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Page Summary: This page explains what I believe to be essential for a person to be saved.
Key Points in being Saved: (1) Acknowledgement of Personal Sin. (2) Repentance from sin and self and to God.
(3) Faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. (4) Public Confession of Christ.
Note: I have prepared a brief summary (1 page in Word.Doc format) of this page for keeping in your Bible to use in evangelism.
Introduction: What a person believes about salvation is extemely important. He enters heaven or is condemned eternally to punishment in hell on the basis of his beliefs and actions in relation to salvation and the Savior. But in dealing with this topic, we must be very careful. Salvation is a multifaceted thing that is extremely difficult if not impossible for a single person to comprehend fully in all its details. As such, some people are more impressed by one aspect (forgiveness say) while others are more impressed by another (God's work in regeneration or justification). Each will tend to stress those aspects of this diamond that they saw first or most important.
But in a practical sense, we need to understand what are the essential elements of salvation so that we can deal with people and groups in an intelligent way, including them as having beliefs that would grant them salvation according to the Bible, or beliefs that would exclude them from salvation according to the Bible and therefore needing evangelism. For example, it is doubtful that the thief on the cross would have understood all the ins and outs of salvation hanging on the cross, yet he had the promise of Christ that the very same day he would be in paradise with Jesus. Practically, we need to understand clearly and mark well the line between groups that have a faulty concept, doctrine, teaching, and practice concerning salvation, and those that do have a true gospel.
I do not think it in any way possible for a Catholic, Mormon, nor Jehovah's Witness to be truly saved if they believe what those groups teach about salvation. Yet there may be truly saved people in those groups, but differing in their beliefs from the teaching of their group. At the same time, I think that Baptists, Bible Churches, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others teach in general a doctrine and practice concerning salvation that people FOLLOWING THE ACCEPTED TEACHING OF THEIR GROUP can be saved. Doubtless there are people in these churches that are unsaved as there may be in our own church, and there may be individual churches in these groups that have a flawed view of salvation as a church, but the group teaches a plan of salvation that is in basic accord with the Scriptures on salvation.
Why it is important to reduce the plan of salvation to be as simple as God presents it:
First of all, we do nobody except Satan the favor by making and pushing a plan of salvation that is complicated. Satan will complicate salvation so that people are confused and make it as hard as possible for them to get saved. We need to recognize and counter this ploy.
Secondly, by the nature of salvation itself, it must be simple. Why? Because salvation is a gift (grace) not a work. It is something you receive freely without respect to you earning it by actions or works on your part. If God gives the gift with little conditions (these conditions are the four points below), then we alter God's gift so that others cannot receive it as freely as God intended for it to be. Study the personal witnessing of Jesus and the only conclusion you can come away with is that people have to accept Jesus to get saved. Few other things are needed.
Thirdly, our concept of the ministry makes this essential. As a pastor and missionary, my charge from God is to capacitate (equip) the saints for the work of the ministry. For me to success in my ministry as "capacitator", then I need to get my people to do the work of God (what is the work of God), which is essentially that they are evangelizing, making disciples, and integral in a local church. They cannot do this if giving the plan of salvation is a complicated mess that you need a PhD in order to do. Yet if we truly believe that salvation is a personal experience with Jesus as our Savior, everybody that has had that experience can tell others of the essentials necessary to have the same experience.
FOUR KEY POINTS OF SALVATION:
Sin, Repentance, Faith in Jesus the Messiah (Christ) Savior, Public Confession.
DEFINITION: Sin is doing what God prohibits us from doing (comission) or not doing what God has commanded us to do (omission).
KJV Luke 5:31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Very simply put, you cannot be saved if you have no need for being saved. God puts a condition on saving a person, and that condition is that the person recognizes his own sin and his resulting situation of a great and grand need of salvation.
