Click the video below to follow along as we explore how we were made for more than Salvation, and how to live in the fullness of what Jesus died for.
More Than Salvation?
So this morning we’re going to kick off the series with a message: We are made for more than salvation. Before you write me off as a heretic, let me explain. We are made for more than salvation. We are made for more than accepting Jesus and then hunkering down until we get to heaven someday. We’re made for more than compartmentalizing our faith.
Here’s my spiritual life over here, I go to church, maybe serve occasionally. Separately, here’s the rest of my life. Jesus died for so much more than that. Salvation is the beginning, it is not the end. It’s the start of the journey, it’s not the end of the journey. So we’re going to talk about that this morning.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” We know, for the most part, what we were saved from. The problem is many of us have a narrow view of what we’re saved for. And that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning.
So I want to pray for us before we move on. So Father God, I thank You that You are good. I thank You that You are here in our midst, that you’re present, that you’re moving, that you’re speaking, that You’re inviting us, Your kids, Your sons, and Your daughters to come close.
Holy Spirit, I pray that you would remove distractions in this place, in our hearts and our minds, the weight of the week, and of the day. In Jesus name, we take authority over any agendas, assignments, spirits, things that would be contending with, or wanting to thwart or hinder Your voice, Your purposes, or Your plan this morning, Holy Spirit come and move in this place. Have your way in us. We ask in Jesus name, amen.
Well, if you have your Bibles, you can open up to 2 Corinthians 5:18. It says, “Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” God has reconciled us to Himself. What does that mean? Well, we just talked about John 3:16, it’s salvation. It’s Him paying the price.
The gospel is that Jesus came and willingly laid his life down for us. That while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. So the day Jesus died, He was betrayed, He was arrested, accused, mocked, beaten spit on, He was whipped. He was convicted, He was sentenced, and He was crucified. It was a brutal day. It was a heavy day, but it wasn’t the end.
In that moment, right before Jesus took his last breath, the Bible says that darkness covered the earth. It got dark in the middle of the day, but it got dark as if it were nighttime, and there was an earthquake. In Mark 15: 37 – 39 it says, “Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last, and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom.”
More of God’s Presence
So this was a crazy miracle. If the priests were in the temple at the time they probably went running because that veil was the separation between God’s presence and God’s people. The holy of Holies in the temple was where the presence of God resided. That’s where the high priest would come into the Holy of Holies only once a year after ceremonial cleansing and sacrifices being made and bringing the blood of the sacrifice to cover the people.
It was a very heavy yoked process to have any access to God’s presence. Now I’m not going to go super deep. There’s a lot of theology and a lot that goes into the temple, but Jeanne Swanberg taught an amazing message on May 1st, and I would really encourage you to go back and watch it. It was a powerful message if you missed it. And if you did see it, go back and see it again, because there’s a lot, there’s a lot of implications here.
But for our purposes, we’re going to talk about that veil, that separation, Jesus’ death just tore that separation, it abolished that separation. Hebrews 10: 19 – 23 explains it beautifully. It says, “So dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s most holy place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life giving way through the curtain, into the most holy place.
And since we have a great high priest (Jesus) who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting Him for our guilty consciousness have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm for God can be trusted to keep His promises.”
So Jesus in His death abolished that separation. It’s crazy, because that temple system that was in place for so long, He completely took care of. And Paul in first Corinthians 6:19 says, “Don’t, you know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.” So that’s a pretty radical difference.
We’ve gone from God’s presence being a fearful place in a lot of ways, to now He’s saying that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So proximity has radically changed, right? His death allows us not just to come into His presence occasionally, but to live in His presence continually. What does that mean? What does it mean to not just come into His presence occasionally, but to live in His presence continually?
When I say we’re made for more than salvation, if I’m living in a salvation only gospel, if I’ve compartmentalized my faith, and I’ve almost constructed a new temple system: that I’m going to come to church and I’m going to come into his presence on Sunday, and then I’m going to go back to my life.
I’m going to come to my Bible study, maybe on Tuesday, then I’m going to go back to my life. I’m going to serve, so I feel good. Great, and I’m going to go back to my life. Jesus died for so much more than that. We’ve been reconciled through Jesus. He washed our sin away. That allows us to come into that continual living in His presence, where we find love, freedom healing, hope, forgiveness of sin, all those things, but that’s not all, there’s actually more.
Co-laboring with God
He brought us into His presence into that freedom for something. What is He reconciling us to? There’s more. So I’m going to take you back to Genesis and we’re not going to open, I’m just going to give you an overview. So Genesis chapter one, God creates the heavens and the earth. Chapter one is this beautiful narration of the creation story.
