the proverbial path of salvation

A few days ago, we looked at the following passage in the light of a proverbial explanation of the fall of man …

Trust IN the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. Proverbs 3:5-7 (NKJV)

Regarding the path of salvation, let’s look at the above passage as broken down phrase by phrase previously … please understand that without Christ Jesus the understanding and wisdom we embrace is of the world … not of God …

Lean not on your understanding.

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. Romans 3:10-11 (ESV)

Do not be wise in your own eyes.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 (ESV)

Depart from evil.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, Colossians 1:21 (ESV)

The above verse is really our pre-Christ report card … and may we never forget from whence we came.

Now that we have looked at what to avoid … let’s look at Who we need to run to …

Trust IN the Lord with ALL your heart … remember faith, believing are synonyms of the word trust …

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:8-10 (ESV)

Now you may consider this a funny way of explaining trusting the Lord with all your heart, but I hope you’ll follow along. There is a little bitty four letter word in the above passage I think most people read over or read without understanding when accepting Jesus … and that is the word Lord. You can confess that Jesus arose … you can confess Jesus is the Savior … but until one can truly confess Jesus is their personal Lord … well, we are simply not ALL in and FULLY surrendered and submitted to Him. Jesus himself saw the problem that so often exists even today …

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Luke 6:46 (NASB)

And quite frankly I think this embrace of Jesus as Lord continues into this next point as well …

In ALL your ways acknowledge Him

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that IN EVERYTHING he might be PREEMINENT. Colossians 1:18 (ESV)

Too often when I read that Jesus is to be preeminent in everything … I tend to look at the everything outside of me and in the surrounding world. But the reality … the truth … He is to be preeminent in ALL of me and in ALL of my ways …

Fear the Lord

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. Acts 9:31 (ESV)

Can I be blatantly honest? I do not have what I would consider a divinely healthy fear of the Lord … and I don’t often see it taught from the pulpit or present in the church. I may be wrong about others … but I am certainly right about my own need.

Oftentimes I am in far greater fear of the people surrounding me and their expectations of me …

Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Colossians 3:23 (ESV)

The Lord shall direct your paths

You may not realize it … but there is a divine GPS inherent in every believer. (GPS aka God’s Positioning System)

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14 (ESV)

And that particular GPS convicts and guides us along the path to life …

The wage of the righteous leads to life, the gain of the wicked to sin. Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray. Proverbs 10:16-17 (ESV)

And virtually every path has an entry point … and on the path of life, many seek that entrance but few find it …

And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Luke 13:23-24 (NASB)

For the path of life … there is one and only one entry point … or door … and His name is Christ Jesus!

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. John 10:9 (NASB)

As John so eloquently recorded, Jesus is THE way, THE truth and THE life.

Good to know …

Bernie