February 15

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God. — Rev 12:10 BSB

Salvation. What kind of salvation? Salvation by grace, full and free; salvation without any mix of human righteousness; salvation flowing from the heart of God; salvation coming entirely through the blood of the Lamb. But salvation can never be truly tasted until there is first a taste of condemnation. You can’t look up into heaven until you’ve first looked down into the gates of hell. You must experience guilt before you can fully enjoy forgiveness.

“Now has come salvation.” From what? From the accusations of Satan, the curses of the law, the fear of death, the terrors of hell, and the sentence of damnation.

But how does salvation come? While the battle is raging, while the outcome is uncertain, while Satan and the soul are locked in fierce combat, there’s no felt experience of salvation. There may be hope, which keeps the believer standing, but no shout of victory until the enemy is defeated. When Satan is overthrown, his accusations silenced, and the soul set free, then “salvation has come.”

The sweetest sound heaven ever proclaimed, the most blessed word ever spoken, is “salvation.” To be saved—saved from death and hell; saved from the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched; saved from the flames of the bottomless pit; saved from the company of tormenting demons and all the wicked people who have ever lived; saved from blaspheming God in eternal suffering; saved from endless misery without hope; and saved into heaven—to see Jesus as He is, to be perfectly holy and happy, to enjoy the company of angels and glorified saints for all eternity! What human or angelic tongue could ever describe even a fraction of the glory contained in that one word, “salvation”?