There was nothing, and then God made the heavens and the earth. He made the sun and the moon and the stars, the oceans, the mountains, the land, the animals. He created and then He rested. So there’s this beautiful narration of creation. Then in chapter two, He kind of goes back. The narrative circles back around and gives us a little more detail, a little more insight.
In chapter two, He says, this is the account of the creation of man. There’s an interesting verse in chapter two, verse five, saying, before God created man, there were no bushes or trees because there was no one to tend them. This is kind of strange. God is the creator of the heavens and earth, He doesn’t need man to tend what He creates.
In Colossians we read, “In Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. He’s before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” right? So the notion that God would need man to tend something He created is kind of crazy and funny. So what we see there is that before He even knitted Adam together, before He breathed life into him, and formed him, He had a plan, He had an invitation.
He was bringing man into this partnership. And so He creates man, Adam, then He plants the garden. So then He plants the trees. Then He plants the bushes and then He brings Adam to the garden. Then He brings the animals to Adam. And He doesn’t just say, “Here are the animals, and this is who they are.” He is like, “You name them. What do you want to name?”
That one kind of reminds me of when your kids are little and you bring home a puppy and you ask your kids what you want to name them. And then you kind of regret asking them because you have a pet with these weird names like zipper, Peter, Bob. Well I could go a rabbit trail there.
But there’s this really sweet picture of this invitation, this partnership “Let’s do this together.” And then He creates Eve. He wants Adam to be in partnership, which is a reflection of the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Spirit in partnership together. Then Adam and Eve now joined that. So pre-fall, in the garden, we have this beautiful picture of intimate relationship, dependence, partnership, and co-laboring. It’s this beautiful picture.
It’s unhindered, it’s not weird, it’s not fraught with sin. It’s this beautiful image of relationship, dependence, partnership, co-laboring and kingdom. There’s no separation between my relationship with God and my life. Adam and Eve didn’t know any difference, they woke up in the morning and they were with God, they were tending the garden with Him. They were walking in the cool of the day, having a conversation with Him.
It was full integration. No boxes, no spiritual life over here, regular life over here, it was all together. And then the fall happens. The serpent comes, talks to Eve, he tempts Eve and Adam to doubt God’s motives, to doubt His character, to doubt their identity. They buy into it. They eat the fruit and they fall.
And in that moment, sin for the first time comes into this beautiful kingdom world. Man is separated, and they hide. They’re full of shame. The most heartbreaking verse in the Bible in my opinion is Genesis 3:9, where God says, “Where are you?” And it was a rhetorical question. He knew where they were.
Like when your kids hide when they are in trouble. Or my dog, when she’s done something wrong, she hides, and I know exactly where she’s hiding, right? And at that moment, God set into motion this plan of redemption, this active, intentional, relentless unhindered pursuit entirely motivated by love.
The Redemption Plan
For God so loved us that He set this plan into motion. And what was the plan? That plan was to reconcile us into an intimate relationship, dependence, partnership, co-Laboring, kingdom. He’s a Redeemer. This is what He does. We talked about redemption last week.He doesn’t let anything stand in His way, it’s relentless and unhindered. Look at the Old Testament.
There are so many opportunities, so many things that humans do, the fallen state of the world, the enemy that tries to thwart and stop God’s plan. But He is a Redeemer and He is going to accomplish His purposes. His redemption plan was Jesus. So we know Philippians 2:7 is that Jesus willingly gave away His divine privileges to step into this world as a human, to give his life as ransom for many.
He lived a sinless life. He was God in human form. Hebrews 12:2, “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” This is the joy. This is the joy that was set before Him, us with Him always; continually, in everything dependent, partnered in His presence. We sing that song “Reckless Love” that we sang this morning. There are people who struggle with that. “God isn’t reckless. Why would we sing that?” It’s seemingly reckless.
I don’t know about you, but if I was in the Trinity, in the garden, and I created all of this and I brought Adam and Eve into it and they did what they did, I’d be like, “You know what? Let’s cut our losses. I mean, we’re good. This didn’t work.” But God went to these great lengths to pursue, to redeem, to reconcile, to bring us back. He is reckless, seemingly reckless.
Then Jesus didn’t just pay the price, which would’ve been significant. His life was a demonstration of what that reconciled life could look like. He laid down his divine privileges. He stepped into this human form and He lived in intimate relationship, in dependence, and partnership. And co-laboring with Father and Holy Spirit in the day to day, bringing the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus said, “I only do what I see my Father doing” when He was 10 years old and He was in the temple and He was teaching and speaking and His parents got upset. They couldn’t find Him, and then they finally find Him. And what did He say? Well, of course I would be about my Father’s business. This is what I’m here for. I’m here with Him.
Then I’m going to show you what you were made for. This is what you were designed for. He goes even farther, and He prays for us. Do you know that Jesus is praying for you? Do you know that he’s interceding for you? Even now, He is our great high priest, Jesus is praying for you. In John 17, He prays this prayer for His disciples that are there.
