HOW CAN I TRULY BE SAVED?
How can we be saved? What can we do to become guiltless in the sight of God after having committed countless sins? How can we escape the enslaving power of sin? Everyone of us needs answers to these questions, for we all have sinned and live far away from God our creator.
The teaching of the Bible, which leads up to Christ’s message, shows us that salvation means freedom from the penalty and power of sin. ”To seek and to save the lost”: this was the aim of the Son of man. He gave his life to save us from all guilt and free us from the power of sin. Christ did everything necessary to secure our salvation, to the extent that he humbled himself on the cross before sinners. Out of his rich love and great mercy he did even this for us.
The Gospel states clearly that, ”the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). God is prepared to forgive us. It does not matter how enormous our guilt is or how numerous our sins are, for it is written: ”Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20).
Mankind was the best of God’s creation. Yet we all fell away from God by following our lusts and selfish desires, and became corrupt in our attempt to satisfy our greed. But our merciful God has prepared a perfect salvation for us and is willing to purify and to free us from the power of sin.
Let us consider the way to this salvation: Only God, who alone is both just and merciful, holy and loving, was able to complete this wonderful redemption on the cross in the fullness of time. Here you can recognise that redemption reveals God, the infinite and holy one on one side, man, corrupted by his sins and iniquities on the other side, and Christ our redeemer on the cross, in the middle. He was crucified to express God’s love and forgiveness toward man.
The basis of our salvation is that Christ has already paid our ransom. The everlasting Word that was with God in the beginning, became flesh and shared our human nature in order to reach the altar of the cross and there atone for man’s sins. It is written: ”Since, the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14,15).
In the Gospel you can find many verses that reveal your sins and show you how to obtain the salvation prepared for you. We read: ”Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 ). ”Repent therefore and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). ”Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). ”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). ”If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). ”For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). ”Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
From these references you can understand that God has already forgiven all our sins through Jesus Christ. Everyone who believes in him will become righteous and blameless on the Day of Judgement. The power of the Holy Spirit will come into all true believers in Christ. His power can help you to overcome sin, because the Spirit of God is stronger than the spirit of evil.
If you want to hear more about this perfect salvation of God prepared for you, we invite you to order one of our books from the following address:
Path-of-Peace
P.O. BOX 567 • Imperial, PA 15126 • USA
internet: www.path-of-peace.org
e-mail: info@path-of-peace.org