On Being "Saved"

To be saved through Jesus Christ is the only eternal hope for lost humanity.

Being “saved” speaks of man’s great escape from two terrible, inherent things common to all: first, from spiritual and physical strongholds leading to sin; and second, from God’s final judgment as a result of sin.

Strongholds that lead to sin include: the stronghold of Satan with his ability to tempt and entice us; the stronghold of the natural man with the cravings of the flesh and the determination for the natural mind to lean on its own inferior understanding; and the stronghold of the world with the demands imposed on us in order to simply live, as well as those demands made by our unchecked earthly lusts.

Salvation does not remove us from exposure to these strongholds, but it delivers us from being ruled by them. Jesus Christ lived perfectly, overcoming all potential strongholds against Him.  Therefore, through Him in us, we are enabled to do the same.  By the authority of the Spirit of Jesus Christ within, and by the supernatural aid that we readily receive from Him through believing prayer, Jesus delivers us from the overwhelming power of all strongholds. This is the first great escape that salvation gives.

Second, salvation saves us from God’s final judgment as a result of our sin.

Jesus Christ took upon Himself our full punishment when He went to the cross, so that when we identify with Him, having repented of our sins and entered into Him through faith, we will escape the judgment of God as sinners on that final day. Praise the Lord! Our lives are “hid in Christ with God.” We will not be judged with punishment, having already been judged through the man Jesus Christ! Hallelujah! What a Savior! This is the second great escape that salvation gives.

Not only is being saved an escape, but it also invokes the blessings of God on the believer. To be saved is to be born again as a child of God through Jesus Christ, and to be His child is to receive the benefits of His family! Those benefits are far too many to name, but they include God’s overwhelming favor, resulting in miraculous healing for our bodies and minds, His special provision and protection, His intimate fellowship and leadership – and the list goes on, literally, forever!

Salvation belongs to God, who freely gives it to all those who will accept it from Him exactly the way He offers it – freely. It simply requires a genuine recognition of sin, a genuine sorrow for sin, and a genuine repentance from sin - a turning around from the old man of sin and into a new man of righteousness like the Man, Jesus Christ. It is an act of simple faith. He is the doer of it. We only need to truly surrender and receive!

The way of salvation is simple to understand. The difficult thing about it is making the decision to follow it, since there are so many enticements that strongly influence us not to. The strongest thing influencing us away from salvation is our strong love for self. In order to be saved, we must surrender ourselves to God by faith. We cannot change ourselves by ourselves since we have a natural tendency through our carnal nature to please ourselves; even willpower cannot fully change us into His image. And if it were possible for willpower to change some habits, it could never cleanse us from our sins and make us acceptable to God.

Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).  The salvation experience is a work of God's grace that results in a life being changed.  A part of that grace is that God gives us faith to believe.  Believing is a necessary part of the grace experience.  True belief will lead to a true desire and confession of surrender that will be worked out day by day throughout our lives.  This is proof of the born-again experience - that the work of grace has taken place within.

Salvation is an act of living faith – a faith that embraces with the heart what it believes with the head. It cannot be earned. It cannot be stolen. It cannot be bartered for. It cannot be borrowed or bought. It is not found in our goodness or obedience to anything that we may do, other than to accept His free, saving grace through a life of loyal, living faith!


The Way To Salvation

Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
 
There are many declarations throughout the Bible that support exactly what Jesus said here as recorded by His beloved apostle, John. Thus, within the context of Jesus’ use of the word believe, anyone may surrender to Him for salvation! That includes you!  Surrendering to Him is more than head knowledge and agreement with what you believe to be true about Him.  It is more than head-knowledge belief - it is a work of the heart also.

For example, the Bible says that “Even the demons believe [that there is one God] - and tremble” (James 2:19). So why are they not “saved”? That answer is simple; the demons believe with their “heads” only. They know it is true. But they have not believed in the context of what Jesus taught concerning belief. The belief Jesus taught is a head knowledge that also moves to the heart, resulting in a changed life. To believe within the context of what Jesus taught means to surrender your life for His and to fully trust Him to freely forgive you of your sins and to freely give you His life – to believe that this kind of faith in Him alone can save you.

Jesus said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25

If the Spirit of the Lord is speaking to you and you want to forsake your life in exchange for His, you must acknowledge to God that you are a sinner and that you realize you have a sin-nature that only He can deliver you from. Then, confess your need to Him for a savior and that you fully believe Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son of God and Savior. Tell Him you truly believe that He lived perfectly in the world and died sacrificially for you. Confess to Him that you also fully believe He arose from the grave and is alive today. Ask Him to save you – to forgive your sins through Jesus Christ and to come into your life by His Holy Spirit – to make you a new creation, and to help you become like Jesus in obedience to Him.

When you do this, you will become one who “believes” within the context of what Jesus is saying in John 3, and in context with what the whole Bible teaches about salvation from beginning to end. It is a matter of looking completely to Him for forgiveness, forsaking your own life and merit while sincerely surrendering your will in exchange for His. He also tells us that in order to receive His forgiveness, we must forgive.

Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 11:25-26

Sometimes forgiving others who have caused deep hurts may be difficult to do at first, but we should immediately confess our willingness to forgive and our sincere willingness for Him to make it a living reality.

For more help in understanding salvation or in your quest for assurance of salvation, seek out someone you know who has already been changed through Him and ask for help. You may also contact us, and we will be more than happy to help you understand the greatness of His love, forgiveness, and favor that is available to you, now and forever…Amen!

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Select Scriptures about Salvation

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:16-21)