What is Salvation?

You’ve probably heard the words Saved or Salvation used by Christians.

What does it mean in this context?

It means saved from our sins.

 

See, back when God first created the world He created a beautiful garden and placed two people in it – Adam and Eve.

They lived a beautiful and blessed life.

There was no sin.

There was no pain.

There was just joy.

Unfortunately, they made a really bad choice that ended all that.

 

When God placed them in the Garden of Eden, He told them about two trees that were there.

One was the Tree of Life; the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God made it very clear they could eat of any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The enemy came to Eve, disguised as a serpent, to tempt her into eating the fruit of the only tree God had told them to stay away from.

She not only ate it, she shared it with Adam.

When they ate this fruit, their eyes were opened to see the difference between good and evil.

It was at the moment Eve yielded to the serpent’s temptation and ate the fruit that sin entered the world.

Because of this, God made them leave the garden so they would not eat from the Tree of Life.

 

Because Adam and Eve ate of that fruit all mankind since then has had what is called a sin nature.

We don’t naturally want to do what’s right.

We want to do what’s easy and what feels good, even if it’s wrong.

This is not how God wants us to live.

 

God is holy and perfect.

He cannot tolerate the presence of sin.

In fact, He hates it and calls it detestable.

Sin is defined as anything that offends God.

So, when we do what God says not to do, or when we don’t do things God expects of us, we sin.

God made it very clear in the Bible that all sin must be paid for by punishment.

His punishment is eternal spiritual death and separation from Him.

 

In order to reconcile us to Him and to make a way for us to be in fellowship with Him and therefore avoid His wrath and eternal separation, God created a way for our sin debt to be paid.

He sent His son, Jesus.

 

Jesus came into this world as a baby and lived for 33 years.

During that time He never once sinned.

Because of this, He was a suitable substitute payment for our sins.

Jesus died on a cross and was resurrected from the dead as payment for all the sins of all mankind.

 

When we realize Jesus died specifically for us, receive that gift as our own, invite Him into our lives, and believe it in our heart, we are forgiven for our sins.

This means we no longer have to pay for our sins.

We are covered by Jesus’ payment.

His payment saves us from having to pay for our sins ourselves.

It also marks the beginning of our relationship with Jesus as our Savior.

 

This act of trusting Jesus to have paid our sin debt is called being saved.

Some people call it a confession of faith.

Some people call it giving your heart to Jesus.

Whatever you call it, it is the only thing that can save us from suffering God’s wrath.

 

If you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Savior I encourage you to do so now.

You will never regret it.

 

To ask Jesus into your life, simply pray a prayer similar to this:

Jesus, I know that I am a sinner.

I know that I have been living my life on my terms but that is not what God wants.

I choose to turn away from my sin and the spiritual death it brings with it.

Please come into my life,

I surrender my will and way of doing things to you.

I trust you for salvation and reconciliation to God.

Thank you for loving me and for being payment for my sins. 

 

That’s it. That’s all you have to do.

 

If you prayed this prayer I encourage you to begin reading your Bible, find a Bible believing church, and start attending services there.

Getting into community with other believers will help you on your journey as you learn to walk with God and it will help strengthen you as you begin to live this new life.

If you have prayed this prayer, please feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to pray for you and to speak words of encouragement and life over you.

To God be the glory always!

 

 

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)

 

It is easy to find out what God finds offensive and considers sin.

He very clearly shares these things with us in His word, the Bible.

If we read it, especially the New Testament, it is very clearly spelled out for us.

Many stores sell Bibles.

Many thrift stores either give them away for free or sell them for only a dollar or two.

There is a very good Bible website called, Bible Gateway that has multiple versions of the Bible.

There is also a free phone app called YouVersion.

Whichever way you choose, I encourage you to read and learn more about Jesus.

It will change your life for the better in so many ways!

 

Here are some links to other posts I’ve written that will help you get started reading your Bible:

How to Study Your Bible This post walks through the basics of Bible Study and shows you an easy way to begin without being overwhelmed.

Bible Study Tools This post gives good tips for studying Scripture and shows how to go deeper as you begin to learn more.