Understanding Salvation
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:13-14)
We all think that we have forever to live and to do everything we ever wanted to do. Some think we can “get right” with God whenever we feel like it. My question to those who think like this and are still waiting to commit their life to Jesus Christ so they can be assured of their eternal destination is: what will happen to you if you die right now? The question that a lot of people ask is “do you want to go to heaven?” Duh! I don’t think anybody deep down in their heart doesn’t want to go to heaven, but the more important question is “will you go to heaven?” So often the response is “I am not sure” and “I’m doing the best that I can to make it there.” Unfortunately, what we fail to realize is we must be sure that we are going, and there is nothing good enough (even if we think it is our best) to make it to the Kingdom of God.
Are You Saved?
In the same sense, some people will say that they are saved although they do not know if they are going to heaven. That is impossible. We cannot go to heaven if we are not saved in the same sense cannot be certain we are saved if we are not sure we are going to heaven. To be saved, logically you must be saved from something. What are we saved from? We are saved from death, hell, and eternal damnation, our sinful nature, from the law. We have been rescued and set free from the bondage of our sins. It means to have assurance of our salvation in the name of Jesus Christ that you are with Him in the Kingdom of God.
How do you get saved?
And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:30-31)
It is just that simple to know for a fact, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, and will be with Him in Heaven. There is nothing else that is added to be saved. Once you are saved, you will naturally do certain things that the Holy Spirit of God leads you to do. To be saved however, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that He is all that He claims to be.
What did He claim to be?
Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God who was sent to save the world from its sin. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
“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.” (John 3:16)
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17)
“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 3:18)
How did He save us?
Jesus Christ saved us by coming into this fallen world from His heavenly kingdom. He became poor so that we could become rich in His Holy name. He came to teach us the truth about our Heavenly Father God in which we so desperately needed. After all the knowledge and wisdom God gave us, He laid down His life for us, because He also saw us as His friend.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
How did He Lay Down His Life for Us?
God hates sin. Jesus Christ, while being sinless, became sin, our sins, wickedness, unrighteousness, for the world, and for each and every one of us, including you, and including me. He was beaten, bruised, and hanged to die on a cross. We can easily cast blame on who crucified Jesus Christ, but the truth of the matter is we all played a huge part in crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ. We have all sinned and fell short of the glory of God. Due to God’s love for us, He sacrificed His only begotten son so that we could be reconciled with Him. By Jesus Christ pouring out His love for us through His righteous blood, He covered all of our sins as our Passover lamb, the Lamb of God.
How can we believe this?
This one very thing allows us to know that we can believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that no other religion can ever provide the same assurance. Jesus Christ came back from the dead three days after His death. He said that He would and He did so. If He didn’t come back, that would have made Him a liar. Everything He ever said would have been a lie. Some religions say that it was not really Him on the cross, and it was something else, yet they believe He was sent from God. If that were true, that would make Him a liar, and that would also make God a liar, and if God is God, then He does not and cannot lie.
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40)
On the third day, He broke through the gates of Hades and resurrected. He gave Satan the ultimate blow, the finishing move, when He, Jesus Christ, the one and only overcame death. He came back and showed Himself to us. If Christ overcame death, and we are in Christ, we are over-comers as well. No one has ever returned to tell us that it is done if it has cost them their life. Now, we can be alive if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because He lives. If He didn’t live; He would not be Lord.
Therefore, to be certain, beyond the shadow of a doubt that we will go to heaven once we fall asleep in the flesh here on earth, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must believe that He was crucified for our sins but rose again on the third day to give us new life. We must believe that He is the Son of God who came into this fallen world as a sacrifice for our sins because we could not save ourselves. Through believing this, we can know for a fact that we are saved through the blood of Jesus Christ and have assurance that we are going to heaven.
“Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12: Spoken by the Holy Spirit through Simon Peter)
