How Can I Be Saved?

On a previous page (Are we accountable to God?) we saw that we had an impossible debt to pay.  We owe God a life of perfect goodness and we have not delivered.  We found that any good things we did could not make up for the not so good things we have done.  Not only that, what good things we did were always done from the wrong motive anyway, a motive not acceptable to God.

We find ourselves in this impossible situation.  The best all the religions of the world can offer is to try and earn our way out of this situation by doing good works or religious works and rituals.  But we can never know for sure if we have done enough.  Some people even teach Christianity this way, you have to earn your salvation by good works or religious works. But this is not true Christianity.

So what then, is the message of the Bible?  It is the good news that our debt has been paid.  Let me share this good news with you from the Bible.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

The Bible says that this was God's solution to our problem. Despite our lack of goodness God loved us so much that He sent His Son into the world to help us with our problem. His Son was just like Him, all goodness. His Son's name was Jesus. Jesus demonstrated the goodness of God on earth. Jesus took on a human body so that He could share the human experience of being hungry, thirsty, tired and all the joys and sorrows of being a human being. But there was one difference, He never did anything wrong, He always fully paid the debt to God of perfect goodness.

The verse says that God "gave" His one and only Son. What does that mean? It means He gave Him up to pay our debt. How did He pay the debt? By dying in our place.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death."  Wages are what we get for working.  The Bible says that death is what we get for sinning or coming short of God's requirement of goodness.  So what is death?  It is going to meet our Maker and giving an account of ourselves.  However the good news is, Jesus Christ has dealt with our failings.

I Corinthians 15:3, 4 tells us, "Christ died for our sins." "was buried" and "raised on the third day".  Jesus died to take the punishment of our sins.  He rose again from the dead to show God had accepted what He had done for us.

Let me tell a story.  Once there was a great and good and wise king who had one son who also was wise and good.  The King became distressed and unhappy because his people were always stealing from one another.  Nothing he said to them seemed to stop the problem.  He sent out messages to tell all the people that it was wrong to steal from one another but it did no good they just kept on stealing.  So at last the king made a law, anyone caught stealing would receive 40 lashes on the back.  Now the people feared the lash on the back more than any other punishment but they kept on stealing because they persuaded themselves that the king was too good and kind to inflict such a punishment.  When the king realised the only two people who had not broken the law was himself and his son he called all his subjects to come and stand before him.  The king stood up and said to them all "You have all broken my law, my law is good but you have carried on after many warnings and continued stealing.  Now I must administer punishment otherwise I will not be just and good and an upholder of the law of right."  The people trembled, now they must face punishment.  Then the king said the most amazing thing, "Despite what you have done I still love you and I am going to give to you my one and only son who is, like me, just and good.  He has not broken my law, like me, he loves you.  He will take your punishment for you." The people watched in horror as the king's son took off his shirt and laid his back bare.  Then the king gave his son forty lashes on the bare back.  At the end the son's back was all cut and bleeding.  Then the king stood up with tears in his eyes and said, "All of you who are sorry for your sins come and how before me and my son and receive the free gift of my pardon and forgiveness."  Many came with tears, bowing before the father and the son, and receiving his generous gift of forgiveness.  After that they became very faithful subjects of their king.  But some refused to come, they did not want to change their ways and continued stealing.  The king said that their punishment comes back on their heads but an even greater and more awful one because they had rejected what the son had done for them.

John 3:16 also says, "Whoever believes in Him shall not perish."  To perish means to receive the punishment for your sins, which is eternal separation from God.  To believe in Him means to believe in who Jesus is, the Son of God.  To believe He took the punishment of your sins.  To believe He rose again from the dead and trusting in Him, I receive the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Eternal life is living with God forever.  It means a life of fellowship and friendship now.  It means, beginning now, with the help of God, I start to learn how to live a life that pleases Him.  I will make many mistakes as I'm learning, but I still have the assurance that my sins are forgiven and that I have everlasting life.

If you believe this is and you would like to accept God's gift of eternal life, then right here and now, you can pray this prayer:

"Lord I come to you just as I am.  I know I have an impossible debt to pay to you, but I believe Jesus Christ your Son, paid it for me when He died in my place.   I now put my heart’s trust in Him as the One who died for me and rose again for me. I receive from you the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life,

Amen"

If you prayed that prayer sincerely from the heart, then God will come into your life in a way you have never known before, and you will start a life of fellowship with Him.  To find out more about your new life with God you can read I've just asked Christ into my life, what do I do now?

If you say this is not for me, remember one day you will face death and are going to meet your Maker.  If everything I've said is not true, I've lost nothing.  But if it is true you have lost everything.

If you would like further help or information, or if you made a commitment to the Lord through reading this, please write to us at office@pcf.gen.nz

We'd love you to visit us at PCF on Sundays to learn more about following Jesus.