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HOW CAN A PERSON BE SAVED
How good does a person need to be to be saved? How many sins can God tolerate before he condemns a person? Some people think that if you are a good husband or wife, you’re a good father or mother, or a good neighbor or friend you will be saved. Some think that if you have been baptized or a member of a certain church you will be saved. What does God say about how a person can be saved?
The Bible says that there once was a lawyer who came to Jesus saying:
“Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Christ said unto him, what is written in the law? How readest thou? And the lawyer answering said ‘Thou shall love the lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ And Christ said unto him, thou hast answered right: this do and thou shall live.” Luke 10:26-28
Now if it were possible for you to keep the law perfectly from birth you could earn your salvation, and you would have no need of God’s gift.
Have you perfectly kept God’s law and never sinned since you were born? How many people that you know have never sinned? How many people that you know have always loved God perfectly and completely and loved their neighbor as much as they loved themselves? I’m sure that you must see that it is impossible for us to keep God’s laws perfectly. Yet, that is what God requires if we are going to be saved by our works. The Bible says that none of us have done this.
“As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.” Rom. 3:10
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.” Rom. 6:23
No matter how good we seem to others, or to ourselves, God says we are all sinners and deserve eternal separation from him in hell, a place of awful eternal judgment and suffering. In fact, God says:
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags.” Isa. 64:6
God says that those good things that we think we do are like the loathsome bandages upon the leper’s sores to him. They are repulsive and a stench. They are defective in motive, in content, and in spirit. They are the product of bodies, minds, and souls which have been defiled by sin and lived for self.
How Do We Get Eternal Life The Bible says we must be “saved” or “born again” to have eternal life.
“Verily, verily I say unto thee except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3
You Cannot Save Yourself Some think that salvation is based upon living a good moral life. Others believe that baptism, attending church, confessing your sins to a priest, taking the Lord’s Supper, doing good deeds, or being prayed over when you die will get you to heaven. None of these will work! None of these will save the sinner. None of these will save you.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us.” Titus 3:5
“For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works least any man should boast”. Eph. 2:8-9
Salvation is of the Lord God planned for our salvation before the world was even created. He foresaw our sin and purposed to send his Son to be our savior. Being holy and without sin God must punish sin. This He did on Calvary. God sent his own dear Son who never once sinned, and who always did the will of the Father to die for our sins. He died the innocent in the place of the guilty to bring us to God. God raised him up and received him into heaven to be seated at his right hand where he ever lives to make intercession for us. By grace, God clothes the believing sinner in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and accepts him into his family.
“For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried and that He arose again the third day according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
The gospel message is simple, but essential.
“Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
How can a person be saved? By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ one will be saved. (Acts 16:31) Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you believed the gospel of Jesus Christ?
"That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10
Larry Windham
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