Why is this an essential part of salvation that cannot be excluded? - Salvation is not just a nice thing to have or not have, but is an emergency measure that God takes in dealing with our sin problem. Without recognizing this sin problem, there is no need for salvation in the first place. Many ministries and groups will talk about salvation, but when it comes to dealing with sin, they do not deal with sin or view sin as God views it in the Bible.
Jack Hyles orbit of people and Easy-Believism - Those of this persuasion run afoul of the Scriptures on their ideas about sin. Sin is both inherited from our forefather, Adam, as a sin nature, and it is a problem that we individually cause to ourselves because we all personally sin on a daily basis. Sin is something that is lightly admitted to (in general terms, "you have done something wrong in your life sometime") and not a persistent problem that hits you in the face at every turn of life. If you witness to people and you do not stress sin except in a general, non-personal way. Many people will "get saved" because they can do so and keep on sinning. (continued under repentance).
Another reason why we can NOT exclude the recognition of sin as being an essential is because the whole problem revolves around our personal sin. It is the problem that salvation fixes. It is the reason why Christ had to die. It is the cause of all grief, hardship, and distasteful things in our lives. Sin causes marital problems, sexual problems, church problems, personal problems. It hits us on every level of our life, and it never goes away in this life.
KJV
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.This is a recognition by the person needing salvation that not only does God say that everybody has sinned, he personally has sinned before God.
Key pivotal points:
· God declares every person as having sinned in God's eyes. (Ecc. 7:20, Rom 3:9-12,23)
· Nobody is above God's law (Acts 10:34)
· Only one single sin makes a man a sinner, just as one single murder makes a man a murder, one single adulterous act makes a man an adulterer, etc. (James 2:10)
· God makes a big difference in how one becomes a sinner (one sinful act you do or by Adam's nature in you, and you become a sinner) and how one becomes justified or innocent in God's eyes of all sins (by faith, no works on your part, but faith in God's work of appeasing the wrath of God and blocking God's view of your sin via the blood of Christ on the Cross) (Gal 3:11)
KJV
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.The person must realize what sinning before God or being caught as a sinner before means.
Key pivotal points:
· There is a definite consequence (punishment) that God gives as a result of sin, and that is spiritual and physical death.
· We not only are sinners because of our own sins, but because we inherited it from Adam.
KJV
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.Key pivotal points:
· People think that they must mount an active rebellion against God in order for God to punish them. Just like the policeman that fines you for ignoring the law, God will punish you whether you are aware of how badly you are breaking God's laws or not. We sin tremendously in our lives against God, but putting that aside, the only sin that you need to commit to go to hell is the sin of not believing in Jesus as you personal Savior. This is the key point that puts people into hell.
· .God seals a person's destiny and judgment or reward at the instant of death. There is no purgatory, no second chance, and those who die without Christ as their Savior will immediately awake in hell torment and suffering.
DEFINITION: Repentance is to turn from and have remorse over a path of your choosing, and to turn to the path that God indicates.
KEY VERSES:
KJV Luke 13:5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
KJV Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent
:KJV Psalm 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Why is repentance absolutely essential to salvation? Simply put, repentance is one step beyond the recognition that a person is a sinner and it is an attitude of hating (not loving), rejecting (not having anything to do with), and denouncing (publicly putting one's self against it) sin. You cannot turn to God and God alone as the source of your salvation if you believe you are not so bad that God would put you in hell (you have no real need for salvation anyway), or that your way is also a good and valid way to get to heaven (there is some other way besides Jesus Christ dying on the cross). To explain this, I commonly use the illustration of the cancer doctor. If you have been diagnosed with lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, and you ask you cancer doctor to help you overcome this horrible cancer, and he says yes. You then in front of him light up a cigarette and begin to puff on it, the doctor says, "but, if you want my help, you have to realize that smoking is what caused this problem, and you have to hate the cause of the problem for me to do anything for you. That means, you have to develop an attitude of hatred against the cause of what is destroying your life and body, smoking." This what God wants us to do, hate sin, because sin caused our problem that God is going to fix in the first place.
