It is good that as a church we understand that salvation comes from the Lord, since this will determine our entire Christian life, and this understanding that salvation comes from God makes us understand that we have no hope in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ. Matt Chandler said: “When God saves you, He does not do it because you gave Him permission. He did it because He is God”. Do you think that salvation depends on ourselves? Not at all, God has decided to save us and if we had not, we would never have chosen salvation.
This truth has been proclaimed for centuries by faithful men of God who understood that the human heart, left to itself, would never seek the Lord. The apostle Paul teaches that we were dead in our sins, and a dead man cannot revive himself. In the same way, salvation is not a human project, nor is it a cooperation where God does a part and man completes the rest. Salvation is entirely the work of God, from beginning to end. This understanding should fill us with humility and gratitude, because everything we have received has come from His grace and not from our supposed merits.
The Scriptures teach us some verses in the book of Jonah, where he makes a powerful prayer to God and stresses that salvation comes from God alone:
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols
turn away from God’s love for them.9 But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”Jonah 2:8-9
In the moment that Jonah pronounces these words, he was practically between life and death, since he was inside a big fish, however, in that dark and despairing moment, that man began to cry out to God from the deepest of his soul and at the end of his penultimate verse he says: “Salvation comes from to the Lord”.
This declaration was not a simple expression of faith but a confession born from absolute helplessness. Jonah had no alternatives, no escape routes, no strength of his own. He was in a situation where only a divine intervention could rescue him. His prayer reflects the recognition that when man reaches the end of his own resources, God’s power begins to manifest with greater clarity. Jonah understood that idols—whether physical or those hidden in the heart—cannot save, cannot respond, and cannot give life. Salvation is, and will always be, the exclusive work of the Almighty.
At that time there was no point in Jonah’s plan to save himself from this problem, since he was in the middle of the sea in a big fish, there was nothing to think about, but he knew that in God there was salvation for what seemed impossible, and notice that Jonah pronounced these words before being vomited by the big fish. Can we believe that our salvation depends only on God? Let us remember that the greatest miracle has been done by Christ on the cross and through this he has given us salvation, and this did not need any human part, but when we were dead in our crimes and sins He gave us life together with Him.
Christ did not wait for us to improve or seek Him first. He came to rescue the lost, to give sight to the blind and life to the spiritually dead. The cross demonstrates that salvation is entirely the work of God’s grace. No human effort could add to the sacrifice of Christ, nor could human will initiate a process that only God can begin. This truth should strengthen our faith, because if our salvation depended on us, we would lose it every day. But since it is God who sustains us, we can rest in His eternal mercy.
Therefore, let us hold firmly to this doctrine that brings peace to the soul: Salvation comes from the Lord. Knowing this allows us to worship with humility, walk with gratitude, and live with confidence that the God who began the good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.
3 comments on “Salvation comes from the Lord”
Salvation comes from the Lord
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From the point of view of people, it is oneself who decides whether to do something or not to do it. Our will determines our actions according to our possibilities. In adverse situations, people think that some other person, like a famous surgeon, or a group of people like the police, the fire brigade or others, have saved them from dying. But salvation comes from the Lord.
We—that believe in a sovereign Lord, God of heaven and earth, who has ordained the beginning and the end of everything created by Him—know that luck does not exist, nor chance or fate independently of God.
Job recognized that it is the Lord who orders and performs; his Will is accomplished.
“For he performes the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.”
(Job 23:14)
And in the Bible too, we read that it is God who does and undoes events, and He saves and helps all people that cry out to him.
Jonah resisted the Lord, and the Lord determined that a big fish would swallow him up; then he cried out to the Lord and he was vomited by the big fish also.
“But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” Jonah 2:9
The Lord God determined he would bless this world, and he sent a saviour to teach people a way of salvation: the gospel of Jesus, the saviour of all those who believe in Him and come to a change of life in order to please God.
May the Lord God be blessed by all of us that have received this salvation that has come from Him
AMEN. AMEN.
Amen.