Seeing His Salvation: Witnesses of the Promise Fulfilled

By Beverly Guy, CMCUS Editor and Strategic Messaging Team Lead

We see His salvation. We don’t just believe it has come. We see.

God’s promise of deliverance gives us abundant reasons to rejoice. But in His grace, the Lord blesses us with glimpses of His redemptive work, enabling us to praise Him not merely for this promise but for evidence of His redemption.

So, we not only look ahead like John the Baptist did as he prepared the way for Jesus, saying, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (John 3:6 ESV). We give praise like Simeon as we see that this salvation has already come into the world:

“for my eyes have seen your salvation
    that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30-32 ESV)

In the middle of the unrest, uncertainty and pain that hang like smog over our fallen existence, we see it. And we overflow with praise.

We see it in the lives of three young people in South Asia who are celebrating their first “spiritual birthday” this Christmas—the first fruits of efforts to establish a church in a community no one was seeking to reach with the gospel.

We witness it as we rejoice in months of answered prayer that culminated in a surprising change of heart for a young man in Japan.

We watch it at work as a man who grew up a Muslim returns to his homeland with the goal of sharing the hope he’s found in Jesus with others.

We marvel in it as the faithful service of a Christar worker back in the 1960s still bears fruit today in South Asia.

We praise the Lord it is at work in a community devastated by earthquakes, as a local church, supported by believers around the world, has reached out in compassion amid its own overwhelming need—and grown exponentially.

Though we still mourn that 40% of the world remains cut off from the gospel, this abundant evidence of salvation at work across the globe infuses us with hope. As Simeon did, we call to mind these words of Isaiah written about the Messiah who was still yet to come:

“I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6 ESV)

As we do, we rejoice that this promise is already coming to pass. We trust that it will be fully fulfilled. And we marvel that we are invited to be part of it.