JACK HYLES PHILOSOPHY ON REPENTANCE: This school of thought would minimize or exclude repentance from salvation. This school of thought would propose that a person can be truly saved without having a sincere refusal and denial of sin in his life. They would see sin as a general thing (like our inherited sin from Adam), and in general it is rejected, but in specific it is ignored. This complements well their thrust and desire for decisions (not necessarily conversions, because in a conversion, a person is converted from one thing to another). A prostitute or homosexual will quickly and easily pray a sinner's prayer to go to heaven, but if you stress the fact that they by the power of God renounce their former life of sin (whatever God calls sin is sin), then they will immediately ask you if they can be saved and still continue in their former life and former sins. Inspite of their professed desire for salvation, their priority is that of their sin over their desire to go to heaven. This would reveal a complete lack of sincerity in their hearts. Romans 10:9 "confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart" (sincerity).
2 Peter 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
This passage would seem to indicate that they were never really saved, and they returned to what they were all the time. If this approach to evangelism would foster this kind of insincerity, then it is unbiblical. Indeed, we see tens of thousands saved, hundreds baptized, and dozens added to the church roles in these churches. Although we cannot say 100% of those accepting Christ will end up baptized and in church, but the majority at least should. The goal of evangelism is to complete the entire Great Commission, saved, baptized (public confession and identification with the redeemed people of God, membership?), make disciples of them (attending, participating, tithing, and witnessing), and teach them all things Christ has commanded us. To cut short this mandate with only believing is to disobey the rest. The whole approach towards evangelism has to be a wholistic approach whereby the goal goes beyond a public confession to reproducing a Christian, which is the gist of the Great Commission.
Key pivotal points:
· Turning from sin is absolutely necessary for God to take your request of help seriously. This is not a work, but a serious attitude on your part. You must realize that within yourself, your own potential, and the potential of every other being and power out there in this universe, nothing can save you. Only God can save you, and that is only if you submit yourself to the conditions and steps that God mandates.
· If salvation is the remedy, then sin is problem. If you want the only solution available, you must recognize what caused the problem and reject it body, soul and spirit.
· God wants us come broken, especially broken over our sins. Without that brokenness, we cannot be saved.
KEY VERSES:
KJV
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;GRACE: Salvation is defined by God as being grace. That means that it is not something that we can earn or work for in order to get it Some (Calvinism) would take this so far as to mean that there is absolutely nothing that you can do to get saved. But this extreme position flies in the face of multiple offers by God to turn from sin and turn to God to remedy your sin. Turning to God's solution (Jesus dying on the cross in place of your punishment) is not a work, but is a choice. God holds us responsible for our eternal destiny, and there is nobody in hell that is there because of God's evil or mean disposition to seal him up without a chance of salvation. Grace means gift. A gift is given to a person, it is usually understood by this metaphor that the person has some limited participation by accepting or rejecting the gift. This accepting and rejecting doesn't qualify as earning or working for the gift, nor does it reflect whether the person is worthy of the gift, it is simply an acceptance or rejection. We read through the Bible, and we find a constant theme that man is sinful, and he is responsible for his own sinfulness, God did not in any way cause it.
Salvation is God's free gift to sinful man, if man will in his will accept this gift with its conditions (1. recognition of its need - sinfulness of man, 2. refusal of substitutes - repentance from all else to Godīs plan, 3. belief on and acceptance og Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, 4. publicly acknowledging your Savior).
FAITH: Where grace speaks of God's part in offering an undeserving gift to us, faith speaks of our part in the transaction. God conditions salvation on faith, which is man's part. God will increase the faith of a man, but there must be a reception of God's gift and plan of salvation or there is no salvation. This is not something "good within man", but a response from man to a good offer.
Key pivotal points:
· Those who work for their salvation in any way are not saved according to God and His word. Receiving what God has done is not considered a work by us, but an appropriate receptive response to what God has done in Jesus Christ dying on the cross.
