A SIMPLE, BASIC PRESENTATION OF HOW TO BE SAVED

INTRODUCTION

          We are going to study what the Bible says about salvation in increasing levels of complexity. The first level that we will study is so simple that even a child can understand it. It is all that we really need to know to be saved. God certainly wants us to learn and know more, but this simple understanding represents our basic requirement.

THE BASICS OF HOW TO BECOME SAVED

          In the simplest terms, becoming saved means that we become a believer in Jesus. We simply pray to him and tell him that we want to become a follower of his. We tell him that we know and believe that he is God, that he died for our sins, was buried and arose on the third day and is now in heaven with the Father. Jesus immediately honors our request and sends his Spirit to help us for the rest of our lives. At that point we are pardoned for all of our sins. God then looks at us as innocent, even though we are really guilty. We must make an effort to learn more about Jesus and how he wants us to live a life of love for our fellow man. God promises us that he will then take us to heaven for eternity at the end of our lives and reward us richly for all of the good that we do for our fellow man. The best part may be that he won’t punish us for messing up from time to time. What a deal! It’s the best deal in town by an eternity!

A PRESENT DAY ANALOGY

          Let’s look at another simple way of understanding what it means to become a believer in Jesus. Joining the “fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ” is analogous to joining a formal club, civic organization, sorority, fraternity, etc. There are typically several things required of the individual and the organization, including:

          Making a pledge, participating in an initiation ceremony, and helping with and performing good services.

          Likewise, when we join the fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ, the Bible lets us know that there are requirements akin to a pledge, an initiation ceremony and performing good services. Let’s summarize what these requirements are for the new believer, and then what God’s response will be. As we go into more detail in coming lessons we will study the underlying scriptures that lead to these conclusions.

What does Jesus want us to do as we become a believer in him?

1. Make a pledge to God to believe the gospel of Jesus and to try to follow him. This is the step that results in our becoming saved. It can be a very private act or it can be done in public.

2. Participate in an initiation ceremony, baptism, during which we repent of our sins and accept Jesus’ once for all sacrifice for forgiveness of our sins. This results in the forgiveness of all of our sins, past, present and future. This is our public announcement that we belong to Jesus.

3. Follow-through to indicate that we were serious in our commitment. This involves love (honor) for God, and love and service for our fellow man.

What is God’s response?

1. God’s pledge to us is to accept our pledge, to immediately place his Spirit within us as a seal indicating that we belong to him and a promise to one day take us to heaven to live with him through eternity.

2. At the initiation ceremony, baptism, God forgives all of our sins (past, present and future) and gives us a new beginning. He does this through accepting Jesus’ once for all sacrifice, his death and resurrection, for us.

3. The Holy Spirit is now living within us and helps us live our lives in love as Jesus directed us to do.

 SUMMARY OF HOW TO BE SAVED

In summary, we must make a pledge to God to accept the gospel of Jesus and try to follow him. God then accepts our pledge and sends his Spirit to us to help us with our daily walk through life. We are then baptized for forgiveness of our sins. God accepts our repentance (because of Jesus sacrifice for us) and gives us a new start in life with all of our past, present and future sins forgiven. God expects us to make an attempt to love and serve him and our fellow man. God also promises us that we will spend eternity in heaven with him.

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS THAT WE MUST ACCEPT AND BELIEVE?

          The basic core of the gospel that was taught by Paul and Peter in Acts (and in their letters) and that we must believe is as follows:

         That Jesus died for our sins as was prophesied beforehand in the Old Testament, that he was buried, raised from the dead by God on the third day and given a new glorified body, also as was prophesied beforehand in the Old Testament, that believers are made perfect and free from sin in God’s eyes because of Jesus’ perfect life and perfect sacrifice, and that he appeared to the twelve and hundreds of others after his resurrection, including Paul in a supernatural way.

          The gospel is also sometimes spoken of as the totality of the life and teachings of Jesus.

          The gospel certainly includes the basic understanding that Jesus is God and that we are all sinners in desperate need of forgiveness for our sins.

          Basically, Christ promises us eternal life in heaven for nothing more than an honest commitment on our part to believe in him and to try to keep his commandment to love. He knows that we will fail in our attempts and he forgives us in advance for that, but we must still continue to try.

WHAT A DEAL! HOW CAN WE REFUSE IT?

DEFINITIONS OF THE BASIC WORDS DESCRIBING THE SALVATION PROCESS; ALL TAKEN FROM A DETAILED STUDY OF SALVATION SCRIPTURES

SALVATION: The process of being “saved” or “delivered from our sins,” and receiving “eternal life” or “the promise of living forever in heaven with God.” Salvation begins when we are “born again.” It is provided to us because of the “grace” of God, and not because we deserve it or have earned it.

