Saved

The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) Therefore to be saved or received right standing with God we are instructed to do two things- confess Jesus as Lord and believe in His Resurrection.

In this post I would like to expound on the two truths of making Jesus your Lord and believing in His resurrection. A lot of Christians go about their life professing Jesus as Lord with their mouths but their actions tell a whole different story.

Jesus said: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? (Luke 6:46) To make Jesus your Lord means you are wholeheartedly willing to give Him authority over your life and do what He says.

In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

A lot of people wonder why God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden but let me tell you why today. When God created man He made man in His own image. He said to Adam: Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

Man was like a little god on the earth. God put everything under his dominion. But God always wanted man to know that he was not God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil made this truth very clear. Every time Adam looked at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and did not eat its fruit he was acknowledging by his action that he was not God and that there was somebody in authority over Him. The day Adam and Eve ate the fruit of this tree they were by their actions declaring that they did not want to accept God as Lord, they did not want to be under his Authority and that they wanted to be the God of their own life.

This is how man has lived since the fall. He has been the God of his life. He does what he wants to do and is responsible to no higher power. At the time of salvation when a person encounters the Love of God the first thing he is asked to do is respond to God's Love by restoring the Lordship of God over his life.

A person should not make Jesus the Lord of his life out of fear. He should do it out of an understanding of God's great love for him.

Paul said that he was a bondservant of Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1) The greek word used here for bondservant is the word 'Doulos' which really means slave by choice. Paul said that he, by his own free will had decided to make Jesus Christ his master. The thought of being a slave is the last thing anybody has these days because a slave has a terrible life. Most slaves are ill-treated by their masters and taken advantage of.

But stop and think about this for a while- what if your master loved you, was interested in an intimate relationship with you, always thought about you, made sure you always had more than enough, promised to prosper you, heal you and deliver you from your enemies? What if you could do absolutely nothing to make your master stop loving you? What if you were the apple of his eye? What if he never ill-treated you, never took advantage of you and always thought about your well-being? This is the kind of master Jesus is.

Truly, Jesus is more wonderful and lovely than my words can describe.

True salvation always begins with a person giving Jesus authority over his life and doing what he says from that day forth.

The second step to get saved is to believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ not only proves that Jesus is God but it also proves that the punishment of all sin is complete. When God rose Jesus from the dead it was sign that the wrath of God for the sins of the whole world had been satisfied completely. The bible says: Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. (Romans 4:25) All who believe in the resurrection of Jesus are justified or made right with God freely as a gift.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)