A man is dramatically rescued from a swollen river; a child is pulled by firefighters from a burning building; a woman is delivered from a would-be assailant by a brave bystander. Each scenario includes a situation of impending peril or destruction, a rescuer or deliverer who intervenes, and a second chance at life for the one saved. Each is a picture of salvation. Salvation is the deliverance from the power of sin; it is redemption. The need for salvation goes back to the removal of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. After the fall, Adam and Eve, and all people afterwards were separated from God spiritually and experienced physical death. God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, provided a way to rescue us from sin’s consequences. Jesus died on our behalf. He took our place on the Cross. He shed His blood to make a one time atonement for our sins.(Rom. 6:10) Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.(Heb. 9:22) When people believe in Jesus Christ, they are saved.(Acts 16:31)(John 3:16) In order to be saved you must: Recognize that none of us are righteous (Rom. 3:10) You are a sinner (Rom. 3:23) Sin has a penalty (Rom. 6:23) Christ paid the penalty (Rom. 5:8) Salvation is free, you cannot earn it (Eph. 2:8-10) Christ is knocking at the door of your heart (Rev. 3:20) You must receive Him (John 1:12) You must confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9-10) Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13) When you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, confess and ask forgiveness for your sins, and ask Him to come into your heart, you will receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live within you. If you meant what you said, you are now saved. Sometimes we doubt our salvation. Sometimes we don’t feel saved. Other people can sometimes try to convince us we have lost our salvation. Where can we find assurance that we are saved? From the Word of God, of course. 1 John 5:11-13,18-19 11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life. 13 I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 18 We know that those who have become part of God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot get his hands on them. 19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the power and control of the evil one. John 5:24-(Jesus speaking) 24 “I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. John 6:37-40-(Jesus speaking) 37 However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life-that I should raise them at the last day.” John 10:27-30-(Jesus speaking) 27 My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me. 30 The Father and I are one.” Hebrews 13:5 5 Stay away from the love of money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, 20 “I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.” Ephesians 1:13-14 13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God. Ephesians 4:30 30 And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Romans 8:38-39 38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. 39 Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. As you can see the scripture is very clear on what it means to be saved, and that God has promised to never leave us. Everyone who is saved possesses the Holy Spirit within. Romans 8:9-10 9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) 10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. If you are saved the Holy Spirit is living within you, and even though you will someday physically die because of sin, your spirit will live forever with God. This verse also tells us that when we possess the Holy Spirit we are to be controlled by Him.(The Holy Spirit) Our life will bear the fruit of the Spirit. That is another indication that we are saved. 2 Corinthians 5:17 17 What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! Romans 6:2-8 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. 6 Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. Hallelujah! Sin has no power over us anymore. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are a new creation. Our old sinful life is dead. It was crucified with Christ on the Cross. It can no longer control or have power over us. We will walk in the Spirit. We will think differently. We will talk differently. We will act differently. We experienced a rebirth and are now a new creation: a babe in Christ. This does not mean we will sin no more.- 1 John 1:8-9 8 If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. We are not sinless, but we will sin less and less. We will always struggle with sin because we are still living in this fleshly body. We will and face temptation daily. When we do sin, remember 1 John 1: 8-9 Paul faced the same struggle as us. Please read Romans 7:14-25. We will continue to have a battle within between our flesh and Spirit. BUT WE ARE CONTROLLED BY SIN NO MORE. What a price was paid for our salvation. Jesus Christ died and shed His blood on the Cross at Calvary as redemption for our sins. He paid the price. It cost us nothing. It cost Him His life. Ephesians 2:8-9 8 God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Romans 4:1-5 1 Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What were his experiences concerning this question of being saved by faith? 2 Was it because of his good deeds that God accepted him? If so, he would have had something to boast about. But from God’s point of view Abraham had no basis at all for pride. 3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” 4 When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive. 5 But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work. Titus 3:5 5 He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. It is very clear in the above verses that salvation is a gift. It cannot be earned. We cannot obtain it by works. Jesus paid the price and gave it to us as a free gift. We cannot say we did anything to earn it. We cannot say we can do anything to keep it. If we didn’t work to get it, we can’t work to keep it. Does that give us license to sin? Of course not! Heaven forbid. Se Rom. 3:1-8 and Rom. 6. Does that mean we shouldn’t have works? James said, “Faith without works is dead.” Read James 2: 14-25 Ephesians 2:10 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone. While we are not saved by works, God does expect us to “work” for Him. To obey His Word and do His will. Our “work” is our obedient action to His will for our life. We serve Him, not because we have to, but because we want to. We return our love to Him by our obedience to Him for what He did for us. In conclusion: Please read 1 John 3:1-10 , Heb. 10: 26-29, and 2 Pet. 2: 20- 22. If we are living as children of God, sin will have no control over us and we will not deliberately continue sinning. These verses tell us that once we have received a full knowledge of the truth, and escaped from sins grasp, and then become sin’s slave again, we are worse off that before. The Word says it would be better if we had never known the right way to live. You must understand that with much knowledge there is much accountability. Luke 12:48 48 “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to who much more is given. It is your choice and my choice whom we will serve. We can choose to serve God or Satan. Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.(Joshua 24:15) I leave you with these verses: Hebrews 10:35-39 35 Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. 37 “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 And a righteous person will live by faith. But I will have no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” 39 But we are not like those who turn their backs on God and seal their fate. We have faith that assures our salvation. Ollie |