Then He says, and I’m praying for those that will believe in me. So that is you and me, everyone who calls themselves a Christian who believes in His name; He’s praying for us, the Church. And He says in verse 21, He says, “Father, as you are in me, I’m in you. And would they be in us so that the world would believe you sent me.” Verse 22. “I’ve given them the glory you gave me.”
Do you know that Jesus is giving you His glory? Like How crazy is that? Verse 23, “I’m in them. And you are in me.” Jesus is in us and the Father is in Him. “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” That we would experience this unity with Him, with the Father, with the son, with the Spirit and with one another so that the world would know Him.
The Ministry Of Reconciliation
The second half of that 2 Corinthians verse is He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation. So God has reconciled us back to Himself, and then He is given that ministry to us. So we talked last week about how it’s never just about us. We’d like to think it is, but it’s not. He’s reconciled us into this original design to be fully integrated into God’s presence.
Now He’s asking us to join Him in reconciling the world to Himself, and reconciling them back to that garden, to that kingdom, to that place of dependence, that active, intentional, relentless, unhindered pursuit. He’s asking us to join Him. His life serves as a demonstration of that. So we see Him living in this constant dependence and love and partnership and relationship to bring the kingdom.
How does that play out in Jesus life? It plays out in the sermon on the mount. It plays out in the feeding of the 5,000. It plays out in miracles and healings and his great compassion. It also serves out in conversations. It plays itself out in Him, eating meals with people, and Him having conversations with people. It plays out in Him attending weddings and just seeing people and loving them.
I feel like we have a very sterilized view of Jesus. Sometimes we have that kind of 1970s portrait with a weird like porcelain, oddly pale skin with very strange look on his face and very clean robes and children and lambs all around Him. Right. You know? Jody shared a clip from “The Chosen” a few months back, and I love that series because it depicts Him as a person.
He came into the messy, ugly, inconsistent, strange world that we have. He laid down his divine privileges and He walked out this constant WITH God the Father and Holy Spirit. He demonstrated the kingdom, and reconciled people back to Himself. Then He says this crazy thing in John 14:12, where He says, “Whoever believes in me will do these things and greater.”
We go “Wait! I can’t do that!” You’re right, you can’t. But what’s the invitation? To enter into that, to bring all I am, all I have, who He made me to be, into intimate relationship, dependence partnership, and co-Laboring to bring the kingdom. You are uniquely made. Every one of you, you were knit together.
God has formed you. You have unique gifts and no one can stand where you’re standing. No one else can be where you are. What does it look like? If you take all that you are and be present with Him and move with Him in those places. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He’s with us. Jesus is in you.
Choosing To Be Present in His Presence
I think most of us kind of can say, “I don’t feel like He’s within me all the time.” How do you be present with Him? His presence never changes. His present presence never moves. Proximity is not presence. I need to choose to be in His presence. I need to choose to come into His presence.
My husband and I can be sitting on a couch and be in each other’s presence, but not present with each other. Right? If he’s on his phone, I’m on my computer, then we’re here, but we’re not with each other. What does it look like to be present with God? How do we Invite Him in? Because anywhere that you are with Him is Holy ground. That’s a place where miracles can happen.
Last week, we talked about God’s provision and presence on the journey. (Check out Defining God’s Provision) We talked about trusting Him, dwelling where He’s placed us, feeding on His faithfulness. We talked about when we discover His provision and we’re able to receive it, then in His amazing, beautiful, creative, redemptive way, He then makes provision for those around us. Going back to, it’s never just about us, right?
That reconciled work in me immediately creates this ministry of reconciliation and makes me a provision for other people. It’s not this weighty thing. It’s not a burdensome thing. It’s not a workspace thing, like, “I gotta do these things, and then I’m good with Jesus.” No, it’s about joining Him. He’s a good God, in a good mood, who has good gifts for his kids, including us.
You know, another verse that we kind of balk at sometimes is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice, always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.” What does it look like? It’s relationship, it’s being present with God, it’s waking up in the morning and saying, “Good morning, how are you doing?” Like seriously, it’s being in relationship, “Lord, what do you want to do today?”
Thank you. That I’m alive. Thank you for breath. What do you want to do today? I got a long list. I mean, I’m a little stressed. What would you have me do with that? How are you going to move? How are you going to provide?” I have a friend Justin who does jiu jitsu and I think he’s like a black belt, so He is there a lot. And he’s building relationships with those guys, and every time I talk to him, he’s telling another story of being in the parking lot with one of these guys- weeping as he’s praying for them.
