God Hath Not Appointed Us To Wrath

“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-9)

Wrath is not what God has destined us for. He did not establish us and set us forth in this life only to proceed forward into Hell. No, God set us in motion towards salvation. We are to obtain it, acquire it, to have in totality.

But let’s stop for a second and take a closer look at this, for we have two separate but congruent occurrences here. God has predestinated us, He has appointed (establish, set forth) us to salvation. We are to “obtain salvation”, we are to go get it!

Both of these, (appointed by God and obtain by us) are motions, forward progresses, they are processes. These events happen while we are alive here on earth.

God sets the course (predestination) but it is up to us to get up and go do it. It’s typical of God to make all things associated with our salvation a tandem effort.

But unless we think to highly of ourselves, salvation is not achieved through our effort (deeds) alone. Salvation can only be achieved through Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Forward progress, tandem efforts, staying the course as designed by God. That’s our life as sojourners of this planet until the final victory is achieved.

Bill Hitchcock