What is "salvation"?
How can I receive it? And why would I want to?
--- Click here to find out the purpose of salvation.
--- Can you have assurance of salvation? Click here to find out.
--- Click here to find out why Jesus compared Himself to a serpent.
--- Click here to compare the Gospel presented in the book of Matthew with the Gospel presented in the book of Romans.
--- Wondering if "conditional security" is compatible with the Gospel? --- Click here
Am I good enough not to need salvation?
Many people think they will go to heaven because they have lived a good life. Perhaps, they treat all of their neighbors fairly. Maybe they volunteer for charity work and have never broken the law. Maybe they were even baptized or go to church regularly. But the Bible, God's Word, says that no one can live up to God's standard of righteousness. This is what God's Word (the Bible) says about all men:
- Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one ...."
- Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ...."
- Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
How can I get right with God?
Salvation cannot be earned. Everyone is a sinner and deserves death, but God gives eternal life. So how can we receive God's gift of eternal life? This is what God's Word says:
- Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes ...."
To be saved, we must believe the gospel. The word "gospel" means "good news". But before we can believe the good news, we have to know what it is.
What is the Gospel?
Once again, let's turn to God's Word for the answer:
- 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel ... that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures ...."
This is the gospel which we must believe in order to be saved.
How does believing this gospel save us?
This is the answer from the Bible:
- Romans 5:8-9 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."
- Romans 3:22-26 "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (appeasing sacrifice) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
We can be saved from the wrath of God, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins and rose from the dead. He paid the price for us, and we are justified in God's eyes through our faith in the blood of Jesus Christ:
- Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast."
There will be no boasting in heaven. We cannot be saved by our own righteousness, but only by God's grace, through faith:
- Ephesians 1:13-14 "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."
Once we believe the gospel, we are sealed with God's Holy Spirit. This is God's deposit, that guarantees he will redeem us, whom our Lord Jesus Christ "purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28).
Studying the Bible is an essential part of the growth of every believer. New believers should begin by reading the Gospel of John, followed by the letters of our Apostle Paul (Romans 11:13), starting with Romans and then continuing through all of Paul's letters.
The Protestant Reformers Clearly Saw...
- That saving faith is to be directed to the doing and dying of Christ alone and not to the good works or inner experience of the believer.
- That the Christian's righteousness before God is in Heaven at the right hand of God in Jesus Christ and not on Earth within the believer.
- That the ground of our justification is the vicarious work of Christ for us and not the gracious work of the Spirit in us.
- That the faith–righteousness of justification is not personal but vicarious, not infused but imputed, not experiential but judicial, not psychological but legal, not our own but alien to us, and not earned but graciously given through faith in Jesus Christ, which faith is itself a gift of grace.
- Robert L. Reymond
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