How to be Saved

Maybe you've heard about Jesus and Christianity, but no one has ever really explained to you how to become a Christian and be saved from your sin. Perhaps you think you are a Christian, but if anyone ever asked you what that means you would get tongue-tied. Either way, I would encourage you to keep reading.

First of all, I want to make it clear that there are no magic words or secret formulas to be saved and go to heaven. Becoming a Christian is a matter of the heart; saying words you don't mean is useless. That being said, many people do use a method called the Romans Road to Salvation as a way to explain the process of salvation to others. It's not the only way to explain how to become a Christian, but it is helpful, clear, and fairly simple.The book of Romans is the sixth book of the New Testament (the second part of the Bible). Paul, the author of this book, talks a lot about sin, salvation, and living a new life as Christians. While the Romans Road focuses on key verses, I would suggest reading the entire book to gain the full meaning.The first stop on the Romans Road is in chapter three, where Paul reminds us that we are all sinners and separated from God. Part of being saved is repenting from sin and asking God for forgiveness. This means you will have to admit to God you have done wrong and can't fix it.

Romans 3:10-12 – “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’”

And in Romans 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”Paul is saying that we as humans are not good by nature. We have all done wrong in our lives and we have separated ourselves from God who is perfectly good and the only source of life. Therefore, our sin leads to death.

Romans 6:23a – “For the wages of sin is death;"
Even though God is a loving God, He is also just and can't simply let us off the hook for sinning. He may be all-powerful, but He is also perfect and holy and will not break His own rules. There are consequences for our sin and God must punish all sin. However, the rest of Romans 6:23 has good news for us.

Romans 6:23b – "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Where does this gift of eternal life come from? This is the second stop on the Romans Road. We must understand how God made a way for us to be with Him. He had to punish our sin, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take it on Himself. The penalty for sin is death, so Jesus died for our sin so that we would not have to.

Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Now our lives on earth will still come to an end. But when we die, we can either have life in heaven with God or we will spend eternity apart from Him in hell, which is the worst form of death: existence apart from God who is the source of all life, hope, goodness, love, etc.

The third step is to accept the gift that God offers us. Even though Jesus died for everyone's sin, we can still choose to reject Him. He will only save those who want to be saved. So if you are not willing to admit you need His help, you will not be saved. Please, don't slap away the hand that God has offered to pull you to safety.Romans 10:9-10 tells us “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

And Romans 10:13 says, “for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

All you have to do is believe in your heart that 1.) Jesus was who He said He was: the Son of God and 2.) that His sacrifice paid for your sin. If you believe that His death on the cross and resurrection is what saves you from sin rather than your own good works, then call out to Jesus to save you and He will. Put your faith in His ability to save you rather than your own.

Once you have done this, your new life has already begun. Now comes step four: assurance of salvation.

Romans 5:1 – “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 8:1 – “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”Romans 8:38-39 – “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

These verses tell us that we don't have to worry about what will happen to us. Even though we have sinned, if we have put our faith in Christ we are now justified and God will not condemn us. And nothing anyone does or says, no matter what happens in this life, you can be sure that you will go to be with God forever when this life is over.

Furthermore, you no longer have to live a life of sin like the rest of the world. Those who do not understand what God has done for them still live according to their own sinful desires and try everything they can to find happiness. But once we have received God's forgiveness and the assurance of our salvation. Thus, step five is to live a life of obedience and holiness. Even though we usually do not like people telling us how to live, God will only tell us to do what is best for us. Obeying God will always work out well for you in the end.
Romans 6:20-22 – “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

No matter who you are, where you are, where you come from, or what you have done you can always be saved. There is nowhere you can go where God cannot reach you. Don't even think that there is any sin you could have committed that He cannot forgive. Your sin is not stronger than His grace; do not insult His ability to save.

Do not underestimate the power of Jesus, but do not overestimate your own ability either. Do not assume that everything will work out for you if you have not put your life in His hands. Nothing you do will impress God and He will not make exceptions. One way or another, your sin will be punished. Do you want to pay for it or will you let Jesus handle it for you?

The Contagious Christian

How does a fire spread? What makes the flame pass from one thing to the next? The simple answer: heat. If you get something hot enough, it will usually burst into flame. Once the fire is started, it will spread to virtually anything it touches.

