The Joy of Salvation

Part 3

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8–9

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Do you remember the moment? Not the date – I am terrible with dates. But the MOMENT. When something shifted inside you, and you knew with a certainty you could not explain to anyone that everything was different. That YOU were different. For some of us, it was dramatic – tears, trembling, the feeling that the floor had opened up and love rushed in from underneath. For others, it was quieter – a slow dawning, a gentle click, like a door you had walked past a thousand times finally swinging open. However, something changed. And it was not small. That was salvation. And I will tell you what else it was. It was JOYFUL. Wildly unreasonably unexplainably joyful. So what happened to that feeling?

We Shrunk the Biggest Thing That Ever Happened to Us

Somewhere along the way, we turned the most staggering event in human experience into a transaction. Pray this prayer. Sign this card. Welcome to the family. Here is a pamphlet and a coffee mug. See you Sunday. But salvation is not a ticket to heaven. It is a BIRTH. Jesus told Nicodemus – a man who had religion absolutely nailed down, every box ticked, every rule memorised – that he needed to be born AGAIN (John 3:3). Not improved. Not upgraded. Not given a better version of what he already had. Born. As in something that was not alive is now alive. Something that did not exist before now does. When you were saved, you did not just change your mind about God. You received a completely new nature. Second Corinthians 5:17 says it as plainly as it can be said – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Not renovated. Not redecorated. NEW. The foundation was torn up and rebuilt from scratch.

And here is the part that should make you want to stand up from wherever you are reading this. The nature you received is not just any nature. It is HIS.

Let This Sink In

E.W. Kenyon put it in a way that I think should stop every Christian in their tracks – “Eternal life is the nature of God. It is what God is. When we receive eternal life, we receive the nature and substance of Deity.” Read that again. Slowly this time. Eternal life is not just about duration. It is not simply living forever. Plenty of people are terrified of living forever – and honestly, if forever just meant MORE of what we have now, who would want it? No. Eternal life is a QUALITY of life. It is God’s own life planted in you like a seed that will never stop growing. The very thing that makes God who He is – His nature, His substance, His essence – has been deposited inside of you. Not next to you. Not near you. INSIDE you. Second Peter 1:4 calls us “partakers of the divine nature.” Partakers! That is a dinner table word. You did not just get invited to the meal. You got served.

The God of the universe did not just save you FROM something. He saved you INTO Himself. HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Salvation and Joy Are the Same Event

Here is something we miss. Salvation and joy are not two separate events. They are the same event experienced from two angles. Salvation is what God does. Joy is what you feel when you realise what He has done. Think about it. You were lost, and now you are found. You were dead, and now you are alive. You were an orphan, and now you have a Father. You were carrying a weight that was crushing you, and someone just lifted it off your shoulders and said, “That was never yours to carry.” Of COURSE there is joy in that. There should be a parade.

Psalm 51:12 is David’s prayer after the worst season of his life – “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” Look at what he asks for. He does not ask for salvation back – he never lost it. He asks for the JOY of it. The wonder. The aliveness. The sense that God is near and good and not finished with him. He had buried it under guilt and shame and self-deception, and he wanted it back. David knew something we need to learn – salvation without joy is like a feast you forgot to eat. Everything is on the table. The food is incredible. But you are sitting there staring at the wall, wondering why you are still hungry.

Why the Wonder Fades

It happens gradually. Like a photograph left in the sun. The colours fade so slowly that you do not notice until someone shows you the original, and you think, “Wait – THAT is what it looked like?” We stop marvelling at grace because we hear about it every week. We stop being astonished by forgiveness because we have needed it so many times. We treat the cross as a historical event – something that happened back then – rather than as a present reality happening in us RIGHT NOW. And the enemy loves this. He does not need you to renounce your faith. He does not need you to become an atheist. He just needs you to get BORED with it. A bored Christian is an ineffective Christian. A Christian who has lost the wonder of salvation is a Christian running on fumes – still showing up but not sure why.

But here is the good news. And it really IS good news. The wonder can be restored. David asked for it, and God gave it. You can ask too. In fact, I think you should ask right now. What are you waiting for?

Taste It Again

If the joy of your salvation has faded, it is not because God moved. He has not gone anywhere. The well is still full. You just stopped drawing from it. Isaiah 12:3 says, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” That image is beautiful and practical. A well is not a puddle. It does not evaporate in the heat. Salvation is a deep underground, constantly replenished source – and joy is what happens every time you drop the bucket. So drop the bucket. Think back to what you were before Christ. Not to wallow in it but to REMEMBER. The emptiness. The striving. The loneliness of trying to be your own god. And then think about what happened. Someone spoke. Something stirred. Light came in. You were found by a love you did not earn, could not deserve, and will never lose.

First Peter 1:8–9 says it like this – “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Inexpressible. Filled with glory. That is not the language of someone going through the motions. That is the language of someone who tasted something so good that words cannot hold it. You tasted it once. You can taste it again. The flavour has not changed. Your taste buds just got dulled by lesser things. Come back to the table. The feast is still warm. And there is a seat with your name on it.

A Prayer

Father, I confess I have let the wonder fade. I have treated the most extraordinary thing that ever happened to me as ordinary, and I am sorry. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation – not a new salvation but a fresh encounter with the one I already have. Open my eyes to see what You did, who You made me, and what now lives inside me. I am not just forgiven. I am not just pardoned. I carry Your nature. YOUR nature. Let that truth hit me so hard today that I cannot stop smiling. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

— — —

“Eternal life is the nature of God. It is what God is. When we receive eternal life, we receive the nature and substance of Deity.”

– E.W. Kenyon

“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

– Irenaeus of Lyon

 Always i-CH