Salvation Summaries

The need for me to publish this post took on greater significance today (Wednesday) based upon a call I received this morning.  My dad called to inform me that my grandfather, who is 102 years old and in a nursing home, has only a day or two to live. In recent months, my grandfather has slept most of each day, and within the past few days he has slept all day and become unresponsive.  A doctor visited my grandfather yesterday and thought he would die within 24 hours.

When my grandfather dies, will he go to heaven? Does he have faith in Jesus as his Lord and Savior?  I honestly don’t know. I “witnessed” to him approximately ten years ago, so he heard the gospel story in abbreviated form; however, he was uncomfortable hearing it, and I wasn’t overly comfortable telling him about it (which is one reason for this blog, as I want Christians to be able to easily and effectively witness to others with the help of information in my posts). Within the past year, I’ve visited him only a few times (shame on me), but prayed for him when I was there. On one occasion immediately after I prayed for him, I asked him if he believed in Jesus, and he said he did; however, I don’t know how well he understood me, for a stroke left him unable to speak and affected his ability to understand things.

Thursday update: I called my dad this afternoon for an update on my grandfather, and learned that he had passed away 30 minutes prior to my call…

HOW IS A PERSON SAVED?

Romans ranks as one of the best in the Bible on how a person becomes a Christian. It contains a number of verses that relate to salvation, and a popular set of verses on how to be saved (Romans 10:9-10). In addition, Romans discusses an important component of salvation not found in most Bible books, which is righteousness, or how we become right with God.

The salvation-related verses in Romans can be organized into those that reflect bad news, and those that represent good news. To better understand how a person becomes a Christian, it’s important that we start with the bad news.

Bad News

Bad News #1: no one is good.  

Contrary to popular opinion, most people in this world are not good. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that no one is good. “No way!” you say. Let me explain.

While it’s true that everyone has done good things in their life, and been loving, caring, kind and/or helpful toward others, it’s also true that everyone has done bad things, both in thought and deed.

To determine how good someone is, we need to compare that person’s actions, and thoughts, to someone or something else, right? Now, we instinctively compare ourselves to other people who behave worse than us, but this is not what the Bible does. According to it, a person’s thoughts and actions should be compared against what God requires, which are found in His laws and commandments. In the book of Luke (10:25-27), Jesus tells us that two requirements sum up all of God’s laws (which include His commandments), and they are to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus said if you do this, you will live (or receive eternal life).

So, let me ask you a question. Have you loved God with all of your heart and soul and strength and mind, and loved your neighbor as much as yourself…every day of your life?  As you can see, relative to God’s standard, you, and me, are not good. We’ve violated God’s standard not some of the time, or most of the time, but all of the time (every day). This is the comparison God uses to determine who goes to heaven, and who does not.

Romans 3:10-12 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Bad News #2: God’s laws show us that we are sinners and fall short of what God expects from us.

Now, some of you may be asking, “If God knew we couldn’t obey all of His laws and commandments, then why did He give them to us in the first place?”

According to Paul, God’s laws were given to us to show us how sinful we are, and that we can’t become right with God, or righteous, by trying to obey them. In short, everyone has sinned, and because of this, we all fall short of what God requires from us.

Romans 3:20-23 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Bad News #3: We are sinful because of our nature.  

If you are asking why we are so sinful, Paul tells us the answer to this too. We are sinful because we inherited a sinful nature from a family tree that goes all the way back to Adam (and Eve).

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–

OK, at this point we know that we are not good relative to God’s standard, and we know why we are not good (because we inherited a sinful nature, which we cannot change). Both of these are bad, but there’s one more piece of news we need to know about, and unfortunately, it’s worse than the other two.

Bad News #4: Our sinfulness results in spiritual death.

The Bible describes spiritual death as eternal separation from God (both here on earth, and when we die). In other words, we are destined for hell unless God makes some sort of exception for us. Thankfully He does, and that’s part of the good news in the next section.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–

Good News

Now that we understand the bad news, it’s time to consider the good news.

The good news is that – despite our sinful thoughts and actions, our sinful nature, and our destiny – God can save us from spiritual death. There are several things a person must know and do though, for this to happen.

Good News #1: the gospel tells us how a person is saved; it is by faith in Jesus. 

According to the gospel, a person is saved by having faith, or believing, in Jesus.

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Good News #2: Faith in Jesus comes from hearing the gospel. 

If you want to be saved, you must hear and understand the gospel, for this is how a person receives faith. The gospel is clearly presented in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but it is also mentioned in other New Testament books.

Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Good News #3: Faith in Jesus also makes us right, or righteous, in God’s sight. 

The Bible is clear that faith in Jesus alone is the only way to be saved and become accepted in God’s sight as someone who is righteous. Why Jesus alone? Because He is the only One who died in our place and satisfied what God required for us to be saved.  When a person believes in, has faith in, or is united with Jesus, God views that person as righteous in His sight.  If a person does not have faith in Jesus, God does not view that person as righteous, and instead, that person remains under God’s wrath as an enemy.  I know this may sound harsh, but it’s true. God is a loving God, for He sent His Son to die in our place, but He is a God of wrath too, and those who remain under His wrath will not go to heaven to be with Him.

Since a person is saved and made right with God by faith in His Son, that begs the question, “what is faith?”  I’ve defined faith in my posts on the book of Hebrews, so I would ask you to read those posts for detailed information on faith according to that book.  Let me make a few comments here though, about the relationship between faith and deeds.

