HOW CAN I BE SAVED?
SAVED FROM WHAT?
In the last 50 – 75 years we have lost a whole biblical culture in the US. We have also lost a whole biblical language. A couple of generations ago, at least in the so-called Bible Belt, most people understood what being saved was all about. Today, the expression hardly makes sense to most people.
To put it simply, humankind is lost and alienated from God. Because of the spiritual disaster of our parents Adam and Eve, we have inherited sin. It is almost as if we have sin in our genetic makeup. In Romans 3:23 we read, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” The Psalmist says: “All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psa. 14:3). Thus, there is not one person on earth who is righteous and acceptable to the Holy God. Because of our inherent sin, we all are spiritually dead and condemned in God’s sight. Paul makes it very clear to us: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
GOD’S PLAN OF SALVATION AND GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
So, humanity is in a terrible mess. Today, this is becoming more and more evident. The Bible is clear that we cannot get out of this mess on our own. We need help big time. This is what the Gospel or good news of Jesus is all about. Although we were powerless to solve our sin problem, God himself reached down and solved the problem for us.
The previous verse spoke of the gift of God. God the Father in his great compassion and mercy sent his Son Jesus to save us. He came as a heavenly Lamb and sacrificed himself for our sins. His shed blood on the cross became the atonement or payment of sin for all those who would believe and accept him. What a wonderful heavenly gift that is now available to sinners! Through Jesus, our sins are forgiven; we are granted an entirely new and eternal life. To put it simply, we are saved.
What a wonderful thing Jesus has done for us! If we can but trust in him, our sins will be gone! As John the Baptist testified of him: “…Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29).
HOW CAN I TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS GIFT?
God makes things very clear, but often religion gets it all complicated. Since salvation is a free gift, all we have to do is ask and receive it. That can begin with a simple cry, call or request to God “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Rom. 10:13). It can start with the request, “God save me!” or “I accept you Jesus!” or “I want your gift!” If one of these or any other sincere call to God is made, such a request will start the heavenly wheels turning for our salvation.
Salvation comes to us by God’s grace. We can never earn it. It also comes by our faith in sincerely asking and believing that God has given the gift. God will even help and strengthen our faith. There is another element that is vitally important. We must be willing to turn away from our sinful lives. That is called repentance. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, he requests that we follow him. This means that we must turn from our old path of sin, and with his help, live in a new way. Jesus must have the steering wheel of our lives. Jesus calls us to follow him and become his disciples or learners.
STEPS IN FOLLOWING JESUS
Now that we have believed in Jesus and asked him to save us, there are some first steps that we must take. These are confession, baptism, church affiliation, Bible reading and prayer.
The Bible says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). We need to tell somebody about our decision and keep on telling people. There are no secret disciples. The Muslims confess their god Allah five times a day through loudspeakers, so it should not be difficult for us to tell someone about our decision to follow Jesus.
Then we should quickly be baptized. Baptism signifies the burying of the old person and the resurrection of the new person (Rom. 6:4). In the New Testament when people were saved, they were baptized immediately. It is wrong to put off baptism, even for some kind of church study program. In Acts 2:41, three thousand people were baptized the same day they were saved. God wants us to get on with our Christian lives and not dillydally around. We have now been given the Holy Spirit from God and we need to get into action (Acts 2:38).
After baptism, we need to find a Bible-believing church or fellowship to attend. We will not be able to find a perfect church. If we do, it will no longer be perfect when we get into it. Somewhere, there is a church that just fits us, where we can worship with other Christians and fellowship with them. It does need to be a church that preaches the Bible and believes it. The Bible warns us that we should be found, “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). We can receive much help from other Christians, and it is good to have many eyes watching for the wolves and lions who are anxious to attack us.
The other important thing we must do is to read the Bible every day. We might compare this to a tiny baby who must have its milk regularly (1 Pet. 2:2-3). The baby cannot live without the bottle, and neither can a Christian live and grow without regular Bible reading. It is even good to memorize certain key verses so we can always have them handy. It is good to meditate on Bible verses.
Along with Bible reading there is prayer. We need to learn how to pray. It might be good to look at the model prayer of Jesus in Matthew 6:9-13. Our prayer can be based on that for starters. Prayer can be very simple, just chatting with God. He loves to hear us pray. We must not think that following Jesus would be drudgery. It is a joy to follow him and to do his will. The Lord even helps us to keep his word. As the Apostle Paul says, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13).
START LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Start the day with prayer and Bible reading and end the day the same way. Once we are saved God gives us his Holy Spirit, so we can pray in the Spirit throughout the day (Eph. 6:18). The Holy Spirit will actually help us pray (Rom. 8:26). We can pray in our hearts and minds even as we do our daily work.
Now that we are disciples or followers of the Lord, we can ask him for direction each day. He may bring people to us or bring us to people so that we can share the good things we have. Our day should be filled with praise and rejoicing. Paul says: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).
The disciple is a learner and a follower of the Lord. So, every day is a day of learning until our journey is complete and we are called to be with the Lord forever and ever. Amen.
-Jim Gerrish
Published 2024
Picture credit Wikimedia, Jan Metsys (1510-1575) public domain
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