When talking to Christians today about salvation, there are 10 to 12 ways they will tell you how to be saved. Most of the answers are man’s idea, not what the Bible states. There are six areas in our life we need to be sure about.
1. Are you saved? 1 Peter 1:18-20 reads, “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”
To redeem is to buy back or repurchase what was lost, to pay the ransom asked for. In this case it was to release us from blame or our debt.
2. Once saved, you stay saved. 2 Timothy 1:12 reads, “… I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Persuaded — I was persuaded in the past, and now, and in the future. It’s the assurance of salvation until the day we stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
3. Our redeemer lives. Job 19:25-27 reads, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God …”
The redeemer is more than an arbiter or a witness but a kinsman redeemer who will avenge his children.
4. All things are possible with God. Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Those who love God are best able to appreciate that fact because they love him no matter what.
5. Be like him. 1 John 3:2 says, “… when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 2:28 talks of abiding in him.
6. Our heavenly home comes after we are transformed into his likeness. 2 Corinthians 5:1 and 5:8 tell of this: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house made not with hands, it is eternal in heaven. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
The earthly house is where we live on earth. The tabernacle is our body today. “Eternal” is a reference to the resurrection body, associated with redemption of the body.
The Bible makes it plain about your salvation. Remember John 3:16-18: “For God so loved the world (you), that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. 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.”
Romans 10:13-17 tells us the true way of salvation.
Joseph Merriman is pastor of First Baptist Church of Greenfield. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
