I realized that some people that may find my blog may be searching for faith answers and not knowing where to begin and my last post would probably not have much meaning to them. Today I decided to start with the basics. Even if you’ve been a long-time believer in Christ I hope that what I say here you’ll appreciate and share with others.

I will say, I am not here to change your mind or tell you how to think. I decided to re-create this blog into a faith based one with the goal of helping you read the scripture without presuppositions and to just read it, in its full context, and focus on what it actually says, not what all the internet pastors and men writing books to make money telling you it says, but what the Spirit, who should be residing in all believers, tells you it says. You don’t have to agree with me. It’s okay. We can have different opinions on various scriptures and we can still both be believers in Christ and love one another as Jesus said.

Likely you’ve heard the phrase, “I got saved…”, many times whether you’re a Christian or not. What does that mean, “I got saved”? This is something I’ve looked at and paid attention to for a very long time and I would like to share my thoughts with you. I prefer not to use this phrase and by the end of this article you’ll know why.

Definitions

So, what does that word or phrase, even mean, “saved”? Well the dictionary definition of “salvation” is “preservation or deliverance from harm or loss”. The definition of “saved” is “rescued”. In theology the terms are used to describe being rescued from sin and its consequences. What does the Bible say though? What did Christ say about this?

First, we should understand what sin is and what the consequences of it actually are, according to the scriptures. We can see in 1 John 3:4 (“Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”), that scripture describes sin as lawlessness. What is lawlessness? Lawlessness is any action that goes against God’s law or standard. We can find God’s law and standard in Exodus 20 in the 10 commandments.

We also can see in Matthew 22:34-40 what Jesus says. In verse 36 a Pharisee asked Jesus, “Teacher, which command in the law in the greatest?”. Jesus than went on to answer him in verses 37-40. “³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” What Jesus was doing here is summarizing the entire law, the 10 commandments, as these are God’s standards for achieving these two commands.

Sin is described as lawlessness and lawlessness is disobeying God’s laws and standards found in the 10 commandments. (I John 3:4, Exodus 20:1-17)

Sin

Second, we need to know what the consequences are from sin. What does scripture tell us? Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are also told in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short. None of us are immune to sin. The only sinless one was Christ.

So, Paul tells us in Romans that the penalty, or the wage, of sin is death. There are 2 kinds of death; physical separation of ones soul from ones fleshly body and spiritual death which is forever separation from God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and instead allowed themselves to be manipulated by the serpent (Satan), sin entered the world and things changed.

Decay began and they were instantly separated from communion with God. God and sin are in-compatible. For the sake of time I am not going to get into deeper study on why God allowed sin or created it as thing in the first place, but if you’re anything like me you’ve probably asked yourself that. What I can tell you is, He’s God and we can’t possibly understand everything because we aren’t. God allowed us a choice, call it free will. Satan, to my knowledge, was the first to commit sin having been a created being himself (the angel Lucifer), the sin of pride or rebellion against God. One of God’s laws are that we worship only him and the story goes that the devil wanted to be God’s equal, not subject. He was then kicked out of heaven and he’s since been called the father of lies, manipulating people from the beginning.

The consequence of sin is separation from God. Sins goal is to destroy our soul and when this happens we grow cold, we wither, and our relationship with the Father suffers.

Good News

What is the good news then? The good news is that God sent Jesus to reconcile us to him. How was this accomplished? God sent his son, Yeshua (“Jesus”), birthed by a virgin, and he lived a perfect life in complete obedience to the Father (God) and sent to die for human-kind. Christ took the penalty for our sin. He suffered, bled and died in our place. This does not mean our flesh is saved from death, it means we can now be reconciled to the father as Christ suffered that separation from the father for us and is now sitting by the father as our mediator. (1 John 2:1-2)

We must put our trust in Jesus by surrendering our lives to him in order to be saved from that eternal separation. If we choose to not do this, than we will have that separation forever. Jesus describes such a scenario with the rich man and a man named Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. What does it look like to surrender to Jesus? Well, you need to acknowledge you are a sinner and have faith and trust in Jesus and follow him. Also you need to obey God and obeying God means obeying his law, his standard. Read James 4:1-17. As flawed humans we can’t keep the law perfectly, however.

