A Didactic Adaptation Based on Luke 19:10
Introduction
The Word of God is not only instruction, but also correction. In most cases, it is more correction than instruction to do something. Each of us needs to learn to walk according to the Lord’s will, for no one is born knowing how to do it. That is why the instruction and correction of the Holy Spirit of God is fundamental.
Base text: “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10)
The Central Problem: What Does the Lord Save Us From?
In many cases, even among God’s people, we don’t truly know what the Lord saves us from. We have almost generally thought of a future salvation, an eschatological salvation, related to dwelling in heaven. Although this is true—the Scriptures establish that there will be new heavens and a new earth after the millennial reign—salvation is not only a future action.
Salvation has to do with the present, with the 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years we live upon the face of the Earth.
The Gospel: More Than Religion
The Gospel is not religion. The message of the Gospel is good news that teaches us to live in a completely different way. It is not only about modeling behavior, but about:
- A total transformation
- A radical transformation
- A spiritual transformation
- A genetic transformation
Jesus taught His disciples: “Thy will be done, Lord, on earth as it is in heaven, Thy kingdom come to us”. The kingdom is not up there in the heavens, it is down here on earth, because Jesus established: “The kingdom of heaven is among you”.
Life in Christ Jesus is not only knowing how to moderate character, conduct or personality. It is a transformation that reaches from the spirit to all the flesh, even to the very gene of our being.
The Message From the Beginning
This message did not begin when Jesus started His earthly ministry. It was established from the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:9 — “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”
Did God not know where Adam was? Being omniscient and omnipresent, why would He ask where he was? The question was not seeking geographical information. The question was directed to confront the man: “I left you in a place and I don’t find you where I left you last time. Where are you?”
The question confronted his present reality, his current condition.
The Three Groups of People
Among all the men and women who have existed, exist and will exist, we can identify three groups:
First Group: Those who don’t want to be saved (the majority group)
This group simply doesn’t want to be saved. John 3:20 explains their nature: “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved”.
This group is not only found in the world, but also within congregations. They are people who are part of ministries but don’t want to be saved because they never admit—like Adam and Eve—that they find themselves in this situation because they have failed God’s Word.
Second Group: Those who want to be saved with their own methods
This group wants salvation, but proposes their own ways, methods and innovations. This is impossible because salvation comes from God and has its established way of manifesting itself. We cannot suggest, propose or innovate the message, because then we invalidate God’s intention to save what was lost.
Third Group: The remnant (the smallest group)
This is the group of those who accept salvation with its main characteristic: total surrender. “I surrender, I stop fighting, I give everything”. They are the chosen ones, those who do not work for themselves or by themselves, but who have decided to wait and trust in the Lord.
Salvation as Relocation
Salvation has to do with relocation according to God’s will. Not because I am inside a church am I saved. Not because I confess that Jesus is God am I saved. We have placed our confidence in things that, although they are the result of a change, are not the primary source of the salvation that God has given us.
The only thing that makes us be according to God’s will is to remain in what God has established for us, in the Word He has given us, in the instruction He has given us.
Important: To depart from God’s will does not necessarily mean to fall into sin. To depart from God’s will is simply not to follow the instruction that God has given us, even if there is no sin involved.
What the Lord Saves Us From: Three Fundamental Areas
1. God Saves Us from the Tendency Toward Sin and Perversity
Romans 6:17 — “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you”.
It is not about actions, it is about tendencies. God will not only see our actions, He will also see our tendencies. What good does it do if there are no actions, but the tendencies toward sin and perversity still remain?
Salvation is a transformation that leaps from the spirit and transforms all the flesh. First John establishes: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin”. Why? Because the seed, the gene of God is within the person. The nature of God has been established not only in the spirit, but has completely transformed the entire being.
Hebrews 11:1 — “Faith is the substance” —it is the nature, the gene of God established in us.
Romans 8:5-8 — “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God”.
If we compare this verse with Hebrews 11:6 (“Without faith it is impossible to please God”), we realize that the absence of faith is due in the first instance to men and women who have believed in the Lord, but who have not been able to be saved from the intention toward sin or perversity.
Sin and perversity are not the same thing. There are people who no longer practice, no longer have actions, but the tendencies, preferences, inclinations are still present. God does not save just because we don’t do actions. God saves those who want to surrender their intentions, their preferences, their inclinations toward sin.
2. God Saves Us from Codependency on Voices
Romans 6:16 — “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
Jesus saves us from codependency on following voices that have been established in our lives, even from when we were in our mother’s womb. There are voices that have been established, voices that are directing your life, giving constant instructions about how you should live, behave, conduct yourself.
If that voice disappears, we find ourselves lost, confused, not knowing what to do. How many men and how many women who confess to be believers are codependent on voices they received in the past?
The crucial question is: Whom are we obeying? Who has been directing your life in recent years?
Everything in Genesis 3 began with a voice that should never have been heeded. Satan never presents himself directly; he presents himself through emissaries he sends. The serpent was not Satan himself, but became his emissary. It all began with a suggestion, with a question. And when the woman answered, she subjected herself to the obedience of that voice.
The text clearly says: “And Eve saw that the fruit was pleasant, desirable”. It all began with a word.
There are voices that are subconsciously within people. There are those who have completely erased their consciousness and walk in unconsciousness. They have erased memories, images, their childhood past, because a word was established upon them that determined their entire walk from then on.
Colossians 1:13 — “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son”.
God wants to save you, but you must let yourself be saved. Don’t propose to Him the way He should save you.
Why haven’t we come out of crises? Because there are repetitive cycles in the lives of many believers. Cycles that repeat year after year, sometimes on the same date. God wants to save you from the voices you heeded, from the voices you heard, from the voices that still whisper to you today.
