What is Salvation?
Has anyone ever approached you and asked, “Do you know Jesus as your savior?” or “Are you saved?” or “Do you know The Lord?” If so, and your response is “What the heck is salvation, why do I need it, who is Jesus, and why should I trust Him?”, if you’ll bear a short read, I would love to tell you.
Why do I need salvation?
Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Ok, so I’ve sinned. Big deal, what’s the consequence? Romans 6:23, “For the wages for sin is death…“. Wouldn’t it be awful if that was the end of the story. Eternally separated from God, cast out and given up to His wrath in a lake of fire with wailing and gnashing of teeth.
What is salvation?
Salvation is putting your faith and trust that Jesus stepped down from heaven, was born of Mary the virgin, lived a completely sinless life, was both fully man and fully God, died on a cross to pay the price for your sins, rose from the grave three days later and ascended back to heaven and advocates to God the Father for your transgressions. Pray to Him for repentance, sincere regret or remorse, of your sins and turn away from them. In short it’s repenting of your sinful nature and putting your faith in Jesus paid the price of sin on the cross.
If you are a non-believer, I get it. In my about section I said being a follower of Christ is a reasonable faith and that’s a lot to believe. The wonderful thing about our faith, it’s not blind.
Search out for the answers, be a sceptic. We should bury ourselves in truth and be critical in our thinking. God says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” In Romans it says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” John 3:16, “For God so loved the world the he gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
Faith in Christ is reasonable, the price of salvation freely given upon trust, available to all who call on Him.
What is Perdition?
In God’s infinite love for us, He gives us a choice. After all, love without free will doesn’t exist. If you say “no, I won’t, I can’t, bring myself to believe”, God will honor your decision. That decision will lead to eternal separation from Him, something His heart longs to avoid. Hell is not only the real confined quarantine for sin, but in this eternal separation, pain will not be abated. Thirsts will never be quenched. Agony will never cease. Your spirit, your very being, will be subject to God’s full wrath without cease. The theme that will echo will be “I Did It My Way.” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.”
How do the lyrics go? If you choose not to decide, you still have made the choice!
Ultimately eternity is spent in the presence of our Creator or away from Him. We all have a choice. You may wrestle, struggle, and rail against it, but Jesus made a bold claim no one else can make and back it up. He said I AM the way. There is NO other way. I urge you to seek out Truth and I pray if you have read this that you will be blessed beyond measure and that you will come to know, trust, believe, and have a personal relationship with God as His heart desires.