BORN AGAIN: The event that starts the salvation process. Both the soul and spirit are born at the time of our physical birth. When we are “born again,” our spirit is somehow bonded with the Spirit of Jesus, and it is reborn or born again. We receive a new “heart” or mind within our spirit. We are born again when we express “faith” in Jesus Christ. At that time the Spirit of Jesus, in some mysterious way, enters our body and begins bonding with and interacting with our spirit and soul to begin our “sanctification” process. At that time we mysteriously have the “mind” or heart of Jesus within us.

FAITH: Faith in Jesus: (1) placing complete trust in Jesus, followed by (2) conduct indicating complete reliance upon Him, all based upon (3) hearing and reading about Jesus but not actually seeing or touching Him. Faith is based upon something less that personal physical and visual contact. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Having “faith” in Jesus involves “belief” in Jesus based upon hearing and/or reading about him but not actually seeing or touching him.

BELIEF: Belief in Jesus encompasses (1) and (2) in the definition of faith above. The word “believe” had a much more profound meaning in the early church than it does today. The things that are different from today’s common use of the word are the fact that there is a positive demonstration and a complete commitment that is required. To repeat the definition of what it means to believe in Jesus; (1) placing complete trust in Jesus, followed by (2) conduct indicating complete reliance upon Him. This conduct indicating reliance upon Jesus is part of our “sanctification” process and begins at the moment that we become believers and are born again.

SANCTIFICATION: Sanctification is a process of purification of our lives led by the Holy Spirit, with our active participation. We are directed by Scripture to become like Jesus, to live a life of love as he did. This process of becoming more like Jesus is called sanctification. This process begins at the moment that we are born again and become “justified.”

JUSTIFICATION: Justification is being declared innocent of our sins by God, even though we are really guilty. It is an event that happens at the moment that we become believers. At the final trial or judgment, the sins of believers will be forgotten forever and never again remembered. The sin debt of believers has been completely cancelled. That is the essence of justification. This was made possible because Jesus went before the Judge for us and declared that he was guilty so that we might be seen as innocent. Jesus paid all of our fines and “redeemed” us from an eternal jail. Jesus redeemed us by shedding his blood as a substitute for us. We were bought for a price, all because of the “grace” of God.

GRACE: Grace is the “unmerited favor” of God resulting in salvation being given to us as a free gift. We were chosen by God through foreknowledge for salvation as a free gift. The fact that our salvation is a free gift from God means that we cannot work for it or earn it by anything that we do. If it were not for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ it would not be possible for us to ever get to heaven. This sacrifice was a free gift to all believers in the sacrifice. It was done by the “grace” of God.

A STUDY OF THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF THE WORDS

BELIEF, FAITH AND LOVE[1]

INTRODUCTION

          We are doing a detailed study of the salvation process and we have just finished defining several of the key words that we need to understand in studying the process. We will next begin going into some of the definitions in more detail and studying the underlying Scriptures. We will begin with belief, faith and love. I find that there is much misunderstanding and confusion among believers and unbelievers alike regarding what is meant when it is said that we must “believe in Jesus to be saved,” “have faith in Jesus,” and “love God.” I want to provide a quick reference for what these phrases mean. I’ll also discuss love a bit more completely, since there are two types of love presented in the Bible that I would like to distinguish from each other. Love is key to the salvation process because we certainly can’t be saved unless we love God, so we really need to know what that means.

BELIEF

          The extent of the misunderstanding of what “belief” means in its Biblical context is astounding. I’m afraid that countless numbers have been mislead into thinking that they were believers and were heading toward heaven based solely upon an intellectual belief about Jesus or God. James makes it clear that this is not the case. In James 2:18-19, James tells us that even the demons know and believe who God is, and they certainly aren’t going to heaven.

          The word “believe” had a much more profound meaning in the early church than it does today. What was the original meaning? I have put together the following definition of what it meant to “believe in Jesus” based upon my research:

          Belief in Jesus: (1) placing complete trust in Jesus, followed by (2) conduct indicating complete reliance upon Him.

          The things that are different from today’s common use of the word are the fact that there is a positive demonstration and a complete commitment that is required.

FAITH

          The concepts of faith and belief were very closely tied together in the early church. In fact, faith is simply an extension of belief based upon how we came to believe in the first place. The definition that I use for “faith in Jesus” based upon my research is as follows:

Faith in Jesus: Coming to believe in Jesus as described above, based upon hearing or reading about Him.

Faith is based upon something less than personal physical and visual contact. Heb 11:1 says that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. So, let’s put our definitions together and see what we come up with”

Faith in Jesus: (1) placing complete trust in Jesus, followed by (2) conduct indicating complete reliance upon Him, all based upon (3) hearing and reading about Jesus but not actually seeing or touching Him.

