The Red Sea & The Jordan
The Salvation of Man, The River of Death, The River of Life
The Red Sea is behind us. The Jordan is ahead.
The Red Sea is Behind
In the Old Testament, God repeatedly refers to himself as He “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” It is only after that reminder He says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Israel was to constantly remember that they were saved from slavery in Egypt. The basis for their obedience, and their hope for the future, was the deliverance they experienced in the past. The precursor to the Law was the Exodus. Grace before Works.
In Christ, we have a greater salvation than the exodus. We are saved from sin and from slavery to the devil. This is a salvation that we can talk about as a past event. “…He saved us…” (Titus 3:5). There is a sense in which the salvation of man is accomplished. It was finished when Christ cried out those authoritative words from the cross; the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world once for all. We receive that salvation by faith:
Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:25)
We believe that the one who repents and belives the gospel of Chist has salvation: forgiveness of sins, and new nature, redeption, freedom, the promised Spirit, and a restored relationship with the Father. He was saved. But there is also a sense in which the Christian will be saved.
The Wilderness
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:10)
I take this use of the future tense in “we shall be saved” as referring to the final judgement. We can have confidence that if we are found in Christ on that day that we will be saved. We have not earned this salvation: it is of grace. But we look forward to this future deliverance from the wrath of God:
…And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)
This is the same idea expressed by our Lord in Matthew:
But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:13)
And Paul in his letter to the Corinthians:
If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15)
There is a sense in which we look forward to salvation. There is sense in which this life is like the wilderness. As the late Dr. Michael Heiser often said, the Bible is full of “already, but not yet.” Christians have salvation now, but in another sense we look forward to it. In a sense, we are fully redeemed from our sin and the guilt thereof. But, in another sense, we are not fully redeemed, becasue we still await the redemption of our fallen bodies (Romans 8:23). We are God’s people, bought and paid for by His precious blood. But in another sense, only on the final day will the saying be fully realized, “They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:23).
The redeemed of the Lord go from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18), even though today we find ourselves in the wilderness. The Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army at the bottom, is behind us.
We are out of Egpyt, but Canaan is still ahead. The land of milk and honey, where the manna will cease, is still before us.
The Jordan is Ahead
Joshua led the people of Israel into the promised land by parting waters, the very same way they exited Egypt.
…and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off… Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. (Joshua 3:14–17)
In the Old Covenant, the people of God were saved from slavery to Pharaoh, passed through the Red Sea, and entered into covenant with God at Sinai. In the New, we were saved from sin, death, and the devil, passed through the waters of baptism, and entered into covenant with God through Christ.
The saints of old walked through the wilderness. They were sojourners and exiles, looking for a country that God had promised them. In the New Covenant, we are sojourners and exiles in this world, while God purifies His Church until she comes to the Better Country that He has promised Her.
The Ark of the Covenant, where the presence of the Lord rested between the wings of the cherubim, went first into the river Jordan before the people.
The Son of God, on whom the Spirit descended as a dove and remained, and on whom the angels of heaven ascend and descend, entered and exited Death, with its keys in his hand and a crown on His head.
The sons of Jacob passed through the Jordan river, parted by God, into the land of promise.
The sons of the New Covenant will pass through the cold river of Death, onto the shores of Paradise.
The River of Death parts around the feet of the Resurrected Christ, that His people may walk through on dry land. The chill and sting of that River is taken away. Styx dries up, way upstream at the garden tomb.
He who saved you from Egypt will bring you over Jordan.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you (Isaiah 43:2).
Abide in Him, and endure to the end. Let us lift up our heads, because
Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Romans 13:11).
Prepare to pass through River Death, and then to drink forever from the River of the Water of Life, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1).
Whoever thirsts, come and drink freely.
"This is a salvation that we can talk about as a past event."
I know and understand why people say things like "I was saved in college/the trenches/the football field/etc" but to me the correct answer always was "I was saved two thousand years ago..."
great post as always - thank you!