ARE YOU SAVED?

Before you read through this article I want you to know how I want you to be in heaven with me.

I want to make sure that you’ll not miss this life time opportunity.

I must say, however, that heaven is the best next thing and only second to God i.e. when it comes to having a personal relationship with Him.

There is nothing more wonderful than having a personal relationship with God.

Firstly, there are two preliminary issues in our lives that is so inherently important that I want you to know, via the good and the bad news. Lets start with the bad news shall we? AND then we’ll proceed right away to good news of the Gospel.

The Bad News!

Are you a good person? Okay, I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic. But are you REALLY a good person?

Have you cheated, lied (to your classmates, associates, colleagues, and even towards your own spouse), stolen, lusted, murdered, hated, etc? You haven’t?! Then you’re a walking angel! Yes indeed!

I really wish that there are many of those who walk the path like you do! The world would be undoubtedly safe place to live. In other words, heaven on earth.

But, judging by our own experiences, we know intuitively that the world, as you and I both know is far from being an angelic, harmonious, and peaceful place to live. There is no time in the history of mankind which is not marred with human frailty and malevolence. Why? Simple.

We Are Born With Sin

This is because of SIN. You and I are born with sin which we have inherited from our first parents—Adam and Eve. As humans NOW corrupted with sinful nature, sinning, therefore, becomes a natural inclination.

Sinning, is tantamount to breathing the air in our fallen and depraved human nature. Sin, it embraces us, both our minds and our souls. I, apologise, at this point, for being too pessimistic about human nature despite what we here all too often from humanists that humans are really good.

According to the Scripture, we are sinners from the very conception (Psa. 51:5). This means that the sinful nature is already part of our being before we are born unto this world.

In his letter to the Romans, Apostle Paul wrote, “For ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 emphasis mine).

What Paul meant in the above verse is that NONE, past and present, didn’t sinned against God who is Perfect and Holy. We have, one way or the other, violated God’s standard of what is good.

Paul also mentioned about us, “falling short of the glory of God.” What did he mean by “falling short”?

It simply means that, we as a sinful being cannot save ourselves because it is unlikely that we can ever meet God’s requirements from us of goodness, holiness and perfection. In short, we are doomed to failure.

We can always reason with ourselves such as, “what about if we really worked hard enough by simply being good,” or “what about living our lives totally devoted to religion can this ever be the chance of God’s favor toward us?” Ironically,

Paul did wrote about this, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God (Rom. 3:10-18).”

There’s no doubt that we trying to be good as we possibly can humanly speaking. We do try to be ‘religious.’ But, then again, our goodness and righteousness is not good enough and valid by God’s standard.

Prophet Isaiah wrote, ^“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isa. 64:6)

We can always be pious but this is only according to OUR own terms not God’s. No one, including you and I, can EVER be justified on the grounds of our own righteousness before God.

In his epistles to the Romans, apostle Paul wrote, “…The wages of sin is death… (6: 23a)” This simply means that, as the human life must cease AND so with sin. The consequence of sin is more than just having bad consequences during our life time here on earth.

No! What it does says is that not only that we will die sooner or later with physical death,

Our soul/spirit will also experience the second death which is the spiritual death that will alienate us from God forever and ever in hell.

This alienation from God will last for all eternity. The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people (who have rejected Christ’s gift for salvation) will be in torment eternally. Hell is the place where people who died with their sins will remain.

The Good News!

In the very same verse of Paul letter to the Romans, he told us also that there is an escape to death which is, “…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (6:23b emphasis mine).” As aforementioned, Paul explains that SIN results in DEATH but God grants us ETERNAL LIFE!

In other terms, this means that salvation is a free gift from God to you! Remember, you and I cannot earn this gift of salvation by doing good deeds and hope for God’s approval. In fact, no one deserves this gift! The only way to accept this special gift of eternal life is that we must reach out and receive it by asking God to forgive and save us from our trespasses.

“God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)!” This is God’s own initiative when he demonstrated his own love for us, not because we deserved it but because he LOVED us.

When Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross and died and paid our sins penalty. He PAID the price for ALL sin and when He took all the sins of the world on himself on the cross, he bought us out of slavery or bondage to sin and death!

The only condition is that we believe and trust in him, and put our faith in what he has done for us. Understanding that we are now joined with him, and that he is our life. He did all this because he loved us and gave Himself for us!

Call and cry out unto God for forgiveness in the name of Jesus! “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13)!”

Saved from what? Saved from the power of sin and the deliverance from God’s wrath, of course! That’s what!

Also, “…If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Rom. 10:9,10 emphasis mine)”

What kind of “confession with your mouth” did the apostle had in mind here? All one has to do is REPENT, BELIEVE in His Son Jesus Christ and CONFESS that belief. It is really that simple.

Jesus, the Saviour himself said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him…(Rev. 3:20)”

Are you willing then to let Jesus comes in to your heart? Are you willing enough to make him Lord, Saviour and the center of your life, and be gone to heaven for eternity? The choice is simply yours and yours alone. – AMEN