The other day my wife and I enjoyed a seafood meal in a local restaurant. My napkin was wrapped with a colorful paper band that read, "SALMON – He refuses to go with the flow." My mind immediately began to think about how this illustrates the life of the believer in the Lord Jesus. Most fish swim with the current, in big schools, like people who follow religion and the course of this world without any thought as to their direction, (Ephesians 2:1,2). Nevertheless, there are some who by God's grace do hunger and thirst after righteousness, against the current of the world. The salmon did not learn this habit, or evolve into it, God created it this way. So it is with every true believer in Christ. God has made him so. Who are these? Those sinners whom God has purposed to save from all eternity, upon whom He has set His love and mercy, and whom His Son the Lord Jesus redeemed, John 15:16.
How are they distinguished from all the other fish in the sea? They do not worship or walk according to the precepts of the world. Their doctrine is contrary to that of the world. Their God is sovereign. They have nothing in themselves wherewith to glory. They see the Lord Jesus as having honored the law, having satisfied divine justice and glorified every attribute of God, enabling God to be just and Justifier, (Romans 3:19-26). What are their particular habits? They swim against the current of works religion and will-worship, and spawn the seed of the Gospel where the rest of the world thinks unfit. Their one resting place is Christ and Him crucified, (Galatians 6:14-16). The world laughs, scorns, and ridicules the message which gives God all the glory in salvation, because, they are trusting in their own wisdom and strength. They ridicule the message of Christ and Him crucified being the only one God blesses to the salvation of sinners. They despise a God who does what He wills; as He wills, when He wills, where He wills. They disregard the Saviour who does not give any glory to man. He says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Exclusive? Yes! But these are the waters in which the believer swims. He knows no other way, because, like the salmon, God has made him so.