What is Salvation
The Bible is very clear on how one can be saved. Please read the following and pray the prayer at the end.
We
all need to make a conscious decision to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and
Saviour and in John
1:12
the Bible says: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (NKJ)
We
need to understand that every one of us are born sinners and have sinned
somehow, somewhere, sometime during our lives and therefore come short of the
glory of God. Romans
3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (NKJ)
Furthermore
the Bible states in Romans
6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord. (NKJ) That means that if we keep on sinning, we remain dead
spiritually. But thank God that He gave us His Son Jesus Christ so that we can
receive eternal life. John
3:16
says "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. (NKJ)
In
Romans 5:8 the Bible says that God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
We
need to realize that Jesus desires that all of us enter into a blood covenant
with Him by personally accepting His death on our behalf. This is His covenant
of love. Matthew
26:28
"For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. (NKJ)
Jesus
wants us to walk in the light. Meaning that we should live a life of holiness
and purity. In 1
John 1:7
we read that if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin. (NKJ)
The question still remains: How do we deal with the sin we have committed?
1 John 1:9 says: "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness." (NKJ) This means that we should ask God to
forgive us our sins and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By
confessing our sins to Him we will receive forgiveness of our sins.
Romans
10:9-10
tells us exactly what to do to be saved. 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. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
When
you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ the
Bible says we will be saved. Romans 10:13 For "whoever calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (NKJ)
Here
is an example of what to Pray
Jesus, today I, Siyabonga Mtshali (your name), accept You as my Lord and Saviour.
Jesus, today I, Siyabonga Mtshali (your name), accept You as my Lord and Saviour.
I
believe Your Word (John
3:16)
"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."
Thank
you for dying in my place, wash me with Your Blood and forgive me all my sins,
as I forgive everyone who sinned against me.
I
confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God has
raised Him from the dead. For with the heart I believe unto righteousness, and
with my mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Write
my name in the Lamb's Book of Life and fill me with Your Holy Spirit.
I
know that I am Your child because Your Word says so in John 1:12 and I will never have
to doubt it.
AMEN
Congratulations!
You have just made the most important decision you will ever make. (The
decision to become a Christian) This decision will impact your life here on
earth as well as after your death.
Mankind
consists of spirit, body and soul. When you received Jesus Christ into you
life, He cleansed you of all sin, your spirit is now Born Again, the old spiritual
being is now dead, you are now a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The
road ahead is an important part of your walk with Jesus Christ. Just like a
baby learning to take his/her first steps, so will your experience be
spiritually.
1. Introduction
Many Christians are insecure in their
relationship with God because they do not really understand the plan of
salvation and, therefore, they do not have assurance of salvation. They try
hard to do everything the Lord requires, but in spite of all their efforts they
never seem to break through into a place of security in their relationship with
Him. They always feel as if God is displeased with them. Although there are
many reasons why newborn Christians do not grow in their relationship with God,
one of the most common is that they are not sure that they are in a right
relationship with Him, that is, they do not have assurance of salvation.
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Do you think you will go to heaven when you die? (Tick the box beside one
answer.)
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a) Yes, there is no doubt in my
mind I am headed for heaven!
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b) No, I am certainly not on the
road to heaven.
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c) I think so, but I am not
certain one way or the other.
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d) I hope so, although nobody
can know until judgement day.
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e) None of the above
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If you think you are going to heaven, why do you think God will let you
in? (Tick as many answers as you wish.)
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a) I have committed my life to
the Lord Jesus Christ.
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b) I attend church regularly.
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c) I read the Bible and pray to
God regularly.
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d) I live a good life, and do my
best to obey God’s commands.
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e) Other (specify):
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Do you think that before you could go to
heaven, God would have to change anything about the way you live right now?
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a) No
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b) Yes
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These three questions were carefully
designed to test whether a person has assurance of salvation. There is only one
correct answer to each question. Let us discuss them briefly.
