Salvation Changes Everything
Onesimus the slave was saved as he turned to Jesus, and Paul wrote this about him in his letter to Philemon: “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel.” (Philemon 1:11–13 NIV)
Paul meant that in the mission of Christ, Onesimus initially was of no use, because he was lost and unsaved. But now that he had come to Christ, he had new purpose! Paul was saying to Philemon you will hardly recognize this man. He’s not who he used to be. He’s been made new. In fact, I wish I could keep him here, because he has been transformed by God’s grace!
And I wonder to myself if Onesimus, with a heart full of God, longed to go back and make things right with Philemon. If his newfound passion for God led him to think “I can’t leave things like this. I have to go back, and in Christ’s name, ask for forgiveness and make things right.”
Sometimes God calls us to go to new places. Sometimes he calls us to go back to where we came from. But every time, when God saves us He changes us, so that we can do the work of God wherever he sends.
Marvel at Salvation
You see, salvation does not just mean a ticket to heaven. Some people think that that is what it’s all about. It’s like getting a ticket to a show, and so now that you have your ticket, you sit around until the date on your ticket arrives, and then you show the ticket at the door and go in.
But there’s far more to it than that! Jesus came to save his people from their sins, and that means salvation from the 3 P’s:
- He saves us from the punishment of sin. Instead of us wallowing in guilt and shame, and awaiting God’s wrath because of our sins, Jesus took our punishment and we go free.
- But note, he also saves us from the power of sin. Without a work of God in our hearts, without His saving grace, we are slaves to our sinful natures. But with the power of the Spirit in us, we are able to resist the temptations that comes our way and live holy lives in God’s service.
- And lastly, when we die we will be freed from the presence of sin. Obviously now we live in an evil world, but we look forward to the day when Jesus takes us home to a joyful place where sin, darkness and brokenness are all absent.
Lives are changed when God’s offer of salvation is accepted. And maybe you’re sitting here thinking I’ve heard all this, I was saved many years ago. Well, do you need to remember what the salvation you received meant? Do you still MARVEL at God’s saving work in your life? Does it AMAZE you when you think of what He has done for you?
Return Home Transformed
Can you sit through a message like this and have your heart soar in gratefulness, when you think of how God has done this for you? Or do you need to recommit to God, so that these things become effective in your life again?
Onesimus made his way back to Philemon changed as Paul said “no longer a slave, but a brother” and there is a spiritual metaphor at work here too: He left Philemon’s home a slave to sin, but he returned a son of God and a brother of all those who had been saved.
Are you going to return home today as a slave of sin? Or as a child of God, saved from sin through the glorious grace of Jesus?