His wife Summer has a daycare in their house, and she is just this beautiful presence for these kids. I’ve sat in her living room and watched her care for these babies, and it’s breathtaking. It’s holy ground. She’s not having a Bible study. Like there’s not this like Sunday school curriculum.
No, she is being who God made her to be in that place and loving these kids with such depth. And you know what? It’s going to affect their lives for the rest of their lives. It’s impacting their families. She’s just inviting Jesus into who she is. She’s stepping into the garden that He’s placed her in.
Or to use last week’s analogy, dwelling in the land. How do we meet God in those places and allow those to be Holy ground? Are you a business owner? Have you invited Him into your business? Do you pray and ask before you make a plan or a decision? Do you pray over your budget? Do you pray for your employees?
Like what would it actually look like if we took away all the boxes and blew up all those compartments that we’ve put everything in and we actually come together and return to what Jesus actually died for. So identity has a lot to do with this. And we could do a deep dive on that, but just a couple of things just to encourage you.
You’re adopted sons and daughters, you’re heirs and coheirs with Christ. You’re accepted in the beloved, and you are a kingdom of priests. That sounds very lofty, but it’s true. Whether you feel like it or not. It’s true, in Ephesians 1:3, “God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 1:20 – 21, “God has raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him high at the right hand, in the heavenly places, far above all rule authority, power, dominion, and above every name that’s named not only in this age, but also in the one to come.” That’s where Jesus is. Right?
In Ephesians 2: 5 – 6, “Being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ, by grace you’ve been saved.” He’s raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. Do we live like this? Do we believe this? Are we willing to go through the veil? Or is it just easier to play at a distance?
Going Through The Veil
Going through the veil requires something, I have to die to myself. We talked last week about delighting yourself in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart. And we went through that whole journey of what does it mean to trust Him? What does it mean to dwell?
What does it mean to feed on his faithfulness to be present with Him, to receive his presence? What does it mean to go through the veil? What does it mean to join Him in the garden, in the kingdom? What does it mean to be an actual intimate relationship, to be dependent, to be partnered to co-labor for the kingdom?
So my encouragement to all of us would be don’t settle. Don’t settle for compartmentalized faith. Don’t settle for consumeristic faith. Your relationship with God shouldn’t be dependent on this gathering or on your Bible study on Tuesday morning. It doesn’t mean those things are bad. Of course not. They’re amazing. We’re supposed to gather this is where we come together, and outpouring of our intimacy is reflected and we can bear one another’s burdens.
But if the entirety of my faith is based on this room, that’s a problem. We live in a broken world that is hurting, that is confused, that is fearful. Don’t settle for cultural Christianity. Don’t settle for religion. He died for so much more than that. So much love is coming after us. That convicts me.
Part of me is like, how dare I not go through the veil. How dare I not come into His presence? How dare I breathe a breath without being with Him? But the cool thing is He has way more grace than I have. We’re going to fall short. But the beautiful thing is we don’t have to be like Adam and Eve and hide.
We can come boldly in his presence. Why? Because Jesus paid the price. It was very costly. Not one drop of His blood was wasted. Not one drop, every drop is precious, every drop for a purpose. Every lashing, every time He was hit across the face was on purpose and was to bring us back to that joy that was set before Him, which is: us being in an intimate connected partnership with Him.
So we’re going to take communion together. There’s things that we do and they’re powerful and they’re significant, but sometimes the repetition we’d lose the weight of it. This communion represents that cost, it represents that relentless reckless unhindered pursuit. It represents radical love before we loved Him.
It represents that separation being removed and us being able to boldly come into His presence. Not in fear, not hiding, but in joy to receive fully what God originally intended for us. So I’m going to pray. And then when you’re ready, come. And come knowing that you are his workmanship. Ephesians 2:10, “For, we are God’s masterpiece. He’s created us new in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
These are the good things. So as you come to know that you’re his workmanship, know that you are so loved, know that you have unhindered access to His presence, to His love, to His partnership. You don’t know what to do in a situation, He wants to do it with you.
Are you tired raising your kids? He wants to do it with you. You don’t know how to champion your employees? He wants to do it with you. So come boldly into the throne room and fully integrate your faith into every aspect of your life. So you can be a minister of reconciliation to a broken world.
Let’s pray. Well, Father, God, we come before you. And I thank you that you are so good Lord. You are so good. Your love is so far beyond what I could possibly understand or imagine. And in Jesus name, Father, I just pray for every son and daughter in this room. Holy Spirit come, would you speak, would you invite us? What is the more you have for each one of us?
Lord, what is the more you’ve invited us to? What are the things that I’m white knuckling and holding onto? What do I need to let go of? Where are the places in my life that I’ve kept you away from? Lord, Blow up the boxes. Show me where can I invite you to have Your way this morning, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
Check out the Dwell Meditations
Check out Defining God’s Provision