There are people walking in disgrace because they heard someone who told them: “You will never be able to do anything right in life”. You must reject that voice today.
- What voice determined you would be frustrated?
- What voice determined you would be a failure?
- What voice established you would always be sick?
The Lord wants to save you, but it is important that you also want to be saved and that you don’t suggest to Him how He should do it.
Stop clinging:
- Don’t cling to people
- Don’t cling to the music that resonates in your ear bringing nostalgia
- If you lost a family member, let them go, stop holding on
The apostle Paul says in Romans: We are not debtors to the past. The past is behind and there must be nothing and no one, no event or circumstance that binds us to the past. When you cling, your life is being strangled, suffocated.
3. God Saves Us from the Satanic System
1 John 2:15 — “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.
God wants to save us from the satanic system upon which social life in this world is founded.
Jesus prayed to the Father: “Father, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17). We have to live in this society, we cannot exclude ourselves. Salvation is not in excluding ourselves. Salvation is in understanding that all of this does not apply to our lives.
Jesus said: “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me”. I don’t participate in this society, I don’t seek a space in it, I don’t seek participation. The years the Lord allows me to live upon the face of the earth I live as a pilgrim and stranger, but I don’t commit myself to this system.
The world is a system of evil established by Satan.
In Matthew 4:8-9, during the temptations, Satan takes Jesus “up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me”.
In Luke 4, in the parallel passage, the devil adds: “For that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it”.
We cannot allow this world to dazzle us. Many of us have allowed the world’s offers to dazzle us. Many of us have seen success in achieving what the world presents to us, and this is Satan’s work.
We cannot make alliances with the world. We cannot see achieving what the world presents as a benefit. We cannot see it as success.
How many people, how many faithful believers surrendered their birthright for a bowl of lentils? Because of the success the world presented to them. They walked the same path as Esau, the same path as the false prophet hired to curse the people.
1 John 5:4 — “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith”.
Conclusion: The Confrontation and the Decision
As we expose ourselves to this Word, we return to Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”.
The Lord has come to seek and save what is not in the place where He always used to meet. Adam and Eve hid themselves, they were not in the same place. God knew where they were because God knows everything, but the question was directed to confront them:
“Where are you? Have you realized what your situation is? Have you realized what your condition is?”
Many times we have not realized, or we don’t want to realize our condition. There are those who go so far as to say: “This is God’s will, this is how the Lord wants to have me”. See to what point the levels of corruption reach in the minds of people who confess to be believers.
God doesn’t want to have you there. God didn’t want Adam to be hiding. He was naked all the time; suddenly he realized it. He became conscious that he was deficient before the Lord’s presence, but he never admitted: “I am like this because I didn’t heed Your voice”.
The Truth We Must Recognize
Today it is important to present ourselves before the Lord and understand:
We are as we are not because God wants to have us this way. We are as we are because we disobeyed God’s voice.
At a certain moment, God spoke to us and said: “This is My will for you, this is what I have for you”. He established positions, ministries, places for us. But we incurred the error presented in Jeremiah: “Two evils has My people done: They have forsaken Me to dig for themselves broken cisterns that hold no water”.
As long as we do not come in repentance before Him—and this applies to everyone, not only to sinners in the world, but to many who are part of congregations and ministries but don’t want to admit they need to repent—we cannot be saved.
Like the prodigal son: “I have sinned, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no more worthy to be called thy son”. He was conscious of why he found himself in that situation.
The Call to Surrender
Job 2:4 — Satan said unto the LORD: “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life”.
As long as man or woman continues clinging to what they should not cling to, continues clinging to life, to something or someone, life is slipping away.
The third group, the remnant, is the group that says: “I surrender. I stop striving by my own efforts. Save me, Lord. You are the only one who can save me. I no longer cling to anything or anyone. Lord, You are the only thing I have, You are the only one and I cling to You”.
Jesus told the disciples when He came to them walking on the sea: “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid”.
And this is the Word that God has for you: Be not afraid. Fear not. I am. Take courage. Surrender. Stop fighting. Be still and see the salvation that I will establish today among you (as the Lord said to Moses).
When man is conquered, he surrenders: “I surrender, Lord, I stop fighting. I surrender, Lord. Everything, without reservation, I surrender to You”.
The Final Message
- Stop clinging to the business
- Stop clinging to life
- Stop clinging to the medication
- Stop clinging to someone
Surrender.
Do you want to be saved? God wants to save you. He came to seek and save what was lost. And it is not the message from 2000 years ago. It is the message from the Garden of Eden: “Adam, where are you? I don’t find you in the same place where I left you the last time I saw you”.
May none of us say to Him today: “Lord, I was afraid and I hid”.
May we approach today in a different way: “Lord, I failed Your Word. I failed the commandment, I disobeyed You and I don’t want to keep clinging to anything or anyone anymore. Save me, here I am”.
Then the Lord places you in this third group: the remnant, the chosen ones, those who trusted they had a better city, a better kingdom, and surrendered everything.
Final Reflection
What good does it do to think about going to heaven—which we will indeed reach at a certain moment—if while we are living we remain prisoners of tendencies, inclinations, preferences? What good does it do if we remain prisoners of codependencies? What good does it do if we remain prisoners of a system?
The Gospel is lived on Earth and is for each one of us.
If you are part of the first group or the second group, let the Spirit of God transport you today to this third group: the remnant.
Father, I thank You, Lord. Because You are my peace, You are my comfort, You are my rest. You are everything, Lord. You are my salvation. I thank You because You wanted to save me and You have saved me. Thank You, Lord, in the name of Jesus. To You be the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