LOVE

Let me start with what the Bible means when it tells us to “love God” before I go on to a more complete discussion of how “love” is used in the Bible.

Love God: to constantly value and esteem God above everything else.

Again, notice that this is not what we usually think of when we think of the word love. We usually associate love with some kind of emotional affection. That’s what many Christians erroneously practice today, but it’s not what God directed us to do.

Let’s next look at two of the principal words used for love in the New Testament, Agapao love and Phileo love, and study the contexts in which they were used in the New Testament. Let’s first define them:

Agapao love: (1) a constant, unselfish, serving love that values and esteems, (2) intelligently, intentionally willing the best for another[2].

Phileo love: an expression of tender affection or friendship.

We are commanded to Agapao God; Matt 22:37, Luke 10:27, Rom 8:28, 1 Cor 8:3, 1 Pet 1:8, 1 John 4:21. We are never commanded to phileo God.

Let’s next take a quick look at how these two forms of love are used in the Bible.

Agapao love is expressed in the following:

• The attitude of God toward his son: John 17:26.
• The attitude of God toward humanity generally: John 3:16, 14:21; Rom 5:8.
• The attitude that God directs us to have towards each other: John 13:34; 1 Cor 16:14; 1 Thess 3:12; 2 Pet 1:7.
• The essential nature of God: 1 John 4:8.
• The nature of Jesus: 2 Cor 5:14; Eph 2:4, 3:19, 5:2.
• The fruit of the Spirit: Gal 5:22.
• Obedience to God’s commands: John 14:15,21,23, 15:10; 1 John 2:5, 5:3; 2 John 6.
• Seeking the welfare of all: Rom 15:2.
• Working no ill to any: Rom 13:8-10
• Seeking the opportunity to do good to all men, especially to those of the faith: Gal 6:10; 1 Cor 13; Col 3:12-14.

Let’s summarize what God’s Agapao love does:

• It expresses God’s deep and constant love towards entirely unworthy objects.
• It produces a reverential love in believers towards him.
• It produces a practical love in believers towards other believers.
• It produces a desire in believers to help others seek him.

Phileo love is expressed in the following:

• Love of the Father for the Son: John 3:35.
• Love of the father for the believer: John 5:20.
• Jesus love for a certain disciple: John 20:2.

Let’s contrast and compare these two types of love:

• God is primarily seeking our agapao love, not our philio love. In John 21:15-17 Jesus asks Peter if he Agapaos him. Peter replies that he Phileos Jesus. That is not the answer that Jesus wants so he repeats the question three times.
• God has both Agapao and Phileo love for us.
• We are to Agapao life (1 Pet 3:10), but not Phileo life (John 12:25).
• What is the negative of Agapao love? Selfishness. Placing our selfish desires above the needs of others. Being ruled by self-will and self-pleasure.
• Christ had one command for us in the New Testament, expressed in John 15:12-14 and 1 John 3:16. It requires us to have the same type of Agapao love for others that he had for us!
• Another Greek for love is eros, which often refers to sexual or physical passion. This word is never used in the New Testament. Our word erotic derives from this Greek word.

A DETAILED SCRIPTURAL STUDY OF SALVATION

INTRODUCTION

          What I would like to do next is to study several of the scriptures that tell us how to receive salvation. We discovered earlier in our study that salvation is not an event but a process. However, the process is initiated by an event, becoming born again. This process is one that must be continued until the end of our lives.

          Let’s now begin our detailed scriptural study of salvation. The word salvation is used in three tenses in the Bible, past, present and future. Let’s look at what they mean.

Past tense: The Christian has been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin. Collectively, we were saved long ago, even before the beginning of time, when we were chosen by God. It was a free gift from God and was not given because we earned it. Let’s look at some scriptures that tell us that.

Eph 2:8-9

8   For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

9   not by works, so that no one can boast.

2 Tim 1:8-10

8   But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,

9   who has saved us and called us to a holy life-- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

10   but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

Present tense: The Christian is being saved from the habit and dominion of sin in the present tense. Let’s look at a couple of Paul’s teachings.

2   Cor 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Phil 2:12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

1   Cor 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

2   Cor 2:15 is another good present tense scripture.

Future tense: The Christian will be saved at the Lord’s return. Many scriptures tell us this. We’ll only look at a couple.

I Jn 3:2-3

2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

3   Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Heb 10:36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

All three tenses: God chose us for salvation in the past to be saved through belief in Jesus and sanctification by the Spirit in the present so that we might share in Jesus’ glory in the future. There are a few scriptures that bring all three tenses together in one teaching. Let’s look at a couple.

