The Two Sides of Salvation

Here's something I wrote a while ago...


The Two Sides of Salvation



In the first chapter of John, we see Jesus starting His ministry and calling His disciples. There is something very unique about the calling of the disciples, however. Jesus is the one who found them, but they say they found Him.

Let’s pick up the story in the forty-third verse, “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’” (Emphasis added.)

So we see that Jesus really was the one who found Phillip, but in his humanness, Phillip said he had found the Messiah. So often in our human minds, we see things from a different perspective than from how God sees it. Phillip is a great example of this.

Many times we want our views to be either one way or the other. Either God does everything or we do (Calvinism/Arminianism). However, like this story of Jesus and Phillip, Jesus calls us and shows us our need and we respond by opening our hearts to Him.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3: 20)