Salvation Is Of The Lord

Jonah 2:6+9 says, “You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You… Salvation is of the Lord. 

There is much in that whole chapter of Jonah that relates to God, and to Jesus, and to Israel, and to us. But I would direct our focus this morning to, “Salvation is of the Lord.”  How does God save sinners? By taking the penalty for sin (death) which was due man, onto a body of His own to enter death, undeserving, under His own power wherein death had NO power over Him so He could destroy it, and sin, and satan. That is my nutshell version. There is SO much more there on that theme that you could write a book on it. In fact… He did. You’re holding it.

Scofield says… “The Heb. and the Greek word for “salvation” imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Salvation is the great inclusive word of the Gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: such as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification. The divine order is: first salvation, then works.” (end quote) We all know this but there is danger in complacency. We need to remember the mercy and grace of God with thanksgiving always.

The word “Lord” has many references in both the Old and New Testaments.

Let us consider the “cast of characters” if you will, referenced here. We have Jonah, The Lord is mentioned, and God is mentioned, and "You" is mentioned. We also see Jonah who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale (symbolic of hell, grave) in the preceding chapter, referenced by Jesus about Himself...

Matt. 12:40, For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Elohim, which is plural, is translated God, as in Genesis 1:1; Lord is Jehovah Who steps out of the Godhead as God the Son to reveal Himself, as He had throughout much of the Old Testament in His dealings with the Jews. The reference to "You" is also Jehovah. And in the New Testament, Jehovah appeared as Immanuel (God with us in the flesh, i.e., Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, Lamb of God). Jehovah means God is salvation, and Jesus (or Yeshua) means Jehovah is salvation.

So... Salvation is of the Lord God Almighty Who is Jehovah in the flesh as Christ in Jesus, Lamb of God. God makes the soul alive in Christ, and it is He also who sustains the soul in its spiritual life. Not sure of the pronoun “He”? Read Ephesians chapter 1. Paul is reiterating what GOD has done for us in Christ. And Eph. 2:1 says, He made you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. That life is spiritual; it is heavenly but can and must be lived and manifested here on Earth so that men might see our good works and glorify God Who is in heaven. MEN... not other believers exclusively.

Rom. 1:16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The gospel of Christ is the POWER of GOD unto salvation. All of us who partake of the Lord’s table have experienced it. We remember our former lives, as we were reminded, out of 1 Cor. 1:27-28… But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen.

I know I was foolish; and I was weak; and I could not have been more “base.” These are descriptors of morality… and I had none, because I was dead spiritually. But you all see me here today… because of the Lamb of God, the Christ, J E S U S !! Thank You Lord!

God creates a new man in us which is Christ who cannot sin, 1 John 3:4-9. We were dead, as was Adam after he disobeyed God’s one commandment, and likewise Abraham prior to God’s calling. Dead... both, spiritually (i.e., separated from any kind of relationship with the Almighty God)… AND, man entered the process of corruption and decay. In that state, we would eventually be eternally separated from God... D E A D !

By “quickening” us, God has restored and revived us to life (eternal spiritual life) ...in the heavenlies in which we, as born again adopted children, have a relationship with Him as Father. The Holy Spirit is the life of our regeneration in Christ. He sustains us, the new man, created in the image of the last Adam, Jesus, the Son of God, until we are united with new glorified bodies Phil. 3:21. In the meantime, it is He that sustains and nurtures the believer in the flesh as we yield to His guidance and walk in His leading. How?

I do nothing whatsoever, outside of faith and obedience, towards my own spiritual subsistence and maintenance, except what God Himself by His Spirit first does in me, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure, Phil. 2:13.

He upholds and maintains us by the power of His Word.
His Word is the spiritual food which sustains us. We begin as babes in the milk of His Word.

1 Peter 2:2, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.

Not wanting to remain mere babes, we grow with solid food.

Heb. 5:14 says, But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, those who through constant practice exercise their spiritual senses to distinguish good from evil.

We mature into the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ... by the meat. Eph. 4:13

What Jonah learned in the great deep, I learn in my “closet” -- "Salvation is of the Lord." the One who created the world would also be the One who redeems it.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
It is God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) Who created the world. It is God Who redeems it. Jesus (His body and blood) was the price for redemption.

1 Cor. 6:20 says, you were bought with a price; purchased with the precious blood of Jesus; so then, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.