Called To Rise

What is Salvation, and Who needs it?

Can you Imagine you are on death row for murder? You stand before the judge who has lived a moral life of justice and truth, and the Judge says I will take the penalty for this man. In your stead, the judge places himself on death row and is assigned to die. The judge tells you, you are free, and your response is to spit in the man’s face, and you refuse to be removed from death row. The judge, an innocent man, insists on paying your penalty and goes to death for you. Yet still, you refuse to receive the gift of freedom. You walk yourself to the death chamber all though free, complaining that the judge had no love for you because he sent you to die. That would be absolute insanity. But, it is that exact insanity that causes you to believe God sent anyone to Hell. Going to hell is a choice that each man or woman makes by refusing to receive the free gift of Christ’s death on the cross. We have a way out; it’s up to us whether or not we get on the boat.

The Bible is clear; God sent His Son to die for us to make a way of escape from our sins. 

Salvation is for anyone who wants to receive it, with no exceptions to the rule. No matter the mess of your past or what your life currently looks like, Jesus desires you. He loves you and accepts you completely, just as you are right now. He wants to break every chain in your life and set you free. The only requirement is that you accept Him as your Lord and Savior through faith and confession with your mouth. That’s it. It is the best deal in the history of mankind, your mess for His perfection, and all you have to do is ask. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Most people have the understanding that the word sin means doing something wrong but often think of it as massive wrongdoing; murder, rape, or armed robbery. Those are all sins, but sin isn’t just the “big” wrong things we do. Sin can be holding a grudge against a friend or enemy. Sin can be as simple as a little lie. This is why the Bible says all have sinned. None of us can walk this life without falling into sin because doing the right thing can often mean eating humble pie and self-sacrifice. It isn’t just that temptation is waiting for us, and we must resist it; we are born with a sin nature. From the fall of Adam and Eve, the world has been filled with sin growing more and more, and it seeps into the fibers of our being as we grow and learn. This is why it’s often easier to do wrong than right.

    That may raise the question; If it’s so easy for us to sin, why is sin such a bad thing? Everyone sins, after all, so what’s the big deal? Sin is a big deal because even simple sin, like a lie, separates us from God. God is our source of life and our only access to eternal life. Separation from Him is death and eternal damnation.

Contrary to Hollywood’s portrayal, Hell is not the hottest party spot in the recesses of our planet. All the naughty people who know “how to have fun” don’t get to escape to hell and party it up without goody-two-shoes Sally ruining all their fun. Hell is not a place where you can act out your mischievous ways without repercussion. Hell is a place of perpetual intense torture and great suffering. It is a great injustice to humanity to portray Hell as anything but what it is. No human should ever endure it.

It is often asked, “If God loves people so much, why would he send them to the torturous place of Hell?” The answer is He wouldn’t. God said to Ezekiel, “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!”  (Ezekiel 18:32). God didn’t make Hell for people. He made it for the devil, whose sole intention is to destroy people. God so desperately does not want anyone to suffer the torment of Hell that He willingly sent a rescue ship in His son Jesus Christ. Jesus went through the pain and suffering of death on the cross so that we could be free of the punishment of Hell. Our sin set us on the road to hell in the first place, but God desired to save us anyway. God loves us so very much that He held back nothing. He gave his only son in our place to pay the price of our sin, which is death. That sounds like an act of love to me, not that of a tyrannical evil ruler bent on destruction.

The only way to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The word of God makes it simple to receive salvation. All we have to do is believe and confess Jesus as Lord. 

“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. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”  

(Romans 10:9-10).

With salvation comes repentance.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). It is not by our good deeds (works) but by faith In Jesus that we are delivered from sin. “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5)