Question
1: Do you think you will go to heaven when you die? Believers who are sure of their relationship with God will answer, ‘Yes,
there is no doubt in my mind I am headed for heaven.’ They know Jesus died to
atone for their sins, and they know the Holy Spirit has entered their lives,
changing their course and their destination. There is no uncertainty in their
hearts about whether they are saved. If you chose any answer other than ‘a’, it
is likely you are unsure of your relationship with God. In this case, it is
likely you do not understand the gospel properly or clearly.
Question 2: If you think you are going to heaven, why do you think God will
let you in? This question tests your understanding of the
Biblical basis of salvation. If you understand and believe the gospel of Jesus
Christ, you would have ticked only answer ‘a’: ‘I have committed my life
to the Lord Jesus Christ’. We are saved only by Jesus’ death, and our faith in
Him. We cannot add anything to His finished work. While church attendance,
Bible reading, prayer, and godly living are all valuable parts of the Christian
life, they contribute nothing to our salvation. We cannot earn salvation
by doing good works.
Question 3: Do you think that before you could
go to heaven, God would have to change anything about the way you live right
now? This question double-checks your
understanding of the gospel. We all sin, so there are things in all our lives
that God wants to change. However, the condition for eternal life is believing
in Jesus (John 3:16). The correct answer, therefore, is ‘no’.
How did you do on that three-test quiz? If
you did not get all three questions right, it is likely your grasp of the
gospel is imperfect. We shall examine the plan of
salvation (the gospel message, and how it applies in our lives). If you
understand the plan of salvation, you should have assurance of salvation.
2. Assurance of Salvation
Every non-Christian
religion that I know teaches that it is impossible to be sure of your
salvation. You must wait until judgement day for God to assess your works to
see if they are worthy of eternal life. However, the Bible teaches otherwise.
And this is the testimony: God has given us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who
does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have
eternal life (1 John 5:11-13).
John makes three statements that emphatically teach that we can know we are saved right now. First, he says God has given us eternal life (v. 11). Eternal life is something we receive in the present. Eternal life starts here and now, not when we die. Then he says he who has the Son has life (v. 12). Everyone who believes in the Son of God, that is, everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, has received eternal life. Eternal life is our present possession as well as our future inheritance. Finally, he claims plainly that you may know that you have eternal life (v. 13). Those who believe in Christ can know with certainty in this life that they have received the gift of eternal life. They do not have to wait until judgement day to find out if God has accepted them.
God loves us and He has gone to great trouble to provide a way of salvation for us, even sacrificing His own beloved Son. God’s chief desire is to brings us back into a living relationship with Himself. Having paid such a high price to provide salvation, He certainly would not leave us in doubt about how to be saved. He has clearly shown us what He expects of us. Therefore, we can know for sure whether or not we have met His requirements, and thus whether or not we are in right relationship with Him.
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What three points does John make in 1 John
5:11-13? Write them out.
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a)
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b)
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c)
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3. The Plan of Salvation
How can we know whether or not we have eternal life, whether or not we are saved and will go to heaven when we die? The Bible teaches us that God has a plan of salvation. God’s desire is for all human beings to be reconciled to Him. Therefore, He has revealed to us what we must do to inherit eternal life, to be reconciled to Him. He has not left us in any doubt about what He requires of us.
The conditions of salvation are clearly spelled out in the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation provides God’s solution to man’s predicament. Paul outlines the plan of salvation in Ephesians.
For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do (Eph. 2:8-10).
There are three points to take note of in this passage:
1.
We are not saved by works.
2.
We are saved by grace, through faith.
3.
We are saved for works.
3.1. We are not saved by works
Every other religion in the world teaches that man is saved by works. To be saved by works means that we do enough good deeds to earn God’s favour. It implies that the person being saved is good enough to deserve salvation.
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Do you think the Bible teaches we are saved
by doing good works?
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a) Yes
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b) No
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The Bible teaches us that there is a major problem with this approach to salvation. The problem is a two-sided coin: God is holy and man is sinful. The problem is that holiness and sinfulness cannot live together in harmony. Let us explore each side of the coin a little more deeply.
