Isaiah 62:11 The Lord has made proclamation
    to the ends of the earth:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your Savior comes!
See, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense accompanies him.’”

What jumps out at me about this verse is that salvation is a person. (The NIV dilutes that, by saying “Savior” instead of “salvation.”) That was gloriously fulfilled in Yeshua, which name we render as Jesus, because as Matthew says, it means “Yahweh is salvation.” (Matthew 1:21) He doesn’t just bring or give salvation, He is salvation. When you receive Him into your heart as Lord, you receive the salvation of God, and nothing beats that! That’s why the whole Gospel is wrapped up in the person of Jesus. As Paul said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) We tend to confuse the Gospel with all sorts of stuff. Some of it is real, and even very good, but the primary thing is Jesus, our Savior, and anything less is badly diluting the message. When John encountered Christ in His glory, he had no words at all, and indeed, passed out. (Revelation 1:17) We need to get back to the basics; God who loves us so much He became a human being and died to take the penalty for our sins, being raised on the third day to prove that it was real. His salvation includes an infinite catalog of other good things, but if we place those first, we lose the whole point. We can rejoice in all sorts of things, but we need to remember to rejoice in the Lord. He Himself is our salvation, and not any of the good things He gives us on top of that.

I don’t know when the awareness of this truth really penetrated my mind and heart, but it’s been quite a while. Even so, I am often less than effective as an evangelist because I say too much. There is so much good stuff in Christ, but those things quickly become distractions if we don’t lay down the foundation of repentance and faith. That’s why the “Prosperity Gospel” is such a problem. It’s not that the things they say aren’t true, it’s that they are secondary at best. We want a “gospel” that doesn’t require repentance and holiness, and it doesn’t exist. I need to get back to saying, “God loves you enough to die for you, but you’ve got to let go of everything else to receive Him.” If I will do that, He will work through me to bring people to repentance and faith, for their salvation and His glory.

Father, thank You for this clear reminder. Thank You for the people to whom You have me ministering right now. I pray that You would give them an awareness of their need of salvation, so that the Gospel will be good news to them indeed, and they receive the salvation You so graciously offer them. Thank You. Hallelujah!