How Can I Be Saved?

How Can I Be Saved?

How Can I Be Saved?

Introduction
What is Salvation and why do I need it? What happens to me if I’m not saved and what happens to me if I am saved? How can a person be saved and know it for certain?
Salvation is the basic foundation on which Christianity is built an in fact all of life is built, whether we know it or not or whether we believe it or not.
In this episode we uncover these questions and show the way to salvation from the Bible.

Prayer
Lord, we ask you to show us clearly today your way to salvation. How can a person be saved and know it for certain, and it’s in your name we ask this. Thank you. Amen.

Many of the things that most people are searching for in life are given in the Bible.
For example, it tells us how we and the universe we live in came into existence.
It explains the cause of the evil that’s in the world; and it gives us our ultimate purpose for existence.
The Bible also speaks about the cause of death.
It says in Romans 5:12,
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
The Bible tells the story of how the first man, Adam, was disobedient towards God and even though he lived physically for a very long time, he died that very day spiritually. It’s called the fall of man. His fall from relationship with his Creator, God.
When he fell and died spiritually this fallen nature that he now had, this nature that was alienated from God, introduced sin and death into the world that was until then perfect.
The Bible shows us how that nature, that sin nature, of the first man was passed on right through the entire line of humans that would ever be born from Adam, right down to you and me today.

Because of that fall of man, there’re two things we can be sure of in this life, and we find them in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27,
…it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
Every person will die because of their sin, both physically and spiritually, and then every word they ever spoke, every deed they ever did, and every thought they ever had will be judged by God’s righteous standard.
How will the judgment turn out?
In Romans 2 verses 6 to 9 we see that.
God “will render to each one according to their deeds”:
eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honour, and immortality; …but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation, and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil…
Evil will be punished for eternity with anguish and wrath, but the righteous will be rewarded with eternal life.
But here. of course, is a huge problem: There is none that are righteous.
Romans 3 verses 10 to 12 tells us that,
There is none righteous no not one;
There is none that understands; There is none that seeks after God.
The have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable (meaning rendered useless to God, spoiled); There is none who does good no, not one.”

We, each and every one of us, are headed for eternal damnation in hell!
You’re probably shocked at that. How can we talk about such an awful thing in this day and age? I thought God was love.
How can we make such a harsh statement that’s so all-encompassing and final and how can we know that we’re not good enough to get into heaven?
Well, through the Bible we can answer these questions.
We can know what our fate is on Judgment Day by using God’s standard of judgment. We can also see that although God is Love He’s also a God of perfect Justice.

In Deuteronomy 32 verse 4 we read about the nature of God,
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

But, I’m a good person, you say! I don’t go out of my way to harm anyone and I’m not a criminal. I don’t see how God can refuse me entry into heaven and eternal life when there’re many much worse than me!

In the Books of Exodus and Leviticus we see a set of laws that God gave to the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people. There were 10 specific commandments and 613 amendments.

How can we do a check to see if we are actually eligible for eternal life on that day that we leave this physical body and depart this natural world?
Thankfully the Bible clearly explains that right throughout, from beginning to end.
It explains that since were all descendants of the first man Adam, we’re all cursed with sin, death, and we all fall way short when it comes to righteousness as we just saw in Romans 3.
We see it again in Romans 5 verse 12,
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

As a result, God in his perfect justice can’t let any person tainted with unrighteousness into his perfect and eternal home.
All unrighteousness is worthy of eternal condemnation in what The Book of Revelation calls the lake of fire in Revelation 21 verse 8,
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

The best way to discover whether we’re good enough to go to heaven is to examine how we compare to God’s standard of righteousness – the divine law, not to other humans either the ones we associate with every day or the people of history.
You see, if we compare ourselves to any other human, living or dead, such as the world’s mass murderers, a rapist, a murderer, or a thief, we may come up looking pretty good. But sadly, we’d be using the absolute wrong standard to judge ourselves by.
Used properly, the Bible says that the law we just saw will reveal any sin found in our nature and will indicate if we’re qualified for heaven. See only by the law can we see our true selves.

Let’s find out how we measure up to that law.
Exodus 20:16,
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
Have we ever told a lie? Even a small one a long time ago? Then that makes us a liar and in danger of the lake of fire as Revelation 21:8 says as we’ve just looked at.
One of the things God hates is a lying tongue in Proverbs 6:16-17, and you can look that up.
Exodus 20:15 says,
You shall not steal.
Ever stolen anything? Even something small a long time ago like something from an employer maybe? Then that makes us a thief and puts us out of the running for entering the Kingdom of God. You can confirm this in 1 Corinthians 6:10.
Exodus 20:14 says,
You shall not commit adultery.
Now just in case you think you’re doing ok on that one Jesus expanded the meaning of this and other laws in the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 5:28 Jesus said,
But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Have you ever looked upon a person of the opposite sex with lust? If so, even a fleeting thought, then Jesus says you have committed adultery in your heart.
The only difference between the internal desire and the outward action is a given opportunity.
Then in Exodus 20:17 the law says,
You shall not covet…
Have we ever desired someone else’s possessions? If we have, then this shows the real condition of our heart and our desire to follow after its lusts and desires. Ephesians 2:1-3 expands on this.

These are just a few of God’s laws that are written on the conscious of man, but which we continually break. The Bible says in James 2 verse 10,
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Just one minor point, one minor failure at keeping any of these laws and we’re guilty of breaking them all!