God is holy. Holiness is the attribute of God most emphasised in the Bible. God
is perfect in holiness. The Word of God says, ‘God is light; in Him there is no
darkness at all’ (1 John 1:5). Because God is perfect in holiness, somebody who
wanted to earn salvation by works would have to be completely without sin. Even
one sin would disqualify us, as James 2:10 explains: ‘For whoever keeps the
whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.’
One facet of God’s holiness is justice. His nature requires that He punish sin. When His laws are broken, He must measure out appropriate punishment.
First, we need to understand each of these kinds
of death. The root idea behind death in the Bible is separation.
Physical death is the separation of body and spirit; the body returns to dust,
and the spirit either to God or to hell (see Eccl. 12:7). Spiritual death is
separation from God, that is, a broken relationship with Him (see Isa. 59:2).
Eternal death is final separation from God in hell, a place of eternal,
conscious torment.
Which of these three kinds of death are part of God’s punishment on sin? All three! When Adam and Eve sinned, their sin immediately put a barrier between God and them. The intimate fellowship they enjoyed with Him ended. Although they did not die physically for many years, their bodies became subject to death and decay. In other words, the moment they sinned, they died spiritually, and they began to die physically. Since the fall, anyone who died ‘in sin’ has gone to hell (eternal death).
So, God is holy, and He has instituted a
death penalty for anyone who sins.
Man is sinful. We are born with a sinful nature that makes it impossible for us to live sinless lives in perfect obedience to God’s commands. We have all fallen short of the perfect standard of holiness that God requires (Rom.
Our sinfulness makes it impossible for us
to earn God’s favour. No matter how hard we try, nothing we can do will ever be
good enough to earn salvation. God is perfect in holiness and He requires
complete holiness from us if we are to be worthy of salvation. Not only are we
unable to live perfect lives from now on, but even if we could live perfectly
from now on we still could not undo our past mistakes.
By way of summary, then, because God is holy and we are sinful, there is absolutely no way we can be good enough to deserve to enjoy a right relationship with Him or to go to heaven. We deserve judgement and death. Our good works cannot atone for our sins. If this is the case, Jesus’ disciples asked the most important question: ‘Who then can be saved?’ (Matt. 20:25). To put it in different words, ‘How can we be saved?’
3.2. We are saved by grace, through faith
Salvation is not
something we earn for ourselves by our good works, but that does not mean we
are completely passive and play no part in receiving our own salvation. The
Bible teaches that both God and man play a part in salvation. God plays the
major role of providing salvation; man plays the minor role of receiving it. In
Ephesians 2:8, Paul call’s God’s major role grace, and our minor role faith.
3.2.1. God’s part: grace
God has provided a way for sinners to be brought back into a right relationship with Himself. He sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to bear the punishment for our sin. Jesus died in our place, accepting the punishment for our sins and thus satisfying God’s justice so that He was free to forgive sinners and reconcile them to Himself.
One of the most important passages of
Scripture explaining how God provided salvation for us is Romans 3:21-26, which
says:
21 But now a righteousness from God,
apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ
to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God
presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did
this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the
sins committed beforehand unpunished—26 He did it to
demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who
justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Let me quickly walk you through this passage.
v. 21 God has provided
‘a righteousness … apart from law’, that is, He has provided a way for us to become
righteous before Him, and it has nothing to do with keeping a set of laws—He
knows we cannot do so.
v. 22 The way of
becoming right with God (righteous in His sight) is ‘through faith in Jesus
Christ’. It is not our good works but His sacrificial death that has the power
to save us.
v. 23 Why must salvation
be ‘through faith in Jesus Christ’ and ‘apart from law’? The answer is ‘for we
have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. We are sinners, completely
unable to measure up to God’s standards of righteousness.
v. 24 We are justified!
