Psalm 106:10-13
So He saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed His words; they sang His praise. 13 But they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel.
Commenting on these verses and this episode of Israel's history, Doug Wilson said,
"They wanted His redemption from consequences, His preventative salvation not so much."
Often, when we use the word "salvation," we are referring almost exclusively to being saved from the consequences of our sins... namely death a la Romans 6:23. We are plagued by the lingering penalty of sin awaiting us in the future for our past sins. So when we discover that in the past, Jesus died to save us from the future penalty of our past sins, we are overjoyed. But then we wake up tomorrow in the power and grip of sin. We either wonder if the salvation we sought yesterday actually "took" or we wander into sin feeling immune to future disease because of yesterday's inoculation injected by the grace of God through faith in confessing Jesus' Name.
Much of this is a result of thinking of salvation too narrowly. We fail to see our need of salvation today and tomorrow. We understand, at best, our need for past mistakes, but we fail to see our need for salvation today or tomorrow as being in any way a similar species as that which we call salvation.
But God has saved us, is saving us and will save us. Salvation is not just something God did on a particular hill on a particular day in history. The foundation of salvation was certainly finished that day, but His business with us is not finished. He desires to save us today from the power of sin and tomorrow from the presence of sin altogether. God, by the power of Holy Spirit, wants to save us from future sin and destruction by sanctifying us today. He is preparing to conquer future sin by conquering us presently.
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