In Romans 1 verses 18 and 19 we read,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
See this verse says that in the Bible’s revelation of the wrath of God, which will come against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, we see what God has revealed to us about Himself. He, being perfectly righteous, simply cannot turn a blind eye to sin.
Romans 3:20 tells us how the law is what makes us realise just who and what we really are,
Therefore, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Breaking God’s law means facing an eternal life sentence which will be spent in anguish and torment in the place the Bible describes as hell.
Through these laws, God has not only revealed the standard by which we’ll be judged but also that not a single person who has ever lived on earth from the line of Adam has been able to keep these laws and since we’ve all broken those laws, we’re condemned automatically.

There’s not one of us that measure up to God’s standard of righteousness, not one. As a result, we’re all condemned because of our sin, and we must accept the consequences whether we like it or not or whether we agree with God or not.
Romans 6 verse 23 we read,
For the wages of sin is death…
And then in 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 9,
These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…
Where will this take place? Mark 9 verse 44 tells us,
where ‘THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.’

It’s first and foremost through realising and coming to the understanding of man’s (and each of us’) depraved condition before God, that we see our need for salvation from this judgment.
We don’t need salvation from cyclones, thieves, murderers, or poverty as much as we need salvation from a more permanent and eternal condition – sin, and the judgment of God against that sin which is the death of the spirit, eternal separation from God and His presence.

Let’s look at Micah 6:8,
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

The law was given to teach what the Lord requires. Meditation on the law taught judgment, the severe punishments of the law demanded mercy, and through the sacrifices and prayers of the Old Testament humility was openly displayed as thousands of animals bled as sacrifices for sins.
Judgment, mercy, and humility were divinely revealed to humanity so that even today the world’s religions hold them up as the most noble religious pursuits.
Of course, the entire law is summed up in just two of those laws that Jesus identified: love God and love your neighbour as yourself.
Matt 22:40 Jesus says,
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

However, after thousands of years of living under the law one thing is evident: no one is righteous, that’s Romans 3 verse 10 to 12 again as we’ve just seen. No man can give God what he requires. It’s simply impossible to do all that God requires. The purest requirements of judgment, mercy, love, and humility remain only dreams to a cursed world.
The apostle Paul after receiving revelation directly from Jesus Christ Himself wrote in Galatians 3 verse 24,
Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Christ accomplished all that God required.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the righteous judgment of God against sin through his death on the cross as we see Paul explain in Romans 3 verse 25, speaking of Christ,
whom God set forth as a propitiation (which means an atonement or an appeasing) by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.
The richness of God’s mercy was shown through Jesus, Who was God in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us, and Who provided life, eternal life, to sinners.
See, it was Christ who humbled himself being made in the likeness of men so that He could do what no one else could:
We see this in Philippians 2 verse 8,
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Also in Romans 5 verse 8,
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And in the great passage of Ephesians 2 verses 4 to 10,
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (That’s our own works, our own goodness, our own attempts to keep the law)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Today, God does not require anything from us because Christ has done everything required to provide free justification to all who believe.
How incredible is the realisation of Romans 4 verse 5,
But to him who does not work (that’s those who do not attempt to be righteous by keeping God’s law) but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

If we think the Bible is simply a book telling us what God requires, then we’re still living under the law, and, as we’ve clearly seen, that path can’t possible lead us to salvation, only death.
We would’ve missed the gospel of God’s grace detailing what God has given us in Christ’s finished work.
Are you struggling to meet God’s perfect requirements?
Stop struggling!
You can never succeed no matter how hard or how long you try.
You might begin to produce good works after you have salvation but it’s so important to understand that these works would be as a result of salvation not in order to earn it!
Put your faith in Christ’s fulfillment of God’s requirements and receive the spiritual benefits of God’s righteousness freely as Romans 3 verse 24 says,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus!
Salvation comes by believing what’s written here in God’s Word.
We are saved from sin and death when we trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his bodily resurrection. His sinless blood pays for our sins, earns forgiveness, and gives us eternal life.

Salvation is the gift of God by grace as God’s Word clearly explains. It’s not a product of:
– Prayer
– Popes
– Baptism
– Confession
– Good works
– Turning from sin
– Commandments
– Church membership
– Mass or the Lord’s Supper.
We receive that gift through faith and faith is the only way we can please God as Hebrews 11 verse 6 tells us,
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Faith plus nothing! This is the gospel of the grace of God.
Only Believe!
One thing we must not do is think that being saved or being spiritual has anything to do with a feeling.
That lady that always cries during the songs at church does not feel salvation or spirituality any more than anyone else, as emotional as she may be.
We learn from the Bible that being saved and walking through life spiritually is by faith not feelings.
Hebrews 11:1,
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Our natural flesh produces a lot of feelings, but the spirit is that by which we can know the things of God.
1st Corinthians 2:12,
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
It has nothing to do with an emotion, a feeling.

Now, we can speak directly to God and tell Him that by our free choice that He’s given us we accept what His Word says about us, that we are sinners and can’t save ourselves and that we turn to Him and accept the salvation He provided for us. It’s not a ritual prayer that must be said to somehow seal salvation, it’s just the start of a relationship with God where we can talk to Him in prayer, knowing that He always hears us.
It’s the start of a journey that will open up truth and reality and the purpose that God has for us. That truth, reality and purpose will come as God’s Word, the Bible, becomes the central foundation on which everything else in life is built.
God bless you on your incredible journey.