My end-of-year review hunkered down pretty deep over the last few days as I pondered that nettlesome but critically-important question “what have you done with your salvation, Mark?”
I ask this question a lot throughout the year, but camp out on it in December with an extra level of scrutiny. It’s a self-challenging process that starts at the very beginning with recognition that I have come to faith in Christ and secured eternity in heaven.
But it moves quickly to the relevant query that forces me to consider whether or not I have lived a life that imitates Christ. A life that used the Holy Spirit’s gifts to advance God’s Kingdom. A life that loved and served others.
It’s not enough to say we are Christians only in word but not in deed. The power to find peace and purpose on this side of the Heavenly divide lies in our belief in Christ, our repentance from sin, our love for one another, and our living a sanctified life that comports with Christ’s example.
Real success in this context comes from seeing God complete in us what he created us to do. It is impossible to miss that “completion” when we see it unfold in the real world. Real success does not come from doing something we choose to do because we are good at it. Real success comes from glorifying and exhibiting Christ in our lives.
What have you done with your salvation in 2018?
I never want to tire of asking and answering this question of what I have done with my salvation. I always want to have an answer that is pleasing to God and not aimed at my own prideful idea of what that answer ought to be.
When it is all said and done, in the end it will be our faith–not our gold–that God will have on display as our victory.
That is where we will find our true legacy in Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.” Galatians 2:20
