What does it mean to be “saved”?
Have you ever typed the question “What does it mean to be saved?” into Google and seen what the search yields? We did it for you, and we were completely amazed at the sundry of incorrect answers we found. It’s alarming to see all of the self proclaimed Evangelicals, Christian Ministries and many churches online who don’t really know the answer to that question and it’s even worse that they would proudly display the unbiblical answers that they do. The answer to the question is not only in the very Bible they claim to read, but the penalty for misleading anyone with providing them the wrong information is promised there as well (Luke 17:1-2). As it is written, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2Tim 2:15), it is with the most humble reverence and complete love for a holy and just God, and His Word, that we are going to give you the true biblical answer to that question.
Let us begin by telling you that we are thrilled that you have made it to this section of the “One Over 99” site. If you are reading this as a new Christian or as a person who is unsure if Christianity is right for you, then you are part of an answered prayer. There is absolutely nothing that should be more important in your life than your salvation or the salvation of the ones you love. Just as well, there should be no reason for any truly converted Christian to not only understand God’s merciful gift of salvation but also know for certain that they are indeed saved. It’s sickening and all too common in this post-modern community of emergent and seeker friendly churches to preach a gospel which creates so many false converts. There is but only one gospel, and the Bible makes it perfectly clear (Gal 1:8). If you are not saved now, or having doubts of your salvation, we pray that this will lead you to salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord. If you still have questions after reading this, please email us and we will give you biblical answers to your questions or provide you direction towards understanding (1Peter 3:15).
Paul Washer, one of the greatest biblical evangelists of our time once said it best; “God saves us for Himself, by Himself, and from Himself”. This completely accurate, yet very simple statement depicts exactly what happens, how it happens, and why it had to happen with regard to salvation while maintaining a Christocentric gospel (Gal 1:9). To increase your understanding of this better, we want to take a moment to go through the meaning and reasons for salvation in depth and biblically. Although we may paraphrase great men of God, Protestant confessions of faith, or sound Reformed teaching, this will not be a systematic study of the doctrines of grace. However, we will be true to the doctrine and proven by scripture. When you have read through this, you will surely know what it means to be saved.
First and foremost, you must understand that the Bible plainly states that everyone is born in sin. (Rom 3:23) There are no exceptions to this and there are many scriptures which back it up. Regarding the fall of man, the Westminster Confession of Faith states, “Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptations of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. (2Cor 11:3) By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God (Gen 2:17), and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body (Gen 6:5 and Jer 17:9)” (Chapter VI).
In the Old Testament book of Psalms, chapter 51, David wrote to God as he pleaded for forgiveness of his sin (Psalm 51:5). David didn’t mean that the acts of giving birth or conceiving were sinful. He simply meant that humans are born with a sinful nature. We are totally depraved. Since we have a sinful nature, we are seen as unrighteous in God’s eyes. God is holy and perfect in every way. Man, is not even close! We are naturally programmed to sin against God and we are far from righteousness.
As the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans (Rom 3:9-20). Obviously, Paul was telling the Jews and Gentiles that they (we) all have commonality with regards to unrighteous behavior. Our common ground is sin, and Paul quotes Old Testament scriptures to back it up. If you watch the evening news, you have to admit that this is absolutely still true today. People seem to be getting more and more evil every day. (Matt 24:12)
The Bible specifically makes known to us the types of sin as well as the just punishment for sinning and never allows room for negotiation. There are no grey areas. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God and he makes it clear who the unrighteous are (1Cor6:9-10).
So what the Bible makes perfectly clear, is that if you fit any of these previously mentioned descriptions of a sinner, do not deceive yourself, you will suffer greatly the consequences, guaranteed. Why, you may ask? (Heb 10:26-27)
We have no excuse for sinning against God. God gave us His laws and a conscience. We are able to know right from wrong. The fact is, that so many unregenerate Christians have been brainwashed because of wolves in sheep’s clothing (Mat 7:15). The big church preachers of the world who preach that God has a ‘wonderful plan for you’ or that you can have ‘your best life now’ or your life has a purpose and you can learn it in 40 days! They are all afraid to tell you the biblical truth that if you are a sinner and you do not repent, you will not see heaven (Luke 13:3). The message that sinners are heading to hell because they have sinned against God and they deserve it. That message doesn't sell books or fill the pews. You won't find Dr. James White's books in the best seller slot at your local Christian book store (and it's a shame).
If the kind and loving God that they preach about is the God of the Bible, then He is serious about His commandments being kept (John 14:15). He is not some old man who sits on a cloud with His fingers crossed, wishing and waiting for you to "accept" Him when you get good and ready. He is not a powerless God who has been depicted helpless, as He stands outside a door which is missing the knob, knocking patiently and waiting for you to open it and ask Him in. How absurd and disrespectful it is to think of Him as powerless, helpless and without absolute control over everything. This is blasphemy because it goes against the Bible and the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible (Matt 12:31).
The God which Paul preached of is the same God which flooded the earth and saved only Noah and those he took with him on the ark before He flooded the earth (2Peter 2:5). He is the same God who burned Sodom and Gomorrah to the ground (2Peter 2:6). He is also the same God who will return like a thief in the night and the elements will melt with fervent heat (2Peter 3:12).
Paul was the perfect preacher to tell people of their sins and unrighteous behavior. Why not? He was one of the biggest God haters and persecutors of Christians ever to live. That is, right up until his blinding experience on the road to Damascus (Read about Paul’s conversion in Acts 9:1-31). After his encounter with Jesus, Paul was the epitome of true conversion! All he lived for was reaching the lost by preaching the gospel, and giving glory to God in the highest “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”. You must understand that in God’s sovereignty, He foreknew Paul would be the perfect ambassador for the gospel (Acts 9:15), and He commanded Paul to preach it! No matter how sinful he was or how he lived his life before his conversion, he was created for that very purpose (Acts 9:13). The apostle wrote in his letter to the Corinthians to imitate his service to God (1Cor 11:1)
Make no doubt about it that God, being sovereign over every single molecule in the universe (Rom 1:20), converted Paul at precisely the exact time that God wanted to. It wasn’t up to Paul to choose (John 15:16). Let Paul’s conversion serve as a biblical example to you of God’s irresistible grace. We agree that not everyone receives the blinding experience on the road to Damascus that Paul did, but we do receive a very clear and effectual calling from God at precisely the time God wants to call you or draw you to Him through the Holy Spirit (John 6:44). This ‘drawing’ or pulling is called monergism. The Holy Spirit acts independently of any human assistance as He brings you to the understanding that you need a savior (Heb 9:14-15). It’s part of regeneration and can not be done without the Holy Spirit. Man cannot do this on his own according to the Bible. If you know someone who claims something other than this; claiming that anyone can choose salvation when ever they want, then they are suffering from a severe case of ‘man-based theology’. This is heresy and against all biblical teaching (1Cor 2:14).
The Holy Spirit regenerates us with the use of our conscience in concert with God’s law. The Holy Spirit reveals to us that we are sinners and have no way to justify ourselves in the eyes of a holy God. Sin is very serious. If you do not admit that you are a sinner then you will remain reprobate and you will not receive the gift of repentance from the Holy Spirit (2Tim 2:25)
God sent forth His laws to us through Moses; the Ten Commandments. And if we neglect to keep His commandments, He clearly warns us in (Ex 20:5-6) of the consequences as well as many other times in the Bible. Someone who breaks the Ten Commandments is referred to as a “worker of iniquity” (Matt 7:23). Iniquity = lawlessness, and lawlessness = sin (1John 3:4). You have broken God’s laws, and that makes you a sinner, under God’s wrath to come. Not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament we see the punishment of sin. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). If you are a worker of anything, then you deserve to get paid for the work you do, right? In that same sense, God promises to pay workers of iniquity their fair wage... That wage is indeed, death. Eternal death! God is not one to break a promise. This bad news is what most of the so called Evangelicals and Ministries we encountered have neglected to tell you. They neglect it due to their weak doctrines, reckless handling of the Word of God, and blatant misunderstanding of the doctrines of grace. This is mostly due to the fact that they respectfully tolerate heresy with regards to the teaching they have received from their own beloved pastors and/or family members. Don’t take anyone’s word for it, check it against the Bible. That goes for us too! Compare what we say to the scriptures. Everyone, including your pastor, is capable of mistakes (2Cor 13:5). The Bible is the infallible word of God (2Tim 3:16).
