Salvation
Salvation Explained
Paul’s Explanation From the Book of Romans
Summary
In order to understand “salvation”, we need to understand what we are being saved from, sin. Everyone needs to grasp they are not good enough on their own merits. Not the “pagan”, or non-believing person, not the “moral” person who thinks they do good things and generally follow the 10 Commandments, and not the “religious” person who thinks they know how to live by God’s commandments and can even teach others how to do so. Not one person who ever lived, outside of God Himself ever lived a perfectly righteous life. Not in thought or in action. A single sinful thought is all it takes to destroy our standing with God. Why does God demand absolute perfection? Because God is absolute perfection and sin of any kind and any amount cannot be in His presence.
So, God has a major dilemma. How does God justify sinful humanity? Think of it this way. If you are the parent of a new born child, you know that child does not understand how to do anything outside of cry and make a mess in his/her diaper. You know you have to teach them to grow up to learn to communicate, go to school and learn how to get along in the world. To do that the child has to trust that you are their guide and teacher and protector. The child has to trust that you love and care for him/her. You want the child to grow up to love you and learn to show that love for others and teach his/her children to do the same.
Now imagine that child has a choice to love and trust in you as their parent or to run away from home and turn their back on you, call you bad names and say they hate you. As a parent that would hurt, wouldn’t it? As a parent you want them to come back home and ask you for forgiveness. You gladly would, of course. You only want what is best for them and they simply don’t see it. You even call out to them to tell them if they would only trust you, all would be well. You will take care of them if they would only come home and simply trust you actually know more than they do and can help them learn. This is a situation God deals with all the time with most people. He wants them to trust in Him.
When we choose to trust or have “faith” in God, He forgives us of our sins. When we acknowledge we are indeed sinners, or little bratty kids that have been doing wrong and we “repent” or ask God to forgive us, God gives us “justification”. This was done by Jesus Christ on the cross because there has to be a penalty for sin. The “good news” (Gospel) is that Jesus paid for our sins for us. When He was executed for sins He did not commit, He was paying for our sins. This is a once and for all act of mercy and love on His part. All we have to do to be forgiven is ask Him to do so and accept that He is our savior.
Let’s go back to the parenting analogy for a moment. Let’s say your kid is a teenager and runs away, as described earlier. Only in this scenario the kid steals a car even though they are only 14 and do not know how to drive. The kid wrecks and totals it. It is a brand new Mercedes Benz. The kid ends up in the hospital with a few broken bones and is of course arrested for the crime. He has to go before the judge who tells him he has two choices. He can do 3 years in juvenile detention (prison) or pay $100,000 to cover the cost of the car and the hospital bills, plus a penalty to teach him a lesson. Into the courtroom walk his dad, who is standing in the back and hands the bailiff a note to take to the kid. It says “All you have to do is say you are sorry and come home and trust me to take care of you and I’ll get you out of this mess. If you do not choose to trust me, then you are on your own to solve this problem.”
That is exactly what God offers each of us. He will pay our debts and get us out from under the penalty of sin, which is not only physical death, but spiritual death, or separation from God.
When we accept God into our lives, He goes to work in us through the Holy Spirit to teach us how to live in His righteous ways. This is a slow growth process that takes us the rest of our lives and is called “sanctification”. The Holy Spirit moves us away from our old, selfish, sinful, worldly way to His righteousness. We must always struggle against our fleshly desires and learn with His help to control them.
Once we are saved, we can stamp our passport for Heaven! We ARE GOING! Justification assures us of that. The question is what rewards will be waiting for you when you get there. That is where the process of sanctification comes in. The better we learn to walk with God and follow His will for our lives, the more rewards we will get when we get there. Some people come to Christ on their death beds and at least they will be in Heaven. They may not have any rewards waiting for them outside of a glorified body, but that is far better than the alternative! Our walk in this life does indeed matter. What we do matters, but not for salvation. Jesus did all of that and gave it to us as a free gift of love and mercy. We can add nothing to it and any attempt to do so is saying what Jesus did was not enough. That is blasphemy!
After this life is done, we will have glorified, incorruptible, heavenly bodies that will be like Jesus’. We will be with Jesus here on earth during the 1000-year Millennial Kingdom and then in Heaven forever more. Praise be to God!
