This is a primer regarding salvation. There are many things that we believe based on tradition and many things we believe based on a structured belief system. Often both of these will point us to the truth. What I am sharing with you today is based on what the Bible has to say about salvation.
Once again this blog is not an exhaustive study just simply a beginning. I encourage you to take it from here.
Salvation – we are in need of a savior no man is righteous on his own to be in the presence of God, God is holy.
Other religions say:
Islam
- saved by good works, (sins are paid for by good works), if you have already been chosen by Allah to be saved.
- Shahadah, prayer 17 cycles of prayer 5X/day, 2.5% goes to poor.
- Ramadan fast sun up to sun down (no food, drink, or sex).
- Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lives. Jihad (holy struggle)
Hinduism Buddhism – no salvation only reincarnation or enlightenment based on goodness and elimination of desires.
Mormons – all the works you can do, keep commandments, baptism, missionary efforts, plus grace through faith.
Jehovah’s Witnesses – maintain the rules listed by the Watch Tower society some of which are not fellowshipping with non-Jehovah’s witnesses, not celebrating certain holidays or birthdays, not wearing crosses and a host of other a sundry rules.
What does the Bible say?
1) The question is, “If I were to stand before God today what reason would I give for entrance into heaven?”
Is it your good deeds? Right living? Going to church? Having someone religious in the family?
2) All of us are sinners
Isaiah 59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
3) Sin can’t be in God’s presence so God did what was necessary for us all
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
4) We can’t save ourselves no matter how good we are it is all about grace and faith.
Romans 3:24,25 - and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.
Titus 3:5-7 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.”
5) It is only through Jesus – no other god – no other man
John 1:12 But to all who have received him (Jesus) – those who believe in his name – he has given the right to become God’s children
John 3:16 - 18 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
1 John 5:11,12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life
Salvation – we can’t earn it, we all need it, God made the way for it, it is only by grace through faith and only through Jesus.
So God made a way, offered a free gift. He prepared a place for us. So does God send people to heaven or hell?
Romans 8:29, 30 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Add this to For God so loved the world. You can see that God made a choice. He chose to give us free will. Is there any one that God does not know, is there any one whom God does not love? Then He paid the way through Jesus blood for every man woman and child to choose heaven or hell. He is always drawing them to himself but we can reject that drawing.
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