I’m not going to tell you you need a pray a prayer of repentance because that isn’t biblical. The bottom line is that once you decide to live by God’s laws, by his standard shown in the law, you will automatically be living for God and that means you’ll be sinning less as you strive to live a righteous life by way of our example, Christ. If you don’t first recognize you’re a sinner though, in need of a redeemer, in order to avoid eternal separation, than you won’t accept the free gift offered to you.

That’s the gift of eternal life which brings restoration with God. Works can not do that. Being a “good person” can not do that. You can be a “good person” and still disobey God. Only Jesus was able to pave the way to restoration. (John 14:6) Only Jesus kept the law perfectly and only through him are we restored.

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, James 4:6 says. 1 Peter 3:18-19 says, “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”

Review

I could spend so much more time on this topic but I’m trying to make my points without being too wordy. The question remains, what does it mean when someone says, “I was saved…” (usually followed by a time period or an event)? Ask them to explain it and I think you’ll find that not everyone really understands what they are claiming in that statement. Saved from what? How did you “get saved”?

Many people will tell you that they “got saved” from their sin, others might say they were saved from death. Again, ask them to explain it because many can’t. Jesus did not die to remove sin from the world. That’s not what happened. Sin still exists and people sin every day. Therefore, it’s of my opinion that you were not saved from sin.

Remember, sin is lawlessness. You could also say sin is making the choice to disobey God’s law; knowing how to live righteous but choosing not to do it. We needed a redeemer because we can not keep the law perfectly and God does not accept sin. This is why you need Jesus. Jesus did not save you from physical death either. These fleshly bodies will die but if you have placed your trust in Jesus and Christ is in you and you in him you will have a resurrected body like his body after his own resurrection.

1 John 1:5-10 says, ⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. ⁶ If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. ⁷ If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Salvation, works, repentance

What does Jesus say about salvation, or rather, what it takes to be “saved”? In John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”, and in John 3:14-17,¹⁴ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

In my study of the scripture nowhere have I seen Jesus describe works to save oneself. When I say works, I mean that he doesn’t require us to go to church to be “saved”. He doesn’t require us to pray to be saved (though you should be praying as it’s a form of communion with God). God doesn’t require us to be in ministry to be saved. He doesn’t require anything except belief. Now one can argue, what does belief mean? That’s a topic for a different day.

One could also argue repentance. This is often seen as a requirement in order to “be saved”. My personal feeling is, repenting of sin is not a requirement to accept Jesus as your redeemer. Once you put your trust in Jesus your life will be changed as you strive to live in accordance to the law by your obedience to God. You should want to do this to honor him and glorify him. This regeneration will no doubt convict you of your sin when you no doubt fail to keep the law, and you will seek out the Lord in surrender which would mean you would be grieved of your sin. Repentance of your belief about Christ, yes. You need to believe in him.

That is not a work of salvation, or saving grace as people say. Go back to everything else I said. If you are not regenerate than you are still living in darkness and nearly guaranteed you are not in obedience to God therefore you have not been restored. I also believe there are 2 types of repentance. One is repenting of your rejection of Christ and the other is repenting of your sin. Only the first would prevent you from restoration in my opinion, while the other shows whether or not you’re still living lawless. In the end, God decides.

Matthew 16:2-27 says, “²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it. ²⁶ For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each according to what he has done.”

In the end

So, how did you “get saved”? The fact is, you didn’t do anything to reconcile yourself to God. Jesus shed his blood for you, to cleanse you. We are not worthy to stand in the presence of our God, not by our own merits. We only have a way because of Jesus. He is the ONLY way. How much does God love us that he gave us this? He wants to reconcile with us, he wants us to be restored and have that communion that Adam and Eve must have had in the garden before they chose to disobey.

Are you like me and think, “how could they have been so stupid?”, they had it made and they messed up. Well, we mess up too. Lucifer also messed up. But now we have hope in Jesus Christ to restore us to that relationship. Without Christ it would never have been possible no matter how good a person you think you are. You can now be free from the consequence of sin and be reconciled to the Father through Christ. Praise Jesus, I’ve been redeemed!

John 3:30 “He must increase but I must decrease.” – The more you allow Christ to work in your life, and the more you surrender to him, the less you’ll be tempted to sin.

All scripture used is from the Christian Standard Bible translation. https://read.csbible.com