II Th 2:13-14

13   But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

14   He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Pet 1:2-5 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

So, we see that we were saved in the past when God chose us and Christ died for us, we are saved in the present by belief in Jesus and the sanctification of the Spirit, and we will be saved in the future when Jesus returns for us to take us to heaven.

We can see that being saved in the present tense is a process when we look at the verb tenses in the scriptures above. We are being saved, we are being transformed, we are to work out our salvation. This describes a process. What I’d like to do now is to develop the steps in the process of being saved.

STEPS IN THE SALVATION PROCESS

Step 1: God chose us through foreknowledge before creation to be saved by grace as a free gift. We saw this above in 1 Peter 1:2, 2 Thess 2:13 and Eph 2:8-9. Let’s also look at Eph 1:4-5.

Eph 1:4-5 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

Step 2: We are born again through belief in Jesus Christ, an event that starts our part of the process of being saved. John and Peter are the writers who use the expression “born again.” We’re all familiar with John 3:16. Let’s also look at John 3:3-7 and 1 Peter 1:22-23.

John 3:3-7 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

1 Pet 1:22-23 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

John 3:3-7 that we read above tells us that the Spirit is born within us when we are born again. There are several scriptures on baptism that indicate that we received the spirit when we became believers, and many times in Acts this preceded baptism. Eph 1:13 is one such scripture. That means that we are born again when we become believers. The following scripture tells us that the thing that saves us when we are born again is the pledge that we make at that time to follow God.

1 Pet 3:21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-- not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thus we see that we receive the Holy Spirit when we are born again. At the time that we receive the Holy Spirit our sanctification process begins. It can’t begin until we have the Spirit within us.

Step 3: We become sanctified, a process led by the Holy Spirit through which our lives become purified. We read above in 2 Cor 3:18 that we are being transformed into his likeness by the Spirit and in 2 Thess 2:13 and 1 Peter 1:2 that we are saved by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. There are several scriptures that tell us in some detail how to become sanctified and the penalty for not becoming sanctified. Let’s look at them.

First, 1 Thess 4:3-8 tells us that being sanctified means living a holy life, free from sexual impurity. If we don’t do this we reject God and are punished for that rejection. Col 3:12-14 and 2 Peter 1:3-7 describe how we go through the sanctification process.

Col 3:12-14 12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

2 Pet 1:3-7 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

Notice that these two descriptions of how to become sanctified both go through a process of developing brotherly kindness culminating in love. That love is the indication that we have developed the maturity required by God.

The sanctification process can also be described as a “baptism by fire” (Luke 3:16, Mark 9:49-50). These scriptures indicate that our lives are purified by a kind of heavenly fire. Fire and salt were means of purification and preservation used in Biblical times.

As we go through the sanctification process, God tests us to make sure that our faith is genuine. Heb 11:1 tells us what faith is.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 1 Pet 1:6-8 tells us about God’s testing of our faith.

1 Pet 1:6-8 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

James also tells us in James 1:2-4 that our faith is tested by trials of many kinds. He says that these trials develop perseverance which eventually results in us becoming mature and complete. James is referring to the sanctification process.

The last step in the sanctification process is the development of a deep, sincere love for our brothers and the ability to live a lifestyle similar to that of Jesus; we become mature and complete. 1 Pet 1:22 tells us that we do that by developing a deep love for our brothers. That involves developing the characteristics described in 1 Cor 13:4-7, which exemplify the lifestyle of Christ.

1 Pet 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

Obviously Jesus heavily emphasized this to his disciples as he was teaching them and instructing them as to how to carry on after his departure. In John 21:15-17 Jesus asks Peter 3 times, for emphasis, if he loves him, if he really loves him. Each time, after Peter’s positive reply, Jesus says “feed my sheep.” In Matt 25:31-46, Jesus describes what it means to feed his sheep when he says, “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” John, the disciple of love, puts it in his words in 1 John when he says:

I Jn 3:14-18 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

We are told over and over by John in 1 John that we must live a lifestyle of love similar to that lived by Jesus.

WHEN DO WE ACHIEVE SANCTIFICATION?

          We have achieved sanctification when we can love with actions and in truth. John tells us a bit about how to love with actions above in verses 16-17 above. James gives us a good lesson on how to do this in James 2:14-24. We live in truth when we walk as Jesus did and learn to live the life of love that he lived as exemplified in 1 Cor 13:4-7. Only when we mature in the sanctification process (James 1:2-4) can we truly follow God’s only New Testament command, which is given in 1 John 3:23;

To believe in Jesus and

To obey Christ’s command to love one another.

We can’t possibly obey (2) until we mature in our sanctification process. Let’s next list and compare the items listed in some of the descriptions that we have studied about how to become sanctified: