Salvation

Here are some true, good thoughts I recently heard said about salvation: Salvation is the most important topic anyone could ever consider.  You need to be certain you will spend eternity with God because life is short, but eternity is very long.  There are people who don’t give any thought to eternity. The Bible tells us fewer will be on the narrow road: Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it (13).  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (14).  -Matthew 7: 13-14 (NIV).  Only Jesus qualifies as the way to the Father.  You will end in destruction without Jesus.  All people die someday.  You will be face to face with Jesus when you die.  You can think of that now or later, but you will face it.  The broad path is believing everyone comes to God in their own way – You can choose what you want, and I’ll choose what I want.  Jesus said, “I am the way.”  Some believe intellectually that Jesus rose from the dead.  They mentally assent to the fact Jesus walked on the roads of earth.  But they don’t believe and trust Jesus as their Savior.  Our faith must be in Jesus Christ alone.  He is sufficient.  We come in humility.  We come in faith.  We come with great need of Jesus.  Jesus Christ alone is able to save.  Say something like this: “I am a sinner.  I turn to Jesus and what He did on the cross.  I turn away from sin and I receive Jesus as my Savior.”  Upon your death, your future at that point is fixed.  You will not be going back to re-do your actions or decision.  You must sincerely mean that prayer from your heart.

The Holy Bible reveals God’s will to mankind.  It is the final authority in matters of faith and truth, and it teaches there is only one salvation available, and it was paid for at Calvary through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  A person is saved by grace through faith.  The Bible says there is a wide way and a narrow way.  Only those who receive Jesus as their Savior receive eternal Life.  They will be raised immortal in new resurrected heavenly bodies and live under His Lordship in His Kingdom.  The existing time of man’s government will close.  Jesus will establish the Kingdom of God.  He will sit on His rightful throne and rule in righteousness as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus is different from any person who has ever lived.   He existed before time began.  He proclaimed to lay hold of and be the embodiment of truth itself when He declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. -John 14: 6 NIV).  He spoke promises with the utmost power and authority.  He raised the dead; He performed extraordinary miracles and healings.  He claimed to be the Son of God and one with God: “I and my Father are one.” –John 10: 30 (KJV). In John 6: 47-48 (KJV), He promised everlasting life to those who believed on Him, and He called himself the bread of life. In John 6: 33 (KJV), He is the living bread which cometh down from heaven who will give His flesh for the life of the world.  He claimed to have been present at the dawn of time and that He also shall be present at the end of time. He told Martha that He is the resurrection and the life: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (25) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (26) – John 11: 25-26 (KJV).  Who could not be moved by the following description offered by the Apostle John concerning the extraordinary greatness of Jesus?  John was an eyewitness to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He confirmed that His works were many: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.”  – John 20: 30 (KJV).  John aptly concluded about Jesus: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.  Amen.”  -John 21: 25 (KJV).

Gospel means good news, and the good news of Jesus is the best news ever! God extended great grace and enduring mercy towards us.  Mercy holds back what man deserves because of sin, but thankfully, God has more mercy than we have sin.  He’s given us the gift of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, Who came down from heaven, became flesh, dwelt among men, and made a way for us to be with Him forever.  Jesus and God, the Father are one together; they are in unity; they are one essence.  Jesus is Deity.  He declared and expressed God the Father.  He showed men what God was like.

In 2 Chronicles 16: 9a, the Bible tells us that the eyes of the Lord search to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for those whose hearts are completely His. A person needs to be aware of God and realize his desperate need for God.  We need to give God our ear to hear His voice of love, His offer of peace. We need to enter with an attitude of utmost heartfelt humility, by repentance and brokenness over our wrongdoings and moral failure, and through faith that can only be found in God’s Word.  Any other way is false and misleading.  Jesus said, “…This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” -John 6: 29 (KJV).  Jesus is transcendent yet real and findable by us.  He is still here. He is still the same.  Trusting in His life, His work on the cross carries us into eternal life.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  – John 5: 24 (NIV).

The Bible promises that our place and standing of belonging to Jesus is secure. It is forever!  He knows us through and through – personally, individually, totally, intimately, lovingly.  He came to redeem us back to God, to be the One who paid the price and took the punishment for our sins in our place.  Jesus speaks endearingly about us: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (27) I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. (28) My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. (29) I and the Father are one. (30) -John 10: 27-30 (NIV).

