God Wants People to Be Saved

By Paul Chappell

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

I heard about a pastor who preached a strong salvation sermon. When he gave the invitation, a five-year-old boy came forward. Not knowing whether the boy understood what it meant to be saved, the pastor began to ask him questions. The more questions he asked, the more confused the boy became. Finally the boy interrupted and asked, "Pastor, in your message this morning you said that if I would come and trust Jesus to save me, He would! Did you really mean that?" The pastor said, "I did not ask him any more questions after that!"

God has called every believer to be a witness of the Good News. This call is not restricted to pastors, evangelists and missionaries. The reason that God wants each of us to be sharing the Gospel is that He wants people to be saved. God could have made salvation difficult; instead He made it as simple as possible—so simple even a child can understand and obey. Salvation is not cheap. Jesus paid an unspeakable price that our sins could be forgiven and we could be reconciled to God. But salvation is simple.

Paul said that God has given us "the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:19). We can’t keep the wonderful message of reconciliation with God to ourselves. Knowing that God wants people to be saved should motivate and encourage us to faithfully give the plain and simple truth of the Gospel to everyone we can.

Today's Rooted Principle:

Find someone today with whom you can share the wonderful news of salvation in Jesus Christ.