Christianity is like a fire. As long as the Gospel of Jesus Christ touches unbelievers, it will continue to spread throughout the world. The fire started in Israel with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and it spread as His disciples took His story all over the world, telling everyone who would listen. This process has continued for 2000 years and it's still burning and spreading today.

So how can you spread the Gospel like a wildfire? Well, first of all, you need to be hot enough. How do you get hot? You need to be in the fire. The Bible describes God as a consuming fire (Exod. 24:17; Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). He burns bright and hot; He shows us the truth and consumes our impurities. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. If we do not stay close to God, any flame we have will go out.

As Jesus tells us in John 15:4, "Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." You cannot effectively share the truth, love, and power of Jesus Christ if you do not remain in Him. You don't have what it takes by yourself; His flame needs to be in you and it needs to be fed every day. So the first step to being a contagious Christian is to have a saving faith in Jesus Christ that is actively growing every day.

Secondly, once you have that flame burning within you, you need to take it to others. This may sound simple, but it means that you have to get close enough for those around you to see the light and feel the heat inside you. Just because you sit next to someone every day in school does not mean that you are "close." In order to be close to someone, you have to know each other on a personal level. Usually this means being friends.Yes, I am implying that you become friends with people who are not Christians. Otherwise, they likely won't see the depth of your faith in God. If you keep people at a distance, the flame that God has sparked in you will not pass to them. You may be wondering, "Won't non-Christians have a bad influence on me?" It's certainly possible, but if you remain in Jesus, He will keep your paths straight and the evil in the world will not lead you astray.

As the song says, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." If we are going to let our lights shine, we have to make sure they stay lit. We need to stay connected to God. And if we are going to pass our light on to others, we need to hold it close them. The world may not like our light, our flame may singe and burn, but they need it to be saved. Don't keep your light from them.

The Fight of Your Life

“[F]aith will fight anything that gets between it and Christ. The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. The mark of faith is not that I never sin . . . The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior. I fight anything that diminishes the fullness of the lordship of Jesus in my life. I fight anything that threatens to replace Jesus as the supreme Treasure of my life. Anything that stands between me and receiving Jesus faith fights – not with fists or knives or guns or bombs, but with the truth of Christ.” - John Piper

Do you have a survivor's instinct? If you are like a lot of people, you probably don't know because you have never been tested. For the most part, we lead pretty safe lives. Some of us might live a little more dangerously than others, but we typically don't go through our days fearing for our lives.

Perhaps you wrestled or boxed or you have been in a fight with a bully. But consider trying to fight off something or someone that has every intention of killing you? If you have never faced something like that, it's difficult to imagine because we aren't used to our lives being threatened in this country.
Maybe you've been rock climbing and you know what it's like to hang off a cliff 40+ feet in the air. But what if you had no rope or harness? It's no longer just a sport, it's a do-or-die situation.

As long as there are rules, safety measures, referees, etc., it's just a challenge. But once your life is put on the line everything changes . . . you are in a fight to the death. There are no rules; there are no style points; there is no second place; there is no such thing as fighting fair or fighting dirty. Adrenaline and panic set in as you go into survival mode. Your Fight-or-Flight response is preparing you fight harder, run faster, or hold tighter than you ever thought you could . . . because if you don't, you're dead.

What if you didn't realize the danger? What if your Fight-or-Flight mechanism never got a chance to kick in? That's where the phrase, "Like a lamb to the slaughter," comes from. Everyday, your faith, your spiritual life, is threatened and you probably don't even know it!
If God is the air that your faith needs to breathe, then Satan is the assassin holding you under water to drown you. He will do anything he can to keep you cut off from your life support. As long as Satan can keep you separated from God, you are not a threat to him because your faith will be dead.

If you don't fight, if you don't resist, your faith will shrivel up and die. Are you going to just lie there and let Satan suffocate you? Or are you going to kick, bite, scratch, and scream out to God for help? I encourage you today to choose to fight! Fight against temptation, laziness, deception, and anything else that separates you from the love and grace of God. Read His Word everyday so that you will be equipped with His truth and pray for God's Holy Spirit to empower you to do what is right. And never give up! Never stop fighting!