The Salvation Message

How can I know God? How do I get to heaven? What must I do to be saved? Over the millennia, countless numbers of people have asked these questions. Perhaps you’ve asked them yourself. The simple fact that your reading this post shows you’ve at least thought about it. So then I will tell you God’s simple plan of salvation.

KNOW THAT YOU WILL DIE

The mortality rate among humans is 100%. This life and everything you have now will someday pass away. It’s inevitable.

When God created the world, though, it was not His plan that people would die. When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them a perfect world to live in. He gave them only one restriction: do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He gave Adam a stern warning, “when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). But Adam disobeyed God and ate of that forbidden fruit. When he did that, he exchanged his immortal body for a mortal one.

We now are descended from Adam and we have inherited his body of flesh. As Adam died, we all die (Romans 5:12). It’s a guaranteed. You need to consider what is going to happen after you die.
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KNOW THAT YOU WILL BE JUDGED

The Bible says that it is appointed to us to die and then we are judged (Hebrews 9:27). God is perfect in everything He does. The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8). Because of this, some people believe God will simply overlook everything they’ve ever done wrong. They don’t seem to understand that God is also just.

Imagine a judge in a criminal trial who is sentencing a murderer. The judge says, “I’m a loving judge so I’m not going to condemn you. Instead, I’m going to set you free!” That judge would be an unjust judge. So while God is perfect love, He is also perfectly just. Even though He loves us, He will still hold us accountable for our sins.

KNOW THAT YOU ARE GUILTY

Ok. So God will judge us. Have we really been that bad? Be honest with yourself for a moment (it’s just you and the computer) and compare your life to the 10 Commandments.

One Commandment is that we do not lie (Exodus 20:16). Do you think it’s wrong to lie? Have you ever lied? Everyone has. What do we call someone who lies? We call him a liar.

Another Commandment is that we do not steal (Exodus 20:15). Do you think it’s wrong to steal? Have you ever stolen anything (even just a little thing)? Everyone has. We call a person who steals a thief.

We are commanded to not take God’s name in vain (Exodus 20:7). Have you ever said, “Oh my God,” or “Jesus Christ” (in exclamation), or “God damn”? Everyone has. These are examples of taking God’s name in vain. We call people who misuse God’s name, blasphemers.

Is adultery wrong? Jesus said if we even lust after a person, we’ve already committed adultery in our hearts (Matthew 5:28). Have you ever lusted after someone?

Do we need to go down the entire list? Have you always put God first in your life? Have you always kept the Sabbath holy? Have you always honored your parents? You see, it’s not if we’ve broken any commandments. The fact is everyone has broken every commandment. When we stand before a perfect God, we are nothing but lying, thieving, adulterous blasphemers who have broken every law.

KNOW THAT YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED

God, Who is perfect, cannot bear sin. Every sin must accounted for – and the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). As we’ve already seen, we are all guilty (Romans 3:23). I'm guilty; you're guilty; everyone is guilty! And because we are guilty, the just Judge will condemn us for our sins.

The Bible says that after our works are judged, whoever’s name is not found in the Book of Life is cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:15). This is the second death. We may die physically because of Adam’s sin, but we are condemned for our own sins.

WE ARE SAVED BY JESUS

The situation may look bleak. We’re all guilty of sin, the penalty for sin is death, so we’re all are worthy to die for our sins. But this is where the perfect love of God comes in. The Bible says that God loved the world so much that He gave us His Son and whoever believes in Him would not perish (John 3:16)

You see, Jesus is the only person Who has kept the Law. The Bible says He was tempted in every way that we are yet He did not sin. Of all the people who have ever lived, only He was not worthy of death. And even though He did not deserve to die, He gave His life to pay the penalty for our sin. By His sacrifice, God’s perfect justice was satisfied.

Jesus is the only Savior (Acts 4:2). There was no other perfect man: not Buddha, not Mohammed, not Confucius, not even Moses or Abraham. These men were sinners and would have had to give their lives as the penalty for their own sins. They could not give their lives as the payment for our sin.

BELIEVE IN JESUS AND BE SAVED

So now we have a choice. When we stand before God in judgment, we can hope that our works were good enough to save us (a futile notion) or we can plead the shed blood of Jesus as the payment for our sins.

Salvation is really that simple. We gain eternal life by believing in Jesus. Romans 10:9-10 says:

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Luke 18:10-14 tells us about a sinner (a tax collector) who prayed only that God would show him mercy. In his simple prayer, the Bible says he was justified before God. Christians sometimes use his prayer as a model for what we call “the sinner’s prayer.” It’s not a magic formula, but a prayer of repentance should sound something like this:

“God, I know I’m a sinner. I’ve sinned against you and I know I am lost. But I repent of my sins and accept Jesus as my Savior. I ask Jesus into my heart as the Lord of my life. Amen.”

A little child will sometimes ask something impossible of his parents. He doesn’t understand how such a thing is done (or not done); he simply asks believing it can be done. This is the kind of faith we need. We don’t have to understand everything about God before we can be saved. We simply ask for salvation in childlike faith and God will save us. When prayed sincerely, a simple prayer like that shown above will remove a mountain of sin.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

If you have prayed and accepted Christ as your Savior, then congratulations, you have passed from death to life (John 5:24). The next step is to find a Bible believing church and begin learning more about Jesus.

There are a couple of clues in finding a good church. For example, in a Bible-believing church, the first thing they will probably ask you to do is be baptized. Another thing you should do is ask to speak to the pastor. Ask him what he thinks about salvation. Print this post and take it with you. Show it to the pastor and ask him if there is anything else you need to do to be saved. If he says, "no" then you've probably found a good church.

Next study, pray, and then tell others about Jesus!