· We must believe (have faith) in Jesus, His person, His work in salvation (dying on the cross in your place to appease the wrath of God over your sin) in order to be saved. The only means or method by which a person is saved is faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. This faith in Jesus is a reception by us that is required in order for a person to be saved.
Simply put, God has a designated person to effect salvation for all of mankind. That person is Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity. What you believe about Jesus and your relationship with Him determines whether you are saved or not. Errors in belief relating to who Jesus is and what He did on the cross result in another Gospel, and no salvation.
KEY VERSES:
KJV
Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.In summary, there is one single God that exists triunely (in three persons), in the persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each person is independently and completely in Himself God, yet there are not three Gods but one God. Jesus is completely in Himself God. Jesus is completely and fully human, but without inheriting Adam's sin nature.
Key pivotal points:
· If you deny the deity of Jesus Christ, any faith you put in Him does not result in salvation. The sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross of Calvary had to be the very Son of God ("Son of" meaning "taking the very essence of the Father"), sinless and perfect, or it would not appease the wrath of God.
KEY VERSES:
KJV
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.Jesus died and suffered the punishment in an eternal form for all humanity on the cross. By doing this in your place, He becomes the pivotal point in salvation. Nobody can be saved without "going through him" like a door. Being saved is therefore a factor of your relationship and belief in Jesus and His work on the cross, nothing else.
Key pivotal points:
· You must accept Jesus as the sacrifice God requires for the salvation of your soul.
· Jesus suffered the punishment of your sin for you, in your place.
KEY VERSES:
KJV
Isaiah 43:11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.Illustration loosing a son: God has placed a supreme importance on the act of Jesus dying on the cross. Perhaps to illustrate this to us, God has defined Himself to us in human family terms, Father - Son. Everybody comes from a family of some form, and most families understand what that love is between parent and child. Even where there was no love in a particular case, the persons involved see other families where there is and they understand this parent-child love. There is nothing worse than a parent to witness the premature death of their child. As my brother said to me as they buried his daughter, "This is something no parent is supposed to ever see." As such God has used this illustration to give us a glimpse of the importance of this act in His eyes. God the Father lost the dearest thing to Him, Jesus His Son. That is the price that had to be paid in order to give man salvation.
Having paid such a costly price to bring salvation to man, it is an insult and injury to God to assume or propose some other way of salvation, or some other means or person besides Jesus Christ. It is as though this expensive and painful gift was produced and offered to you, and you slap God in the face and refuse it preferring some other way or person. There is none, and besides that, to refuse the only way is to condemn yourself to hell.
Key pivotal points:
· Importance of Jesus' suffering is seen in the illustration of God sacrificing His only begotten Son for your sin.
· All other mediators are impostures.
· All other forms or roads or ways of salvation don't lead to heaven.
KEY VERSES:
KJV 1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
KJV John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
KJV John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
KJV John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
KJV Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
KJV Matthew 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
This point perhaps would be challenged by some as being a work, but it is not. Public confession is intregal to salvation. First we must understand that salvation is only through belief (and acceptance) of Jesus as our Savior. We "have" a personal relation with Him much as a husband and a wife "have" a marital relationship (this is used in various places as illustrations of our salvation and relationship with God). What is the reaction of the spouse if you refuse to admit having that marriage relationship with your spouse publicly (in front of others)? Doesn't it pretty well destroy that relationship? Perhaps a single case of denial does not "undo" your marriage (probably will though), but the refusal to take your wife to the altar, to the church, or at least to a civil authority to "make it legal" does mean you are not really married to her. Going to a public forum to publicly seal this committment to your spouse is when the parents of the bride then remove all their protections of their daughter, and after this event, they may enter into the more intimate matters of their relationship. But the parents of the bride do not see their daughter "married" until they go through this public profession (at the end of the ceremony, the pastor announces "I pronounce you husband and wife"). In this same sense, salvation is sealed in a public acknowledgement of the Savior, a profession or confession of Christ. It is simply any outward legitimate expression of the newly found Saviour.
