Religious people and preachers continually speak of “being saved,” “getting saved,” “getting salvation,” or “receiving their reward.” What does this mean? All professing Christians want salvation. None want whatever is the alternative. The masses hope to leave this life for a better one. But just what is salvation? Exactly what is it that they and you are seeking? Most merely accept popular tradition and do not really KNOW! Do you? Are you certain? Take a moment and write down your expectation for salvation; what it means to be “saved.” Did you write “go to heaven”; “be with Jesus”; “have eternal life”? Or did you write “conversion”; “accepting Jesus now”? Even this much uncertainty raises questions. Does salvation come at death? Or at conversion? On one occasion, a young man asked, “…what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16). Christ gave a very specific answer. Do you know what it was? Why the mystery? Why the confusion, uncertainty and outright disagreement about just what salvation is? God says, “PROVE all things; hold fast that which is good.” Surely this includes proving the hope of salvation and how you will spend eternity! So let’s prove the issue most supremely important to you; your salvation. Let’s make it absolutely plain, leaving no room for misunderstanding! You Should Be Concerned The Bible declares, “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb. 9:27). Accept this verse for exactly what it says. It means that death is the most certain reality in every person’s life. Literally, all have an “appointment” that cannot be broken. Surely, WHY we are alive and WHY all must eventually die are the most important questions in life. Yet, at the same time, they are perhaps the least studied and thought about. The average person spends almost no time considering the enormous significance of what is personally the most certain event in every person’s life; DEATH! But why do men die? Where did this “appointment” come from? What caused it? God’s Word states, “ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). “All” means everyone; no exceptions. This includes you and me. For every cause there is an effect and the Bible states that there is a consequence for sin. But what is it? Romans states, “…the wages of sin is DEATH; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ” (6:23). There it is. Sin causes death! Let me say again, this means you and me. The fact that you may not be a religious person does not exempt you from either sinning or its consequences. Since everyone has sinned, everyone will eventually face the death penalty. Since the WAGES of sin is death, this is the paycheck issued by God that people receive for what they have EARNED. Death is what we have all earned by our deeds. Do you begin to see why you and me and all mankind must be saved? But what does saved mean? In one sense, salvation is no different than being saved from a burning house, an overturned car, a raging river or any other dangerous predicament from which one cannot deliver himself. Saved means SAVED! It means delivered from a fate that, without intervention by another party, would result in injury or death. It means to be preserved. Any good dictionary will tell you that being saved, in the religious sense, involves deliverance or preservation; redemption. God says true salvation is being delivered from death, but this is not what is commonly believed.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:33:47 +0000
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