The Concept and Truth of Salvation
Salvation is fundamental to everything in the Christian way of life and function of the church.
A Vital question is do we understand what salvation is and is not?
Salvation is not a way of life,
A regular attendance at church,
A standard of living to be maintained.
Salvation is a change of heart.
The Bible teaches us that every human being is born out of sync with our creator and in desperate need of a relationship with Him
This natural state of every human being is called is “being dead in trespasses and sins”
…. you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. 2 You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn’t obey God. Eph 2;1
This verse tells us that in our natural state we are out of any kind of relationship with God and governed and influenced by the ruler of this world the devil.
This is the natural state of all humans, utterly out of any kind of relationship with our creator.
The bible clearly teaches that because of this condition one day the creator will have to finally deal with this rebellious state. This is where the biblical teaching of Hell comes in; hell is a place or state of total abandonment by God and everything that is good and is for eternity.
These are hard words, they are not nice to hear but true never the less.
No amount of attendance at church or good living can change the natural condition of our heart. It does not matter how hard we try!
But because of our hopeless state and because the Creator loves us He decided to intervene and freely chose to come Himself in the person of Christ to open a door for anyone who chooses to go through it into His forgiveness.
Christ took our inherent sin on His shoulders and chose to take the penalty and punishment for us.
Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed. 1 Pet 2:24 GNV
This means that because of the death of Jesus Christ right at this very moment any human being can ask for their sins to be forgiven based on what Christ did on the cross.
This means that whenever a person (who ever they are and whatever they have done) asks for forgiveness it is given freely to them, this is why Peter says,
You were like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back to follow the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls
Asking for and receiving salvation automatically brings about a change in a person’s heart. Either immediately or over a period of time the Spirit of Christ in them brings about a change in the way they live, think, feel and act. This is the evidence of Christ in our lives.
Asking for and receiving Christ’s forgiveness heals the brokenness in a person’s relationship with their creator and brings about a fundamental change in our position before God.
We become adopted into Gods family as sons and daughters.
It does not matter what a person has done they can be adopted if they surrender their life to Christ.
So salvation is a heart change and a positional change, not going to church, not trying to change a lifestyle, not trying to be good.
It follows then that a person can come to church, join in the services and make friends and be assumed by others to be a Christian, but in reality they never really come close to the Kingdom of heaven because they are still be governed and influenced by the god of this world.
This happens because they have never personally in their heart come to Christ and received Salvation. This is true the world over.
So there is a vast difference between personal Salvation and just appearing to be part of the church because we attend.
God has arranged it so that even though we are all on a journey and arrive at the point of salvation by different routes and timetables the actual condition of salvation is black and white, salvation is as clear and positive as that. A person cannot be “good enough to please God” only a personal acceptance of Christ’s forgiveness is sufficient. When that has happened there will be evidence in a person’s life by a changing lifestyle.
If there is consistently no change in a person’s life there can be no salvation but when a person becomes a young Christian they embark on a lifelong adventure with Jesus.
To close perhaps we should look at our own hearts and ask this fundamental question, do I know “about” Jesus or do I “know” Jesus personally?
The answer to this question effects how we see things in this life but more importantly how and here we spend eternity.
Close with an appeal to re-commitment and a call to salvation.