Just in case you may still be wondering what the Bible says the consequence for sin will be... "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part {will be} in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Rev 21:8). There you have it. It’s the lake of fire. It’s eternal torment in hell as the Bible promises. God will not break His promise. Sinners will perish under His wrath. As to the existence of hell, contrary to popular ‘un-belief’ from modern America, there is a biblical example of someone who was actually sent to hell for his disobedience to God, breaking the commandments. It’s the story of the rich man and Lazarus in (Luke 16:19-31).
It should be biblically clear to you now what sin is, and equally clear what happens as a result of us sinning against a holy and just God. He punishes us because we deserve it. As the Bible states, any and all unrepentant sinners will receive God’s awesome and terrible wrath without any mercy. To avoid His wrath, you need to be rescued or ‘saved’. But understand that man can do nothing good enough in the eyes of God to rescue or save himself. Your good deeds will not impress the God of the Bible (Isaiah 64:6). Like it or not, without the Holy Spirit in us working to regenerate us, we are all under the control of our sin nature. We are slaves to sin (Romans 16:18). As the Bible teaches us, we are all born that way. On our own and without the Holy Spirit, the only will man possesses by nature is the ability to choose his abomination (sin) that ultimately leads to his place in the lake of fire. Man picks his path on the wide road, and God by His own mercy, chooses to save man from His wrath (Rom 9:15).
The Holy Spirit, through His effectual calling, plucks us right off of our course, just as He did to Paul on the road to Damascus. The Bible tells us that there are many who enter the wide gate and travel the easy road to hell (Matt 7:13). However, there is a ‘narrow gate’ and narrow path, which leads to eternal life and few are those who find it (Matt 7:14).
So, there is good news! There is a way to have eternal life. God has mercy on the elect. God has provided a way for us to escape the wrath that is due to every sinner. By “saving us from Himself” as Washer said, God has provided a way out. As we showed you before, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23), “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12), “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). You must enter by the narrow gate, and that gate is Jesus (John 14:6)!
Christianity is the only religion that speaks the truth about salvation. It is the only religion that says man is saved by Christ alone through faith alone (Gal 2:8). Do not be troubled; believe in God and also in Jesus (John 14:1)
Jesus came into the world for the purpose to save us (Romans 3:25). All men die (Heb 9:27). 10 out of 10 people, or 100 out of 100 people; it doesn’t matter how you slice it, all men die and go before God to be judged (John 3:18). We are judged against God’s laws or The Ten Commandments and not only by our actions, but also by our thoughts (Psalm 44:21 and Romans 2:16). As Jesus preached from the Sermon on the Mount, “For you have heard it was said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY”; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27,28)
No one may enter the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again (John 3:3,5). We must repent, turn from sin, and put our trust in Jesus (Mark 1:15). Romans chapter 5 teaches us how we are justified. "While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die" (Romans 5:6-7).
Would you die for someone good or bad? Would you die for a total stranger? How much more could anyone love us more than that? (John 15:3) Jesus laid down His life for us so we may be seen as righteous to God (John 10:11-14). We are enemies of God if our hearts care only about pleasing ourselves, and our minds love the worldly ways (Romans 8:7-8).
Jesus death on the cross was the propitiation; He satisfied our sin debt to God (1John 4:10 and Is 53:10). God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath {of God} through Him. "Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you" (Acts 8:22)
We are not going to tell you to pray a sinner’s prayer and then that’s it. The only biblical example of this is in Psalm 51, where David prayed to God with incredible sorrow for what he had done. He prayed for God to forgive him, cleanse him, and make him new. For he knew he was a sinner.
Do you know that you have sinned against God? Do you have great sorrow such as David? Do you understand that each time you sin every day that you add to the suffering of Jesus on that cross? It’s much, much more than saying “I believe”. It’s more than simply going to church or saying a little prayer while continuing to live as you have before.
Instead, it’s admitting that you have sinned against an angry God and that you need to be saved from His wrath. You repent (turn from sin) and ask Him for forgiveness. You know that Jesus died on the cross as payment for your sins and then rose from the dead three days later. You read the Bible daily to grow in your walk with Christ. You have a complete change in the way you live as you put your faith and trust in Him and only Him. You put God first in your life and die to yourself. You keep His commandments out of love and obedience, even after you are saved. Now if this describes you, then you truly know what it means to be saved.
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Of The Big Bad Wolf?
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Verse:
John 3:16; Jn 3:16; John 3
Keyword:
Salvation, Jesus, Gospel
With Operators:
AND, OR, NOT, “ ”
