Saved for What?

Luke 1:74-75 “To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” –from the prophecy of the Priest Zacharias.

I love these two verses because they make it perfectly clear what we are saved FROM and what we are saved FOR. We are saved FROM our enemies and we are saved FOR serving Him. And WHEN do we serve Him? ALL OUR DAYS! This is not saying an hour on Sunday morning is acceptable. Far from it! The strong implication here is that we are to do this EVERY day and ALL day long!

Luke 3:9 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (From the preaching of John the Baptist). This verse is really very similar to what Zacharias (John’s father) had said 30 years earlier – the purpose in our being redeemed is to serve Him all the days of our lives: “bear good fruit!”

And this teaching also reminded me of what the Lord told Moses to say to Pharaoh – “Let My People go, that they may serve Me!” (Exodus 8:1). We tend to forget about the “serve Me” part and just focus on the new found freedom we have – yippee, no more being a slave in Egypt. But wait, we’re still to be slaves, bondservants who serve the Lord God our Maker. The Apostle Paul teaches that very lesson quite plainly in Colossians 3:24 -- “It is the Lord Christ who you serve.”

However, telling people that they are saved to serve may not appeal to them. So do we risk them not accepting salvation because they are lazy? Well, I don’t think that this is even an issue. If the Lord has called them, they will get saved! And secondly, we don’t need to tell someone who is truly saved that they need to serve the Lord. They will do just exactly that out of love and thankfulness for all the Lord has done for them. Right?

Luke 7:47  “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” – Parable of Two Debtors as taught by Jesus.