Salvation
 
What does it mean to be saved? Saved from what? What happens if you don’t get saved? How do you get saved? These and many other questions have given philosophers throughout the ages topics on which to write. However, God gives us the answers in His word. Let’s see what it says. 
 
There are basically 4 things that you have to understand and accept regarding  salvation. 
 
1. Man’s condition before salvation. 
 
A. Man’s view of himself.

Proverbs 16:2  All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the spirits.

Man sees himself as basically good; he views his condition as improving. His evolutionary beliefs lead him to believe that he is getting better and better. He sees man as getting less beastlike. The occasions when that idea is challenged (rapists, murderers, child molesters, etc..) , he sees as being the fault of society, saying that the person was acting that way because of the circumstances around him. Maybe he was spanked as a child, or deprived of a parent, or his free expression was hindered, or he had a “sickness”. The entire science of psychology is an attempt to determine why people act contrary to the scientist’s evolutionary beliefs. If those unusual  cases can be explained away, then he can see himself as growing, improving, becoming more perfect. The new age movement, Mormonism, and eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc…) see man as getting more godlike, believing that man can one day become a God.
 
B. God’s view of man.

 

God has a very different view of man. When God looked down on His creation, He saw something very bad.
 

Genesis 6:12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

God saw that man had corrupted himself. He had left God’s plan for his life and did that which he thought was right. Although it seemed right to him, in the eyes of a holy and righteous God, it was corrupt. Both his deeds and his thoughts were corrupt.
 
The first thing that you need to understand is that in the eyes of a holy God, you are a sinner. For some people, that is easy to understand and admit. We have done wrong. Whether others know about our sin, or just us, we are all sinners. If you cannot admit this, then you either are not being honest with yourself, or you don’t have the proper understanding of what sin is. 
 
 
2. Our sin has a result, or a consequence. 
 
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
 
The first time we sin, our spirit becomes separated from God. It is not our greatest sin that makes us sinners, but the first time we knowingly do wrong. It is then that we become sinners, separated from the God who created us. We have an incorrect view of sin. It is not our greatest sin that makes us sinners. It is not committing a giant sin, that makes us sinners. Our first sin, makes us sinners. And sin separates us from God.  If we die in that condition, separated from God, we must spend eternity separated from God, in a place called Hell. The world today has made Hell into a curse word, a joke, a comic book. But, it is none of those things. It is a real, literal place where people spend eternity paying the price for their sin. It is not a place to be with friends, a place of laughter and joy, a place of limbo. It is a place of agonizing torment, a place of fire.
 
3. God’s remedy for sin’s consequence. 
 
God’s plan was wondrous. It goes beyond words, exceeding the imagination of man. The plan is in three parts.
 
1. God Himself would come to earth in the form of a man.
2. He would live in perfect obedience to the law, without sin.
3. Although owing no debt for sin,  He would die for the sin debt of the world. 
 

A man made a watch. He built it just for him, polished it, and took good care of it. One day he was robbed and the watch was taken from him. He was very sad. One day, while walking past a pawn shop, he looked in the window and saw his watch. He ran inside and looked at it. It was his all right. He took out his wallet and paid the storekeeper for the watch. He redeemed his watch. He bought it back for himself.

That is what Christ did for us. We once belonged to God. But through our sin, we were separated from God. But He bought us back by the precious blood of Christ. He redeemed us back to Himself. Notice it was not by the blood of those animals. Not one sin was ever forgiven by the shedding of an animal’s blood. Sin is only forgiven through the work and blood of Jesus Christ. The debt was paid, the work was finished. Everything that had to be done for our salvation was done. Jesus had done it all.
 
 
4. God offers His remedy as a free gift to all who will accept. 
 
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
 
Without question, the Bible clearly says that we cannot be saved by works. No matter how many good deeds we do, no matter how hard we try to live by the Ten Commandments, no matter how good we think we are, we will never be good enough to earn salvation. In fact, when we try to hold our good works up before God, to show Him that we deserve salvation, He sees them as corrupt. We can never be good enough to save ourselves. 
 
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Salvation is a gift. A gift from God. It cannot be earned. It is free. If it was not free, it would not be a gift. If  I was to give you a gift, and then ask for a payment, it would no longer be a gift. It can only be a gift if it is freely given. Who can get this gift of eternal life? How can we get it?
 
Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.
 
Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 
 
 
There are two steps mentioned here. First you must believe in your heart. You must realize that you are a sinner, that you deserve Hell, that Jesus Christ paid your sin debt, and that He offers salvation to you a free gift. But, you cannot stop there. Many people believe in Jesus, and believe what He did. The Devil believes in Jesus. That is head belief. You must take it a step farther, to heart belief. That is when you act upon the head belief. Look at it this way; You probably have a couch in your home. You know that the couch will hold you up if you sit in it. That is head belief. But is the couch holding you up? No. The couch is not holding you up just because you believe it will. It is not until you sit in the couch that it is holding you up. That is heart belief, when you act on what you know in your head and sit on the couch.
 
You must not only believe in your head that Jesus died for your sins, you must act upon that belief and call upon Him to save you. There are no magic formula words that must be said, it should come from the heart. Call upon Him to save you today. 
 
If you would like more information on Salvation, or would like to talk to someone about it, please use our contact page and let us know. We have a free booklet on Salvation that we would love to send you.