Salvation is where the will of God begins.

Primary among those things God wills, according to His Word, is this promise from 2 Peter: “The Lord… is longsuffering… not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). You find that same thought in 1 Timothy where Paul says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).

Actually, salvation is where the will of God begins. Jesus makes this very clear in a brief passage in Mark. His mother and brothers arrive where He is teaching and begin asking for Him. The crowd tells Him: “Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You” (Mark 3:32). Jesus replies, “Who is my mother, or My brothers?” (Mark 3:33). Then, looking at those seated around Him listening to His Word, He answers His own question: “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother” (Mark 3:34).

What Jesus was saying was this: “The will of God is that you be related to me through faith, not through human family ties.”

How willing was God that we be saved? “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4). God was so willing for all to be saved that He sent His own Son to die, to make His will possible.

Telling people that it’s God’s will that they be saved isn’t always popular. Getting saved deals with sin, and secular man does not want to respond to any message that talks about his sin. But this is where it all starts. Until you know Jesus Christ personally, you have never taken the first step into the will of God.