Belief is a strange thing. Belief can be asserted to be within you, but if there is not some kind of outward evidence of that belief, we say that the belief is insincere or not really there. Sincerity is what is in question here. If I am a structural engineer that evaluates damage to buildings from earthquakes, and I enter a 20 story building to examine it, and I say that it is totally unsound, that it could fall at any minute, and everybody should run out of the building for their lives, but I take out my lunch and sit down in the basement to take my lunch hour and eat there in this danger, my actions betray the unbelief in my statements, or I am completely wacko. Running out of the building does not mean I believe it is unsafe (perhaps I had an emergency at home and had to go). But there has to be a reflection in my actions and behavior to what I say is my belief, or else there is no sincerity.
In John 1:12, the God that saves is the same God that makes those outward evidences of salvation within and without of us.
Romans 10:9 makes a condition of mouth confession of Jesus as your Lord (who you are submitting to) before a person is saved. Matthew 10:32-33 makes it even clearer, for a person to be saved, he must not be ashamed of Jesus Christ as his Savior. That means he must publicly confess Jesus as "HIS" Savior. This is a public identification with Christ as your Savior. Public confession without belief does not save, and the public confession is the result of an attitude of sincerity which is also essential to salvation. If a person believes in Jesus as his Savior, but refuses to acknowledge that belief and acceptance of Jesus in any public way, then he may be "at the door step" of salvation, but according to Matthew 10:32-33, he has not gone in.
HOW TO PUBLICLY CONFESS JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR: (1) The most obvious way is to respond verbally saying those words when somebody asks you if or how you are going to heaven, or in any other opportunity you may have. Here we may include the public profession a person recently converted makes when he confesses that in front of the church after a service. (2) Perhaps the most biblical way to confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord is to be promptly baptized after salvation. We would see that as "THE PUBLIC DECLARATION OF YOUR FAITH" in the Scriptures. It would also appear that this is the rite or ceremony whereby the person is included into the membership of a local church. It is his desire to publicly confess Christ and to identify with the redeemed people of God in a local sense. (3) Another way to publicly declare Christ as Savior is to publicly identify with the redeemed people of God, locally in your area. This would mean joining a biblical church, and identifying with them through activity, participation, attendence, tithing, witnessing efforts, and membership. This would be seen as integrating one's self into the work of God as a redeemed child of God. Is not a refusal to do this a negation of one's desire to identify with Christ and His redeemed, especially in their activities relating to God's work?
What public confession is not: The pivotal point here is not a work in order to be saved. Which comes first and which is a consequence of the other? Public confession in itself does not provide salvation. So a public confession does not "produce" salvation, contrary to what the Jack Hyles school of thought teaches. We see Judas Iscariot publicly confessing Christ and identying with the redeemed people of God but obviously not being saved. But true believing faith will always bring with it the evidences of salvation, which is a confession of Jesus as Savior. In no case will salvation be there without that public confession. The pivotal point here is that a person is not saved by church membership or baptism, or saying some phrase in front of other people. But a person's desire to be saved would appear to be incomplete if it does not include some kind of public admission of who (Jesus Christ) is his Savior (way of salvation).
The failure at some point to confess Christ because of threat of death or persecution would perhaps be seen as a "loss of your salvation situation", but we see Peter's denial of Christ three times, and we note that Peter was saved when this happened. So Christ's word must be taken as an outward attitude that a person lives. Salvation is not gained or lost on the basis of confessing and denying. Note in Mark 16:16 that he that "believeth and is baptized" shall be saved, but he that "believeth not shall be damned". Nobody is prevented from being saved by a lack of being baptized. But people who are saved will make public this act of submission (Jesus as Lord) and faith.
Last Updated on 12/09/05
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