What Does It Mean To Be Saved?
If you go all the way back to where time began, you would find in the book of Genesis (the first book of the Bible) these words: "In the beginning God created ..." The Bible says God created the entire universe, and then he made his highest creation-man and woman. God created Adam and Eve to be like him and live forever.
They had it all! A beautiful place to live. Everything they could possibly want or need. Perfect bodies, a perfect marriage, perfect sex, perfect communication, and no pain or sickness or sorrow. Most importantly, they had a perfect relationship with God.
As long as they stayed within God’s boundaries, they had it all. There was only one thing God told them not to do - that was to eat the fruit of a certain tree. Satan came into the garden in the form of a serpent and tempted them to disobey God. Adam and Eve made a choice to rebel against what God told them. They chose to do things their way instead of God’s way, thinking they knew what was best for them.
The instant they chose to rebel, sin and all its evil entered the world. Adam and Eve started to grow old, and death entered the world for the first time. Where the environment had been perfect, there was now suffering, pain, sickness, and disease. Worst of all, Adam and Eve became spiritually dead. Their friendship with God was cut off. At that point God could have said, "forget it" and wiped them out with a single word. But because God’s love for us was so great, he immediately began to provide a way to reconcile people to him.
The Bible says that God chose blood to be payment for sin (see the next page for Hebrews 9:22). Leviticus 17:11 says that blood represents life. The first thing God did after Adam and Eve sinned was to kill an animal. The skin from the animal covered their nakedness and its blood "paid" for their sin. God promised them that one day he would send the complete payment for their sin.
Justice requires that you pay for what you do wrong. Because God is just, he requires that sin be paid for once and for all. The only one qualified to pay for the sin of the world was someone who had never sinned himself. So 2,000 years ago, Jesus, God’s own Son, left the splendor of heaven and came to the earth as a little baby. He was the only baby who ever asked to be born. For 33 years he walked and lived among men. He faced every temptation and experience of life without sin. By his life he taught us how to live.
Jesus became that once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin - to die in your place and in mine-to pay for our sin. If we received what he did for us on the cross, we will be forgiven and made right with God.
Jesus is offering you a new life and a new beginning. He"ll not only give you an exciting life here on this earth, but also one day take you to heaven to be with him forever. The only other option is not receiving Christ and his work for you on the cross. You pay for your own sin in a horrible place the Bible calls hell, created for the devil and his demons.
The choice is yours. Salvation is a gift from God (see Romans 6:23), but like any other gift, it does not become yours until you reach out and take it. How do you do that?
Admit you are a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness (see Romans 3:23).
Repent of (turn away from) your sin (see Luke 13:3).
Give your heart and life to Jesus (see John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10, 13; Acts 16:31).
Pray a prayer something like this. Remember there is nothing magical about the words. What counts is what you mean in your heart.
"Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I know my sin must be paid for. I accept your death on the cross as payment for my sin. Please forgive me of all my sin - past, present, and future. Please come into my heart and save me. I give you my life and ask you to be my Lord and Savior. Take me to heaven to be with you when I die . Help me to live for you until that time. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Amen."
If you prayed that prayer and meant it, then Jesus did exactly what you asked him to do! You may not have seen light flash or heard angels sing, but in a split second, something natural took place. You were saved!
You now have a new life in Christ and it’s important that you start out right. Share what has just happened to you with someone else. Begin to study God’s word. (The Gospel of John is a good place to start). Find a Bible teaching, preaching, and believing church, where you can grow in your new faith. Ask God to show you the church where he wants you to become a member. Talk to him every day - he loves you so much and wants to spend time with you.
You have made the most important decision you will ever make. God bless you in your new life as a radical Christian! Give it all you’ve got!
HEBREWS 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
ROMANS 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
LUKE 13:3 But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
JOHN 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
ROMANS 10:9-10, 13 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. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
ACTS 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."
