Psalm 98:1-2 Sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made his salvation known
    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

We tend to have many different definitions of salvation. In Japanese, the end of verse 1 says “victory,” rather than “salvation,” and that seems reasonable in context. However, in verse 2 it does say “salvation,” just like most English translations. When we think about it, “salvation” is simply the noun of the verb, “save,” and we apply that in many different ways. Often, I think we ourselves don’t know exactly what we mean when we say, salvation. Even for the firm believer, who has strong assurance that they will spend eternity in heaven with Christ, salvation can be a hard thing to explain. Victory is a much simpler concept, but even there we sometimes have trouble. It has famously been said that in Christ we have been saved from the penalty for sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we will be saved from the presence of sin. That is helpful, but we have to understand in the first place that sin is bad! That is where the devil does all he can to cloud our understanding. An extreme example is “pride month,” which we have just come out of. The devil is telling us to be proud of sexual perversion! And of course, that covers over the problem of pride itself. As Proverbs 16:18 famously says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” It is only when we realize what a trap we are in that we begin to understand salvation. Salvation is being rescued from the trap!

This is an issue I have wrestled with much of my life. As a child, I genuinely loved Jesus, but as I grew into my teenage years I discarded the idea that I needed help, thinking I could get by on my own. That was the whole trap of pride. At 24, already a married father, God got through to me and showed me how utterly in need of salvation I was. It was devastating, but I couldn’t be more grateful. As a missionary pastor now, one of my biggest issues is in helping people realize they need salvation. One of the fundamental characteristics of Japanese culture is the idea of ganbaru. The closest English translation I can come up with is “do your best,” or at times, “hang in there.” but that doesn’t get the full flavor. That makes Japanese reluctant to ask for help, and of course, the foundation of the Gospel is that we need help but can’t provide it for ourselves. I quickly run out of ways to explain it, because it is far more emotional than intellectual. Frankly, many Japanese have the feeling that “religion is for weak people who can’t ganbaru sufficiently.” That, of course, is a lie of the devil, and I can only counter it with the truth of God, asking and trusting the Holy Spirit to make it real in people’s hearts.

Father, thank You for Your salvation, which You so graciously make freely available to all who will receive it. I do ask You to use me to break through the lies of the enemy with Your truth, so that many will be set free to recognize their need and Your supply, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!