There are some within the church body that try to separate faith from the byproduct of faith, which are good deeds, good works, or fruit.  While it is true that a person is saved by faith and not by deeds (for Paul clearly explains this in Romans), it is also true that there is a close relationship between faith and good deeds.  In fact, the relationship appears to be one of cause and effect.

Other: repenting of one’s sins appears to be associated with faith, and should also be done to become saved.

Romans 2:4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

To conclude, when a person truly believes or puts their faith in the Lord (and repents), God blesses that person with righteousness and forgives him/her of their sins. That person becomes “saved” from the penalty of those sins (which is spiritual death), and receives eternal life. 

Romans 4:6-8 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Romans 8:1-2 NIV Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

A POPULAR VERSE ON HOW TO BE SAVED

The Bible contains a number of verses on how to be saved, and Romans 10:9-11 is a popular one. These verses show us that if you believe, or trust, in Jesus, and confess Him as Lord, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9-11 9 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. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

However, there is one problem with this set of verses in using it to understand how a person is saved. While these verses “hit” on the main way a person is saved (believing, or trusting in, Jesus), they do not present a complete picture of salvation. In addition, there are other verses on how a person becomes saved that say something other than the need to confess with your mouth and believe.

• For example, according to 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.), all a person needs to do is believe in Jesus; confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord is apparently not required.

• Also, in Acts 3:19, we see that a person is saved simply by repenting and turning to God; nothing is said about believing in Jesus (Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,).

• Further, in Matthew 11:28-29, we learn that if you “come to Jesus,” you will be saved; these verses don’t mention anything about repenting, believing or confessing (Matthew 11:28-29 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.).

• And last, Acts 2:21 says that all we need to do is call upon the Lord’s name to be saved (Acts 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’).

So, this begs the question…since these verses all say something different about how to be saved, which is the right way?  I believe the best way to answer this is by realizing that each “requirement” (believe, confess, repent, come, call) is closely associated with, or related to, the others, and by performing one, you would naturally perform the others. For example, you don’t call upon Jesus’ name for salvation unless you believe in Him. And when you come to believe in Him, and learn that He died for your sins, you seek to repent of your sins.  As you can see, calling upon Jesus’ name, believing in Him and repenting are all related components of how a person is saved.

One of the reasons I’m reviewing nearly all of the verses in the New Testament about salvation is to piece together all of the “requirements” of becoming saved in order to complete what I call the salvation puzzle. The completed puzzle will contain a clear and detailed “picture” of how a person is saved.

GOD IS MORE INVOLVED IN OUR SALVATION THAN WE REALIZE

When we read salvation-related verses in the Bible on how to be saved, we get the impression that if we just perform A, B and C, we will be saved. Salvation, it seems, is something that we earn or receive by doing something. We are careful not to view these steps as works though, for we’ve learned that salvation is by faith, and not by works.

However, there is another way to view steps A, B and C without them being works to earn our salvation, and it is by acknowledging that God is the One who saves us.  We, in turn, simply carry out something He has already pre-determined. In other words, while it’s true that we need to hear the gospel (step A), believe in Jesus (step B), and repent of our sins (step C) to be saved, we are only doing this because God has first worked in us to draw us to Himself and save us. The following verses strongly indicate that God determines who is saved, and who is not, and that He is the One who saves rather than it being something that a person does.

Romans 8:28-30 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

I must admit, though, that I’m not clear on the degree to which God saves people without their involvement. Repentance is something a person does to become saved, but is this 100% from God and 0% from us?  Is it 90% from God and 10% from us?  We see in Romans 1 below, for example, that God reacted to how people were acting. The worse they acted, the more He allowed them to do increasingly sinful things.

Romans 1:21-28 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator– who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

But if this is true, could it not work the other way around?  In other words, if, with God’s prodding, a person hears the gospel and starts to wonder about salvation, could God not work in their mind and heart to push them closer towards salvation (but knowing that in the end He will cause them to be saved regardless of what they do)?  Is this possible? I don’t know the details of how God saves a person (and I’m not sure others do either).  What I do know, though, is that in the big picture of salvation, salvation is not something we earn; God saves us based upon having faith in the Lord.  Faith is a gift we receive from Him, and because it is a gift, it is not something we earn.

CONCLUSION

Romans is one of the best books in the Bible to learn about how a person becomes saved, or a Christian.  The salvation-related verses in Romans can be organized into those that reflect bad news, and those that represent good news.  By reviewing the verses in this order, salvation becomes easier to understand.

The bad news is that no one is good, we all sin because of our sinful nature, and our sins lead to spiritual death.

The good news is that the gospel tells us how to be saved.  Salvation comes from having faith in Jesus and repenting of our sins.  Faith in Jesus is what makes us right with God, or righteous. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Romans 10:9-11 is a popular and clear set of verses on how to be saved; however, these verses do not present a comprehensive view on how a person is saved, since other salvation verses include other “requirements.” These “requirements” are all related to one another though, and when one understands this, we see that the verses on how to be saved are all saying something similar, but in different ways.

The gospels in the Bible present the most complete view on how to be saved, or become a Christian. Please see my posts on the book of Matthew (Part 3 and especially Part 4) for an easy-to-understand outline on how to be saved (you can use this as a reference when you witness to others) and comprehensive comments on how to become a Christian.

In my next post, I will talk about the spiritual changes that take place in a person upon becoming saved.  I think a number of you may be surprised how much takes place, and from this realize that becoming a Christian is not simply an intellectual decision – it is a very big deal, and something that affects that person for eternity.