The Bible affirms we were slaves to sin. The Apostle Paul references the literal, real situation of slaves in his day.  We can picture that Jesus went down into the slave market of sin and with His own blood paid the price to purchase our redemption to bring us out of that slave market and unto Himself so that we may be released and free to rightly belong to Him, no longer alienated by sin.

Jesus summons us and assures us He will receive and keep forever those who come to Him.  “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (37) For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. (38) And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me but raise them up at the last day. (39) For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (40) – John 6: 37-40 (NIV).  He desires that we become His.  We are told the precious, comforting, endearing, familiar words, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (16)  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (17) -John 3: 16-17 (KJV).

Jesus is the ultimate, perfect revelation of God.  He is a pure picture and embodiment of God’s extravagant love.  Jesus became helpless for us; He took the form of a babe in a manger; He became man and was tempted in all ways we are tempted.  Though He could have commanded a great multitude of angels to rescue and deliver Him out of His tumultuous circumstance of crucifixion at any time, He instead willingly became the spotless sacrificial Lamb slaughtered for our transgressions.  Jesus, Who knew no sin, paid the price for the sin of all mankind with His own blood, His own life.

Jesus was falsely accused, shamed, beaten, punched, slapped, spat upon, mocked, yelled at, scorned, rejected, and humiliated. His beard hairs were pulled out.  His pummeled, bloodied face was disfigured beyond recognition.  Execution by crucifixion was designed to be an extremely brutal, heinous public punishment.  Jesus, the precious innocent Lamb of God, voluntarily offered up Himself to be slain for us to pay the penalty for the sin of humankind, corporately and individually, the curse lifted, all sin for all time able to be forgiven.  Each person possessing a sound mind and being of an age of accountability must come to Jesus personally for his own sins to be forgiven and blotted out.  No one else can take our spot to present us to Jesus for the remission of sins. We come alone.

Professional Roman torturers ensured maximal pain was inflicted on the accused.  Jesus was severely flogged.  Flogging was a vicious torturous practice that bruised the insides and left flesh hanging in shreds, skin badly ripped and torn often to the point of exposing bone. Flogging was so harsh beyond our comprehension that some victims didn’t survive the flogging.  A crown of long sharp thorns was mercilessly pressed deeply onto Jesus’ marred head and face.  Long spikes were driven through His feet and hands (some say wrists) to securely anchor His anguished body to the cross, where His naked body hung exposed before a crowd of onlookers for 6 full hours. With hands nailed down, Jesus had no way to wipe the blood and sweat from His eyes or swat away insects and flies off His face or body. Throughout His horrific, violent ordeal of death by crucifixion, Jesus’ parched, bloody, tortured, mangled, anguished body would strain to breathe, gasping for the next breath.  Finally, He breathed His last breath and His great pain ended.  Beautiful, kind, innocent, loving, sinless Jesus endured unbearable, excruciating unrelenting suffering hanging on the cross for six full hours, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dear reader, please vividly and deeply reflect on the severity of this completely undeserved, grievously barbaric spectacle of Jesus’ crucifixion.  Yet He willingly laid down His life.  Recall that even towards the end, Jesus, exhausted and near death, turned His attention toward others.  His last communication (which would have required tremendous effort for Him to push Himself upward to enable Him to utter any words at all at that point, considering His lungs by now would be in a state of near-collapse) involved offering forgiveness for His executioners and forgiveness of sins and a promise of eternal life to the nearby criminal on the cross (a real criminal who was guilty and deserving of punishment) who reached out to Jesus.  In your mind’s eye, imagine the excessively, monstrously cruel, and extremely painful flesh and blood reality of crucifixion that our Lord willingly endured on our behalf.  Let your mind and heart and soul tenderly envision Jesus’ supreme sacrifice – 6 long hours of unimaginable human suffering.  For you.  For me. For all of us. To ask for His forgiveness, to receive His atoning work on the cross, to give your life over to Him is the greatest, the most important thing you will ever do in your life.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in history! Jesus defeated death and the grave; He will never die again.  He’s alive!  “He isn’t here. He is risen from the dead!…”  – Luke 24: 6  (NLT).  He assured those who belong to Him that they will live with Him for eternity.  He rose again; so shall we rise again.  Jesus promised, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (18) Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.” (19) -John 14: 18-19 (NIV).  He is preparing a place for us. He promised, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  -John 14: 3 (NIV).  What wonderful, precious promises spoken by Beloved Jesus. He will absolutely keep them and keep us forever!  At the end of time, Jesus will judge every person who’s ever lived.  There’s no escaping. All authority in heaven and earth was given to Him.  And of the magnitude of His bounty, goodness, and radiant love there shall be no end!  What a marvelous future awaits us.  Here is an awe-inspiring Bible verse pertaining to things to come:  Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard…the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.  -1 Corinthians 2: 9 (KJV).  Jesus, Himself is preparing such glories in our future that are so incredible they’re past our imagining.  He is planning for us to be there with Him.

