Satan is pursuing us, but instead of running away, all we need to do is stand and see the salvation of our God. Christianity is not about something that we can do to become better people; it is about what Christ has done through the cross and the empty tomb. Jesus Christ has accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. He is the one who has atoned for sin, who has turned aside God’s wrath, who offers perfect righteousness as the gift of faith, and who has gained entrance into resurrection life.

The promises God kept for Israel give us confidence that he will also keep the promises he has made to us. We too are the recipients of the promises of God, specifically the promises he has made in Christ. “For no matter how many promises God has made,” the Scripture says, “they are ‘Yes’ in Christ” (2 Cor. 1:20).

We pray for the salvation of the world. We pray that people from all nations would hear about the grace of God, that there is forgiveness for sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We pray that they would turn to God in prayer, asking him for the free gift of eternal life. We pray that for the sake of his own glory, God would answer their prayers, and that they in turn would give praise to God for his saving grace. When we pray for the nations, we are standing on God’s ancient promise that his grace is for the whole world. At the same time, we are aiming at the highest goal in the universe, which is the glory of God.

As the people of God, we bear the name of Christ in the world. So Jesus prays for us, making royal intercession, asking that our incomparable Father God would turn his heart toward us, opening his eyes and ears to the needs of the church. God knows our situation exactly; he is always watching to see what happens to his children. He is also listening to hear our prayers, night and day. He hears the petitions we make from our beds, when we have quiet time to think, and easily get overwhelmed by the troubles of life. He hears the prayers we make throughout the day, in the push of daily life. Night and day, God always hears us when we pray.

If we are sometimes tempted to think that God has not been faithful, then it must be because we have not been paying careful attention, or else because we have been expecting God to do some things for us that he has never promised to do. Or perhaps our problem is that we are too impatient to wait for God’s timing, in which case we need to wait for him to fulfill his promises when the time is right, which he is always faithful to do. He has been faithful to keep all his promises. He has provided for your daily needs. He has forgiven your sins. He is faithfully doing the work of your salvation. God is faithful to call us, justify us, adopt us into his family, and sanctify us. One day soon he will be faithful to glorify us.

We are in the presence of the God of Solomon. He has revealed himself to us, especially in his Word, so that we can perceive his glory. But we will never be able to manage or control God. We will never be able to keep him in one place and say that we know everything there is to know about him. There will always be glorious mysteries about the character of God that go beyond our finite comprehension. The more we encounter him, the more awesome his glory will seem to us.

The biblical gospel is more than a set of facts. We need to know that Jesus died and rose again, of course, but we also need to understand what those facts mean and respond to them in a saving and believing way. Repentance and forgiveness are to be preached in the name of Jesus, or on the name of Jesus—on the basis of what he has done on the cross and through the empty tomb. This is how we know that the ancient promise is true, that by the saving grace of gospel repentance, all our sins will be forgiven. We are forgiven “through the merit and mediation of Christ.” We know that his sacrifice has been accepted because God raised him from the dead. It is not only the crucifixion that guarantees our forgiveness, but also the resurrection. The way for us to respond is to repent and believe, and then we too will be forgiven.

A great price has been paid for our redemption. It has been paid by God himself, in the person of his Son, and now we belong to him forever. Everything we are and have belongs to him: our time, money, bodies, talents — everything. Redemption is very costly. It was costly to God, and in a way it is costly for us as well because it demands everything we have. But it is also the source of all our security and the basis for all our hope.

By eating the bread of his body and drinking the cup of his blood, we receive into our bodies tokens of salvation — covenant seals — that show our connection to Christ and his cross. At Passover the Israelites were identified with the sacrificial lamb. The blood on the doorpost showed a connection between the family inside and the lamb they had offered for their sins. Eating the lamb made the connection even closer.  By ingesting the whole offering, they were making a total identification with the sacrifice that God had provided for their salvation. It was more than a symbol; it was a spiritual reality. In the same way, the sacrament of Communion makes a total identification between Christ and the Christian, sealing the covenant of grace. What Christ did on the cross is really ours. It is as much a part of us as what we eat and drink.

When the Bible talks about being saved by the blood, it is talking about the real blood of a real sacrifice. Salvation is not merely an intellectual concept or a personal feeling; it is something God has actually done in human history.