Forgiveness vs. Salvation

2 Cor.5:¹⁷ “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

A lot of people underestimate the power of peer pressure and some use it to their advantage. It would interest you to know that there is peer pressure at every stage of life, not just at the teenage stage.

 There are people that are taking their children to Bible class in church just because everyone in their office is doing it. It has nothing to do with loving God or training children in the way of God. It is just peer pressure.

Fear is the second thing that leads to behaviour change in people. I know men that stopped smoking because of the fear of losing a girlfriend. The girl says she does not want him smoking and she wants him to go to church with her. Men are very calculating. He reasons that if he does not follow her to church and quit smoking, he will lose her. So, the chain smoker actually stopped smoking because of fear. Then one day, by this time they were married and he lights up his cigarette. “I thought you stopped?’ ‘I stopped because I did not want to lose you. Now that you are mine I need to continue from where I stopped!”

We also have to be careful and guard our hearts. The fact that you are changing because you are afraid that your spouse might leave you, or that you could lose your children, or that your health may fail, or you are afraid of being caught and sent to jail, does not mean you are a changed person. It is only God that can bring about lasting change in the heart of man and heal the disease. God want us to be right and not just do what is right. Many people understand Christianity from the dimension of forgiveness and that is okay. But salvation brings so much more than forgiveness. Forgiveness deals with the consequences of our actions but not with the source.

When we ask for forgiveness, God forgives us and He deals with the consequences of our actions. Forgiveness does not deal with the source. Salvation does not only offer forgiveness, it deals with the source. 2 Cor.5:¹⁷ “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” [with emphasis].

Prayer: Father, I declare that I belong to Christ, I have become a new person. There is no trace of the old life and I will never go back to it, in Jesus Name. Amen!