Jesus knows every person and their thoughts completely. There’s no anonymity with Jesus.  There is no hiding from Him. John 2:25 (KJV) states that Jesus “…knew what was in man.” You are not invisible to the Lord.  He sees you. He knows where you are.  He’s watching over you.  He cares about you.  One of the Hebrew names of God is El Roee – The God who sees me.  (e.g., Genesis 16 – the God who sees me:  God sees Sarai’s Egyptian handmaid, Hagar; He’s watching her.  El Roee – I see that you see me).

You can be as close to Jesus as your heart desires.  God has infinite, loving thoughts towards His own: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! [how great is the sum of them!] (17) If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand…” (18) – Psalm 139: 17-18 (KJV).  We are secure in His love.  Romans 8: 38-39 (KJV) proclaims that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus shined the light and taught the way that leads to God’s kingdom and showed us how we can truly love God as He desires to be loved.  If we seek Him, we will find Him. The Holy Spirit supernaturally awakens us by the power of God to know the reality of the Person of Jesus Christ and guides us to come to an end of our self-rule. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is radically exclusive in proclaiming Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father, to eternal life, to heaven.  There is no other way.

God is holy. Sin separates man from God.  Without the work of God, men are spiritually dead in sin. Apart from God, man cannot help himself out of his predicament of being separated from God because of sin. But Almighty God is higher than the highest and greater than the greatest!  There is only one hope, one answer, one Person able to reconcile man back to God, only one way – Jesus Christ. His life, death, and resurrection made a way to come to Life. Jesus Christ is the answer to everything in your life.

We can be sure if we earnestly seek after God and ask Him to come to us with His grace and mercy, He will not cast us aside.  He will not turn away the repentant heart earnestly desiring to come to Him.  We must be open to God. We were created to be living vessels for our God.  Open your heart, your mind, your life to Him.  He is faithful; He is worthy. No matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how far or how long you’ve slid into sin, you are just one prayer away from the power of God coming down to change your life.  God knows all about you.  He also knows who you will become in Jesus.  Jesus offers lasting forgiveness of sins. He suffered and died to pay for the sins of all mankind and for your personal sins. He gave His life so that we could be cleansed from sin, made whole as a new creation in Him, and be brought into right-standing, intimacy, and new life with God forever. It is never too early or never too late to give your life to the Lord.  He is waiting to forgive you, to receive you unto Himself.  You must genuinely repent (ask forgiveness for and turn away from sin), believe that you receive His sacrificial death as payment for the penalty for your sin, confess Jesus as Lord, and you will be saved. Receive God’s beautiful mercy.  Receive Jesus as King over your heart and life and desire to live with Him and for Him forevermore.  That He suffered an agonizing, torturous, gruesomely painful death for us shows us His great love.

With a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm: for his mercy endureth forever.  -Psalm 136: 12 (KJV).

The Bible tells us we are saved because of His great love for us…But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, (4) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. (5)…For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –” (8) -Ephesians 2: 4-5; 8 (NIV).  We are called to salvation. Salvation is the gracious, undeserved gift of God.  There’s nothing you could ever do to earn salvation and eternal life.  It is all the work of Jesus Christ.  Him who knew no sin took our sin upon Himself on the cross.  He received punishment; we received pardon – all trespasses forgiven.  In His great mercy, you’re saved by God’s divine purpose and plan.  Mercy is justice withheld.  We’re not deserving, but God poured out His great Love, His extreme grace, mercy, and forgiveness on us.  God is a judge. He is holy, but He judges from perfect Love.  Jesus came from heaven to die in our place so that we could live in close communion with God, in right relationship and deep intimacy with Him in a very real way that brings us life, wholeness, and joy. We’re responsible to receive this truth, believe it with our whole heart, and desire to walk in it. Jesus came back from the grave and is alive forevermore. Jesus is our Good Shepherd, our Overseer, the Lord, Master, and King of our life. Jesus Christ was, is, and ever shall be the only way through which we can enter into a personal life with God that is pleasing to Him and enjoy His presence in this world and the one to come.  Our soul is turned over to God’s protection.

