What Next After Salvation?

The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world,  over two millennia ago, to atone for man’s sins and to reconcile him to God by His sacrifice on the cross.

Before His death, Christ Jesus had appointed apostles, taught and prepared them to proclaim the gospel, the message of God’s Kingdom, to everyone. They were to preach the gospel, which is centred on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus to save souls from eternal damnation.

Today, Jesus Christ continues to recruit people to preach the gospel in various parts of the world. Those who believe in Him are sealed with the Spirit of God, and are regularly gathered together as the Church, the elect of God or the assembly of called-out ones, to worship.

However, we need to consider some important questions: what is the expectation of believers after their salvation? In other words, what is expected of Christians to do after they are saved? Are there levels of depth in Christ Jesus they must know and attain?

These questions are relevant because many Christians, in this generation, hardly grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. They fail to stir up the gifts in them, or they are endowed with. Thus, they appear as mere passive spectators at every church service.

This situation is the reflection of the services rendered by most church leaders. Attention and efforts are not concentrated on growing believers in the grace and knowledge of Christ, helping them to discover the depth of Christ and equipping them for the work of ministry.

Many church leaders, today, are greatly concerned with  organising programmes to excite people’s emotions and to receive offerings in order to put up impressive and imposing buildings, acquire sophisticated vehicles and classy apparel.

Certainly, these things are good for ministry, but they are not the best in the sight of God, because Christ Jesus did not die for them. The mission of the Church is concerned with spiritual development of people than acquisition of material things.

When you examine the programmes of most churches today, you will agree with me that many are designed with the core motive of receiving offerings from the people. Thus, a programme is said to have been successful if the offering received is big. I have been in church leadership for years, so I know what I am writing about.

This is unfortunate, because many pastors have been lured by the god of mammon to do its bidding. True Christ-conscious pastors prioritise Christ Jesus, spiritual development of the saints and their training for the work of ministry above everything and anything else.

Again, true servants of Christ are not peddlers of God’s Word, but as commissioned men who sincerely speak in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:17). It is better to be loved and approved by God than to have riches and be rejected by Him. After all, no one is as poor as when born.

When we excavate the Scriptures to discover the mind of God, we realise that many have gone astray. There is more work to do after salvation. Discipleship is necessary to grow believers in the grace and knowledge of Christ, to mature them in Christ and to equip them for the work of ministry.

People are not mature in Christ immediately after they are born again and receive salvation. They are babies or infants, who are fed with the milk of the Word of God (1 Peter 2:2).

At this stage, they are unskilled in the word of righteousness which makes it difficult for them to differentiate between false christs and the true Christ, false gospel and true gospel, false pastors and true pastors and false churches and true churches.

However, through effective discipleship and training, the believers are helped to grow from babyhood stage to childhood stage and to manhood stage or maturity stage. At this stage of growth, they will not be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:11-14).

Therefore, it is important that we all appreciate the fact that after salvation, church leaders have the responsibility of discipling believers, ensuring that they grow up in every way into Christ, the Head of the Church. Amen.

By James Quansah