I would like to take this opportunity to address an issue that some christians have my hope ,Lord willing, is that he will use this to put this subject to rest for anyone who will take the time to read this entry. Now the question is how do you become saved? Well the bible teaches throughout scripture that it is faith in Jesus Christ alone that grants the believer salvation. I will bring up two of many examples the first being John 3:16. The second is the thief on the cross next to Jesus. You remember the one who asked that Jesus would not forget him when he returns to his kingdom. Salvation is a very simple concept and attaining it is simply belief. Now is there man made doctrines that complicate this simple process. The answer is yes. There are two that I know of and I will address both. On the surface they sound like Biblical doctrines to anyone who isn’t familiar with scripture for themselves. They even have verses to support their views, but we must ask ourselves i what the passage really means and pray over these verses for better understanding The first is salvation by works. Now let’s ignore for a moment Christ’s complete work on the cross. This belief is that your salvation is not assured you can lose it if you sin so to combat that you are left to do good works and by doing that you can be fully assured of your faith. They try to use James to validate this stance they have when he says faith without works is dead faith. However we strip the significance of Jesus’ complete work on the cross if we think like that we are saying that what he did was just the beginning but not sufficient to sustain you on your walk. A very dangerous and blasphemous doctrine indeed. The second is that baptism brings salvation. I would like to argue that salvation brings baptism. Yes we were ordered to get baptized it is an important part of being a Christian, like communion it is a symbol that marks the beggining of your walk with Christ. I’m not saying that baptism is not important or doing good deeds for that matter, but you should not place your faith on what you can do for yourself but on what Christ has already done for you. Let us close with what Jesus said to the thief on the cross. When he asked for Jesus to remember him when he went to his kingdom and Jesus said surely I say unto you today you will be with me in paradise. This man was a sinner though he was probably not the epitome of evil by mans standards but I’m sure Jesus didn’t take that into account. And he probably was not baptized. Yet by admitting his guilt, and believing that Jesus was who he said he was, and by accepting Jesus as his saviour he was saved. Much the same as we must do to receive salvation. I hope this entry has helped you today may God bless you. ~Chris Dornbush theprodigaljournal.wordpress/2013/07/31/the-gift-of-salvation-3/ ~SD
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:12:27 +0000