argue this with you. Even the apostles Paul and James had slightly different perspectives on this subject.

Paul said: "salvation is by faith alone" (Ephesians 2:8-9), while James added a little variation to it: "salvation is by faith plus works (James 2:17-18)." The former stressed "faith alone," while the latter emphasized "good works were produced as the result of genuine faith in Christ" (James 2:14, 17, 20, 26).

Both gentlemen agreed, however, that when we are saved by Christ, we have been made new again. And being "new" in Christ, we want to do, or produce good works because of our acceptance of him into our lives (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

An important point to mention here is that salvation is eternal. As a matter of fact, there are several scriptures that bring this to our attention: John 10:27-29; Romans 8:35, 38-39; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:4-5. God is eternal and unchangeable. The God of today is the same as yesterday, and will be tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8).

So, does the offer of salvation ever expire, or have an "expiration date?" Not, per se, but it's a good idea to accept it while you are still alive to do so! Don't let another day go by. Admit you are a sinner, that you need a Savior, believe that Jesus died for you, and accept his gift of forgiveness. Do it today!

Scripture: Philippians 3:4-11; Isaiah 57:12; Luke 3:8; Revelation 22:17; Romans 10:9-10

Prayer: Dear Jesus, my salvation is Your gift to me; it is not by anything that I have done; I have been saved because of my faith in You. Amen

May God bless you always!

Kasey