We have a living hope.  What an awesome privilege that no one who turns to Jesus Christ to receive God’s free gift of salvation will be turned away.  Jesus is there for everyone who comes to Him.  God forgives all sin that is confessed and forsaken.  Jesus fought a battle for our souls. He bore our sins and buried them in the deepest sea, never to remember them again.  Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “…Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” – John 8: 11b (KJV).  We are released from the penalty of sin and we are released from the power of sin.  Forgiveness demands a change.  The Bible teaches that… “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the Lord must turn away from evil.”  -2 Timothy 2: 19b (NLT).

When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.  -Psalm 14: 94 (ESV).

Jesus is a loving, caring burden-bearer.  Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you -Psalm 55: 22 (NLT).  The Bible tells us the Lord will sustain us.  He empathizes with us.  He was rejected; He endured pain and suffering; He was wounded with all your miseries.  He knows what heartbreak is.  He understands completely what we’ve gone through; He has been through everything, and He is there for us.  Our personal experience does not tell us who God is.  We can’t let our personal experience tell us something about God that may be untrue.  We don’t judge God by our circumstances.  We judge our circumstances by what we believe about God.  You may be going through a very hard time of loss, discouragement, hurt, pain, depression, suffering, grief, anguish, heartache, betrayal, loneliness, disappointment, and hopelessness.  There is help and His name is Jesus.  He is greater than your difficulty, greater than all you are facing.  Whatever you’re going through, the Lord is there.  He can turn it around.  He’ll do for you what no man can do.  He is the Great Physician who can reach into places inside of you where counselors can’t reach, where pain medication can’t reach.  Jesus goes where nobody else goes.  He can be trusted. He has been faithful; He will be faithful tomorrow. Deep in our core, deep in our hearts we can turn to Him and trust Him.  He will come to your pit of despair.  Jesus walks with us on the mountain top, but He also walks with us in the valley.  God is there when life hurts.  Walking with Jesus, your best days are not behind you; your best days are yet to come.

You can trust all of God’s promises are true! Believe the record God has given of His Son Jesus Christ.  Beloved Jesus is calling on you to believe Him, trust Him, follow Him, listen to Him, and find your real life in and with Him.  The way to God’s heart is an old path, tried and true.  The Bible tells of the road to salvation:  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (9).  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (10).  -Romans 10: 9-10.  Say a simple, honest, humble prayer from the bottom of your heart in your own words, in your own way, admitting you have fallen short.  Ask Jesus to come into your life.  Tell Him in your own words in your own way that you need Him; you want Him to wash your sins away with His cleansing blood; you receive His forgiveness; you want Him to have His way in your life; and as much as you know how, you give Him your life.  Thank Him for the gift of eternal life which begins the moment you’re saved.  Renounce sin and invite Jesus to be the Ruler over your heart.  You can put your full hope in Him.  Confess you believe Jesus lived and died and rose again and made a way for you to have new life in Him.  Give thanks to Jesus for saving you, and tell yourself (i.e. confess or meditate out loud) and tell others about your new beginning, your new life in Jesus.  No one who comes to Jesus is turned away. That is a Bible promise:  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  -Romans 10: 13 (NIV).

Jesus said, “…“I am the way, the truth, and the life;”  -John 14 : 6b (KJV).  You can stake your life on the veracity of these powerful words spoken by Jesus.  They are true!  The most important thing you’ll ever do is give Jesus your heart, your love, your life – all of you.  It is paramount above all else in your life to get this right.  Inviting Jesus into your innermost heart as Savior and Lord of your life for keeps is the most weighty, significant matter you will ever face.  To choose Him, to love and devote yourself to Him, to follow Him, to believe and obey Him, to stay close to Him is to choose Life, love, peace, and joy that can only be found in Jesus Christ.  But to meet Him and walk away, you lose Everything.

I close this section with one of my favorite quotes from Canadian theologian J.I. Packer (1926-2020).  It can be found in his book, Knowing God, published by InterVarsity Press, c1973, page 38:  “Now, when the New Testament tells us that Jesus Christ is risen, one of the things it means is that the victim of Calvary is now, so to speak, LOOSE and AT LARGE, so that anyone, anywhere can enjoy the same kind of relationship with Him as the disciples had in the days of His flesh.”