There is conscious effort to obscure the Gospel in mysteries or academic talk. How to be saved or soteriology is becoming an important facet of the Church. I want to dedicate this post to how easy it really is to be saved and have eternal life. If you want the simplest way to know your saved, here it is, "For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:40). Pretty straightforward. Those are words of Jesus Himself, about how to be saved by believing in Him. If that isn't detailed enough, then how about this, "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved." (Romans 10:9-10). The Apostle Paul's words are exactly the same as Jesus' only he adds a very Greco-Roman way to be sure that you've said the right words, just in case people are uncertain, well the apostle says if you "declare with your mouth and believe in your heart, you are saved," not "you might be saved." Still not convinced, alright about some more words from Jesus and His Apostles', "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life," (John 3:16), "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day," (John 6:39), "Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household," (Acts 16:30-31), right there is an actual question you might be asking, and object of this post, "sirs, what must I do to be saved," and answer is clearly "believe in Lord Jesus".
There is only one way to salvation, "It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved," (Acts 4:10,12) and "Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." (John 14:6). Jesus is the way to salvation (John 6:40), how to get saved is so simple, that even children understand, "And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3). Jesus meant that we must become like children in our trust, children trust easily and believe without doubt, you say "Abraham Lincoln is alive today!" and child will believe it. In addition, children are simple in their understanding, they often see things more clearly without the world's tainted perspectives, this is why Paul said, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul in the following verses 6-8 says to mature believers he preaches a deeper wisdom, but the point is Paul said when he shares the Gospel, it is plain and simple so anyone can understand how to be saved).
Our greatest prize as Christians is Christ and His salvation. We have nothing to boast in except Christ and His cross (1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17, Galatians 6:14). For our greatest joy should be that we are saved (John 6:40, Romans 10:9-10) and written in the Lamb's book of Life, "But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven," (Luke 10:20), "Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty--but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life," (Revelation 21:27), "Like them, the one who is victorious will be clothed in white garments. And I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels," (Revelation 3:5), "And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain," (Revelation 13:8), "And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire," (Revelation 20:15), "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books," (Revelation 20:12), and "You have come to the assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect." (Hebrews 12:23). Our names are written in Book of Life if we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from dead and you are saved. It is so simple and yet there are many who delight in complicating it! But we are told to believe Jesus is God and that God raised Him from dead; believe in God's Son Jesus and you have eternal life. (John 6:40, John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, and Acts 16:30-31).
Our greatest prize as Christians is Christ and His salvation. We have nothing to boast in except Christ and His cross (1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17, Galatians 6:14). For our greatest joy should be that we are saved (John 6:40, Romans 10:9-10) and written in the Lamb's book of Life, "But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven," (Luke 10:20), "Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty--but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life," (Revelation 21:27), "Like them, the one who is victorious will be clothed in white garments. And I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels," (Revelation 3:5), "And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain," (Revelation 13:8), "And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire," (Revelation 20:15), "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books," (Revelation 20:12), and "You have come to the assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect." (Hebrews 12:23). Our names are written in Book of Life if we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from dead and you are saved. It is so simple and yet there are many who delight in complicating it! But we are told to believe Jesus is God and that God raised Him from dead; believe in God's Son Jesus and you have eternal life. (John 6:40, John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10, and Acts 16:30-31).
Those who enjoy complicating the Gospel are scholars and ecclesia that want you to come to them, "Those people (false teachers) are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them," (Galatians 4:17), "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear," (2 Timothy 4:3), and "Then he added, "Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: 'I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.' For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners." (Matthew 9:13). There are those that would like to make you stumble, to make salvation seem possible through human merit, these are who Apostle Paul warned about, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed," (Galatians 1:8-9), and "I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride[a] to one husband—Christ. 3 But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent. 4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. 13 These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve." (2 Corinthians 11:1-4, 12-15). Those who add to Gospel as laid out by Jesus and His Apostles (see verses in first paragraph) are antichrists and false teachers. They want you to become dependent on them, rather than on Christ for your salvation. Do not let them deceive you. Instead delight in fact that you who saved by beleving in the Father's One and Only Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment