How Do We Respond to God’s Salvation?

When we experience salvation, we respond to it in our daily lives. How do we and should we respond?

Here is a list of our Scriptural responses.

1.. We long for it.

In Ps. 119:81 and Ps. 119:174, found in the longest psalm in the entire Book of Psalms, the devout lover of Scripture yearns for salvation, as if he had not experienced it yet. This proves that people who read Scripture without faith do not experience salvation from God. Scholars fit his description. Many (not all) know the Bible thoroughly, but do not know God personally.

2.. We wait for it.

Lam. 3:26 says we should wit quietly for the salvation of the LORD. What a great promise! We should not run around like a chicken with its head cut off, as if we lost our cool. No, we should trust God in quiet confidence, however difficult it is to do this.

3.. We hope for it.

1 Thess. 5:8-9 Paul says that hope is the helmet of salvation. (I used to get attacked by a demon of despair, until I took authority over it by using Eph. 6:16, which says to life up the shield of faith, which quenches the fiery arrows of the enemy.) Hope is also a sign of salvation. The Paul goes on to say that we are not appointed to suffer wrath, but salvation in Christ Jesus. This means that once we are in Christ, we will never experience his justice-wrath-judgment, either down here on earth or in heaven during judgment.

4.. We pray for it.

Ps. 54:1 shows David praying for salvation when he was betrayed and snitched on (1 Sam. 23:19-29). King Saul was chasing David in the wilderness. A tribe (the Ziphites) told Saul that David was hiding among them. David prayed for salvation and vindication—two parallel words. Trust God for his rescue. Pray for it.

As to Ps. 85:7, David wrote it for the director of music. He asks whether God will revive Israel again. Will he be angry with them forever? Then the target verse links unfailing love with God’s salvation. When God saves you, he shows his love.

Jer. 31:7 comes in the context of hope. God is about to restore his people with rest and the gift of music and dancing with joy, new vineyards, a day when watchmen will stand on the wall and cry out that everyone should go to Zion, to worship the LORD God. Then Jeremiah says the people should make their praises known, with the prayer, “Save your people, the remnant of Israel.”

5.. We realize it is now.

In 2 Cor. 6:2, Paul quotes Is. 49:8 and says that the day of salvation is fulfilled in his day.

6.. We are clothed with it.

In 2 Chron. 6:41, Solomon prays the dedicatory prayer of the temple, and petitions the Lord that the priests would be clothed with salvation. Today, since we are a kingdom of priests (1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Pet. 2:9), we too can be clothed with Christ’s salvation.

In Is. 61:10, Zion itself becomes the speaker (probably), and he delights in salvation and is clothed with it.

Zech. 1 says that the LORD clothed Joshua the high priest with the clothes of righteousness and salvation.

7.. We rejoice in it.

In Ps. 9:14, David prays that his enemies would come to ruin. David declares God’s praises within the gates of Zion and rejoice in God’s salvation. The context is the enemies, so God can deliver you from your enemies.

Is. 25:9 is a great promise of trusting in God to be saved. Now they can rejoice and be glad in God’s salvation.

8.. We delight in it.

In Ps. 35:9, David again prays for vindication in the face of his enemies. God rescued him, and now he delights and rejoices in the LORD.

9.. We grow in it.

In 1 Pet. 2:2 we are called to be like newborn babies who crave spiritual milk, so we may grow in our salvation. In other words, we don’t remain as newborn babies, but grow up.

10.. We work it out.

Phil. 2: 12 says that we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We don’t work it out to get saved all over again, but we work out the salvation that God has already worked in.

11.. We proclaim it.

In 1 Chron. 16:23, after David appointed Asaph and his associates to be praise leaders, and they praised God in a long song. In this song, it says to proclaim his salvation day after day.

And Ps. 96:2 say to do the same, to proclaim his salvation day after day.

12.. We make it known.

Ps. 67:2 teaches that God shines his light on his people, so salvation can be known among all the nations—you and me.

So how does this post help me grow in Christ?

The most important verses for proclaiming salvation are Rom. 10:9-15, which reads:

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?^[c] And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Rom. 10:9-15, NIV)

First, salvation is related to the confession of faith. We speak out loud that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that he is raised from the dead.

Second, salvation must be proclaimed by believers in Jesus.

Third, the gospel is preached by those who are sent.

We need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers, because the fields are ripe for harvest (Matt. 9:37-38). Do you have a call to go out into the harvest? We all do, but what about in a full-time way that requires monetary support, like missionaries?

Please join a good, Spirit-filled church, get to know them, and minister in your own backyard (so to speak). Then God will send you out (Acts 13:1-4).