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SALVATION - What
it is and how you can receive it - |
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I want to
ask you this simple question: ‘Are you saved?’ I have not asked you what is the religion you belong to, or how many good works you
have done, or if you have abstained from certain sins (such as adultery, murder,
theft, witchcraft) but I have asked you if you are saved. |
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When I ask
people this question, many of them reply: ‘Well, I try to be as much good as
possible!’ or ‘I am a good and honest person, I don’t steal, and I don’t
kill, I work and as I have opportunity I do some good!’.
These people through their answers show that they don’t know what it means to
be saved. Other people answer me: ‘As for me, I hope I will be saved’ showing
thus that they do not have the assurance of salvation. Among them are the Jehovah’s
Witnesses and the Roman Catholics. Their answer does not surprise me because
I know that according to the teaching of these sects, a man cannot affirm
that he has the assurance of salvation (that is, he can’t say ‘I have been
saved’ or ‘I am saved’) for that’s a demonstration of arrogance and presumptuousness.
In other words, only the arrogant and presumptuous people can say that they
are saved, whereas those who are humble in heart will never say such a thing!
But, as we will see very soon, their words are untrue! |
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You are
probably among those who, when they are asked that question, give one of the
above mentioned answers, thus you also are among those who have not yet been saved,
and since your are not saved that means that your are lost, yes, lost. You
are like a lost sheep who wanders without knowing where it is going, you have
no hope: as for the afterlife you are without certainties. Your spiritual state
is miserable: maybe you think you have everything in your life, for you have a
family, a job, good health, money, and friends, and so you need nothing else;
of course, from a material point of view you have everything, but from a
spiritual point of view you have nothing, for you are not saved. Therefore
you are a miserable person, a poor person. Now, I want to explain to you what
it means to be saved and how you can be saved according to the Scripture,
which is the Word of God. |
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To be
saved means we have been quickened, that is, we have been spiritually raised
up. For men – without exception – are dead in their sins for the sin, which
they serve, pay them for their service with death, as it is written: “The
wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), thus men have no life in themselves,
and they need to be quickened (that is, to be made alive), and those who have
been quickened have been saved while those who have not yet been quickened
are still lost. That’s what we infer from the following words of Paul to the
saints at Ephesus: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even
as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he
might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should
boast” (Ephesians 2:1-9). As you can see, Paul says to those believers that
they were once dead in their sins but God made them alive and raised them up
together with Christ, that He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace, thus he tells them that they have been saved
by grace. Therefore according to the Bible, salvation is a spiritual resurrection, a resurrection which is experienced through
Christ, for the apostle says that God showed us His kindness through Christ
Jesus. What does it mean? It means that a man, who is dead in his sins, is
made alive through faith in the Christ of God, for it is only through faith
in Jesus Christ that a man can receive the remission of sins, that is, justification.
For, as the spiritual death came through a man, that is Adam, so the
spiritual resurrection came also through a man, that is, Jesus Christ. For it
is through His atoning death on the cross that justification that brings life
came upon all men (Romans |
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To be
saved means we have been set free from the bondage of sin, for Paul wrote to
the saints at |
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To be
saved means we possess eternal life, as it is written: “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” (1 John 5:13). Therefore, those who are saved have the assurance that
when they die they will go to heaven to be with the Lord, for that’s the
place where the redeemed go after death. The apostles, who were men who had
been saved had this assurance. Here is what they
said: “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home
in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).
As you can see, eternal life is obtained through faith in Christ Jesus. Obviously
to have eternal life means we are not afraid of death any longer. How can a man who knows that a better life is awaiting him in
the hereafter, be afraid of death? That’s the reason the apostle Paul said
that to him to die was “gain” (Philippians 1:21) and that he desired to
depart from his body, for he knew that to be absent from the body means to be
with Christ in heaven, which is far better than to live on earth since in
heaven there are no more pains and sufferings, but there is perfect joy and
peace. Instead, after death the souls of the lost go to hell, which is a land
of deep disorder, and where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (that’s
what Jesus Christ said and we firmly believe Him). Therefore, hell is a
terrible place, and you are going there because you are still dead in your
sins, lost and slave of sin. Maybe before now you did not know about the
existence of this terrible place prepared by God for the souls of the lost, but
you were anyway afraid of death for you did not know what was awaiting you in
the hereafter, your were sure that you will continue to live but you did not
know where and you did not know if in that unknown place you will be happy or
unhappy: all this frightened you. Therefore, now you know where you will go
after death, where the kind of life you are living is leading you, you know
it, but above all you know that in order to escape this horrible end you must
experience salvation, which is offered you through Jesus Christ, by faith in His
name. Yes, you can be saved from the fire of hell only by faith in Jesus
Christ. |
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Therefore,
to obtain salvation, you must believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But
pay attention to this: you must believe not only that He existed, but also
that He died on the cross for our sins and after three days He rose again
according to the prophetic Scriptures (for both His death and His
resurrection had been foretold by God through His prophets centuries before)
and after His passion He showed Himself alive to many believers. The apostle
Paul confirms that it is by faith that a man can be saved when he reminds the
Corinthians of the Gospel he had preached to them. Hear what the apostle
says: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have
believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that,
he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part
remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen
of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also,
as of one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). |
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Therefore,
what you must do to be saved, is only to believe in these things. “Believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved ….” (Acts |
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Hear, man
or woman, today by reading these words you came to know your spiritual state
and the place where you will go after death, but also what you must do to
come out of this spiritual state you are in and thus to be saved from sin and
eternal perdition. Not only this, you have come to know also what Jesus
Christ did in order to save you from sin and eternal perdition. For He died
on the cross for our sins: He who knew no sin and who did only good to
people, the Righteous One, suffered for the unrighteous, to bring them to
God; He, the Holy One, suffered for sinners to reconcile them to God through His
death. |
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Therefore,
now, recognize you are a sinner before God; you are indeed a sinner and thus
you must recognize this. I understand it is humiliating for you to do this,
but you must understand that you humble yourself before the One who is Holy,
the Creator. Then repent of your many sins you have committed, it does not
matter if these sins seem to you little or big, serious or less serious, confess
those sins to God (He hears you) and take the decision not to commit them any
longer. And then believe in Jesus Christ, that is, believe He died on the
cross for our sins, He was buried and then He rose again. Believe these
things with all your heart, they are able to set you free once for all from
the bondage of sin. |
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Do not
harden your heart, or else you will lose your soul, for your soul will go to
hell after death. And at the resurrection you will be judged and condemned to
the eternal fire. Don’t continue to harden your heart, for you would store up
wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, but open your heart and
receive the love of the truth that you may be saved. |
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Take the
right decision, the most important decision of your life: accept God’s
salvation. |