This means we have been brought into right standing with God by being declared
righteous in His sight. This could never happen as a result of our works,
because we have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards. Instead, it is ‘by
His grace’! We are justified purely by the redemption Jesus provided, not
by any good works we have done.
v. 25 How did God
provide redemption in Christ? He offered Jesus’ blood (His life) as ‘a
sacrifice of atonement’ (Greek, hilastērion). This word suggests that
Jesus died to bear God’s righteous punishment for our sins. He died in our
place, accepting our judgement. This was necessary to ‘demonstrate His
justice’. He could not just ignore or overlook our sins. He had to punish sin to
retain His justice.
v. 26 The atoning death
of Jesus is ingenious—God remains just (sin is punished), and at the same time
finds a way to pardon sinners and reconcile them with Himself!
This is what it means to be saved by grace. Grace is undeserved favour. God has done something for us that we do not deserve—He has provided a way for us to be saved. He offers us salvation as a free gift, that is, as something we do not have to earn for ourselves. G-R-A-C-E stands for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
3.2.2. Our part: faith
Although God has made a way for us to be saved, we still have to meet the conditions He had laid down. Salvation is a free gift, but we must receive that gift. How do we receive the gift of salvation? We receive it through faith. Grace is God’s part; faith is our part.
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The
Bible actually lays down two conditions we must meet to receive the gift of
salvation. Study these passages, and write down the condition (or
conditions) mentioned in each.
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Mark 1:15
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John 1:12
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John 3:16
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Acts 3:19
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Acts 16:31
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Acts 20:21
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Heb. 6:1
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The two conditions
that recur in these passages (and throughout the New Testament) are repentance
and faith. When they occur together, repentance is turning away from
a life of sin, and faith is turning to God in wholehearted surrender. When only
one occurs, it implies both ideas—turning from sin and self to Christ. Let us
examine each idea in more detail.
The first condition is repentance. Repentance is a decision to change the way we are living, to turn away from sin and toward God. The best description of repentance in the Bible is found in 2 Timothy 2:19, ‘Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness”.’
We need to distinguish repentance from two other things that are often mistaken for it: remorse and penance.
Remorse is feeling sorry for your sins, without necessarily suggesting you are willing to forsake them. Repentance includes remorse, but it always involves action—a sincere decision to turn away from sin. Penance is doing something to pay for your sins, receiving punishment to make amends. God does not require us to pay for our own sins because Jesus has already paid for them.
Repentance involves three steps: (a) conviction: 2 Cor 7:10; (b) confession: 1 John 1:9; and (c) conversion: 2 Tim 2:19. Repentance begins with conviction of sin that produces godly sorrow (remorse). The sense of guilt over our sin is the work of the Holy Spirit, who makes us aware of the fact that we have sinned against God. The proper response to the Holy Spirit’s conviction is confession of sin. God wants us to tell Him that we know we have sinned against Him and we are sorry about it. The final step is conversion to Christ, turning from a life of sin and committing ourselves to live for God rather than ourselves. This does not mean we will not sin anymore, but it does mean that we sincerely want to serve God and turn from sin.
The second condition is faith. We are saved by faith in Jesus
Christ. What does this mean? Mark 1:15
commands us to believe in the gospel [of Jesus Christ]. True faith
involves agreement and trust. We must believe that Jesus’ death paid for our
sins and Jesus’ resurrection restores our spiritual life. But true faith can
never stop with intellectual agreement. Many believe that Jesus’ death and
resurrection are the basis of salvation, but are not saved (Jas 2:19 ). The reason is that true faith
must go beyond mental agreement to wholehearted trust. So we must not only
believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we must place our trust in those acts
as the basis of our salvation. We must stop trusting in our own works to save
us and start trusting in Christ’s finished work. To place your hope of eternal
life not in your good works but in Jesus’ atoning work is to be saved by faith.
3.3. We are saved for works
We cannot change ourselves, but Jesus certainly can change us. We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works. We cannot be what we are not. Before we are saved, we are by nature sinners. When we get saved, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and dwells in us (Rom. 8:9-10, 16). He changes us from the inside. The natural result of His work in us is that we do good works. We do not do good works so that we can be saved; we do them because we are saved.
Three changes usually take place in our lives when we meet Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Change 1: We become alive to God.
