Rejoicing in Salvation Honors God

Can we love the gifts of God too much? Can we rejoice in our salvation so deeply that it somehow competes with God himself?

Matt, a thoughtful believer from Savannah, Georgia, wrestles with this very tension. On one hand, the Bible calls us to exalt in God to see Him as our supreme treasure. On the other, it calls us to rejoice in our salvation repeatedly and passionately.

Psalm 9:14 is just one of many verses where God’s people are commanded to rejoice in the saving acts of God: “Let me rejoice in your salvation.” Not only that, but the Psalms, the prophets, and the apostles all urge us to exult in what God has done for us not just in who He is.

So how do we reconcile these two calls to treasure God above all else, and yet to find joy in His gifts? The answer may surprise us. It’s not an either/or it’s a both/and, grounded in the glory of the Giver.

Joy in Salvation Is Worship

Scripture is not vague on this: we should rejoice in God’s saving acts.

• “My heart shall rejoice in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5)

• “Let me rejoice in your salvation” (Psalm 9:14)

• “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3)

• “He has clothed me with the garments of salvation” (Isaiah 61:10)

• “May those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the Lord!’” (Psalm 40:16)

These verses are not isolated; they are the heartbeat of biblical joy. In fact, rejoicing in salvation is one of the ways we glorify God. His mercy, His deliverance, His righteousness these are not distractions from God’s glory. They are His glory displayed.

Paul captures this beautifully in Romans 15:8–9: “Christ became a servant... in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” God’s mercy isn’t a sideshow. It’s the stage upon which His beauty shines.

God or Gifts?

The concern many Christians feel is real that we might love the benefits of the gospel more than the Benefactor Himself. That we might treat justification like a one-time pass, a spiritual booster rocket that gets us going only to forget it once we’ve “moved on” to deeper things.

But the gospel is not something we graduate from. We never stop needing it, never stop drinking from the wells of salvation. And when we rejoice in our salvation rightly, we’re not diminishing God’s centrality we’re magnifying it.

Here’s the key distinction: we must love God more than His gifts, and we must love His gifts because they reveal more of Him. If we treat salvation as a ticket to heaven, forgetting the Savior himself, we’ve missed everything. But if we delight in salvation because it reveals God’s mercy, faithfulness, and power then our joy in the gift becomes a joy in the Giver.

Rejoicing in the Glory Within the Gift

The Bible doesn’t command us to reject joy in creation or in salvation. Rather, it shows us how to see through these gifts to the glory of God behind them.

Psalm 16:2–3 puts it like this:

“I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

This isn’t double-talk. It’s a holy vision. The psalmist sees all goodness including godly people, godly joy, and godly gifts as part of the joy of having God Himself.

As the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), so too do His acts of redemption. Each work of salvation is a revelation of God's heart. To rejoice in our adoption, justification, sanctification, or preservation is to rejoice in the attributes of the One who made them possible.

As C.S. Lewis observed, our delight in anything including salvation is not complete until it overflows in praise. And if that praise points us back to God’s mercy and faithfulness, then it becomes worship.

Beams from the Sun

Theologians throughout history have tried to explain this harmony. Augustine once wrote, “He loves thee too little who loves anything together with thee, which he loves not for thy sake.” In other words, we must love everything including our salvation for God's sake.

Puritan poet Thomas Traherne said it this way: “You never enjoy the world aright, till you see how a grain of sand exhibiteth the wisdom and power of God.” The joy of God’s world, rightly seen, leads us back to Him.

God’s gifts are not rivals to His glory. They are the rays that shine out from it. A joy that ends with the gift alone becomes idolatry. But a joy that rises to worship the Giver is holy.

So, when we sing of the cross, when we rejoice in the gospel, when we celebrate the righteousness imputed to us in Christ we are not settling for second-best. We are savoring the beauty of God as displayed in salvation.

Never Moving On from the Gospel

One of the great dangers in the Christian life is treating the cross like a doorway and not a dwelling place. But God doesn’t want us to “move on” from salvation. He wants us to grow deeper into it to see more of His grace, more of His mercy, more of His heart.

As Lifeway Research found in 2023, nearly 58% of Protestant churchgoers admitted to struggling with remembering what their salvation means day-to-day. That’s not a sign of maturity it’s a warning sign. Forgetting salvation is forgetting the face of the One who saved you.

Salvation isn’t a past-tense gift. It is a daily fountain of joy. Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 10:20, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” That command still holds today.

We should never apologize for delighting in salvation. When we do, we’re rejoicing in God’s mercy, God’s truth, God’s steadfast love. And that joy is not lesser. It is part of treasuring God rightly.

So yes, Matt, rejoice in your salvation. Rejoice in the cross. Rejoice in your justification, your adoption, your future glorification. And let that joy rise, not to stop at the gift, but to adore the Giver.

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