Before we meet the Lord, the things of God
are boring and foolish to us. But the moment we meet Him, things like church,
Bible reading, praying, fellowship, and discussing spiritual things take on
whole new dimension. What previously seemed boring suddenly comes alive.
Change 2: You become aware of sin.
When we meet Jesus, we develop new
perspective on sin—whereas we were hardly conscious of it before, we suddenly
become highly sensitive to it. Little sins that never bothered us before begin
to gnaw at our conscience. Although we are living holier lives than before, we
feel even more sinful. It is not that we are more sinful, just that we feel
more sinful. What has changed? The Holy Spirit has come to live in our
hearts. One of His works is to convict us of sin. Because of the work of the
Holy Spirit, our consciences become more sensitive.
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What does it mean to be ‘born again’?
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Jesus told Nicodemus, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again’ (John 3:3). Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus meant. Jesus
rephrased His statement: ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom
of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit’ (John 3:5). To be ‘born
again’ means to be ‘born of the Spirit’.
The idea
behind being ‘born again’ is simple. Before we accept Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Saviour, we are spiritually dead in sin (Eph. 2:1). Our spirits are
separated from God. The moment we confess our sins and turn to Jesus in
faith, we are made alive in Christ (Eph. 2:5). Then the Holy Spirit joints
with our spirits, making us God’s children and bringing our spirits back to
life.
The theological word
for ‘born again’ is regeneration, which is ‘the work of the Holy
Spirit in creating a new life in the sinful person who repents and comes to
believe in Christ’ (Erickson 1998:168). Therefore, every true believer is born
again. That is, the Holy Spirit has entered the life of every person who
receives Jesus Christ, and made his or her spirit alive again.
Do you understand the
implications of this? There aren’t two types of Christians, namely, the born
again Christians and the ‘ordinary’ Christians. No! All true believers are
born again, born of the Spirit. Whether you use the words ‘born again’ or
not, if you have repented of sin, put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and received the indwelling Holy Spirit, then you are born again.
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It is good to feel bad when you sin. It is
God’s way of motivating you to become more like Jesus. How you respond to His
conviction will shape your Christian walk. Resist the temptation to justify
your sins or to make excuses for your transgressions. The right response is to
confess your sin, and repent of it. Most of the time, you only need to confess
to God, but sometimes it is necessary to ask forgiveness from others too. Try
to develop the holy habit of ‘keeping a short account with God’, that is,
confessing your sins the moment He convicts you.
Change 3: We become more like Jesus
We immediately begin to see changes in our lives. Habits we have tried to break for years can often be broken instantly. Our character begins to change, little by little, to become more like His.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you
astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous … No
one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him;
he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know
who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who
does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not
love his brother (1 John 3:7-10).
A change in lifestyle is the surest evidence that we are indeed saved. When the Holy Spirit enters our lives, we begin to change to become like Jesus. The change is a lifelong process rather than an instantaneous event. Nevertheless, a significant change almost always occurs the moment we give our lives to Christ.
4. Conclusion
The mistake many new believers make is that they base their hope of salvation on their feelings rather than on God’s promises. When they feel close to God, perhaps because they have been at church, spent time in prayer, or helped someone in need, they are confident that they are in right relationship with God. However, when they fail God in some way or just feel downcast, they doubt their relationship with God. To combat this tendency, we must all base our faith on the Word of God. Feelings come and go, but the Word of God remains constant.
God has left us in no
doubt about what He requires of us. He has not left us in doubt about how we
can receive the gift of salvation which He offers. Since the conditions are
clearly spelled out in His Word, we can assess whether or not we have met them
and thus be sure of our salvation. We do not need to base our hope on our
feelings, we can base our faith on the Word of God.
God is not a man
that he should lie. … Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not
fulfil? (Num. 23:19).
In the plan of
salvation, God has laid down two main conditions for receiving His gift of
eternal life, namely, repentance and faith. Once we have turned away from a
sinful life and committed ourselves to serving Christ as Lord and Saviour, we
can be sure that God is faithful to keep His promises.
