Have you ever wondered, "How does a person get to heaven?"
Perhaps it has been a more personal question: "Am I going to heaven? Am I good enough? Am I 'Saved'?"
Maybe it has been a more confident statement: "I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person."
Questions of this nature are among the pinnacle of the most important questions we can ask, and they are what every major religious and philosophical ideology seeks to answer.
Where did I come from? (Seeking an answer to Origins)Who am I? (Seeking an answer to Identity)Why am I here? (Seeking an answer to Meaning)How should I live? (Seeking an answer to Morality)Where will I go when I die? (Seeking an answer to Destiny)
The question regarding salvation is a question regarding destiny, but it eventually and inevitably touches on origins, identity, meaning, and morality also. I am writing this to help you find your answer regarding salvation directly from God's word rather than from mistaken assumptions, speculations, or popular beliefs. But you will be required to do some of the leg work.
I have listed several verses below and linked them to the BibleHub website.
When you click a verse, it will open a new window to only that verse, but that verse will be provided in dozens of translations rather than a single one so that my later commentary can't be claimed to be favoring any particular translation in order to convey the intent of any personal interpretation.
I do have my preferred translations, but they are no more than that: my preferred translations. Providing you the option of multiple translations will also show that regardless of which translation you read, they say the same thing although they may use different words providing a wider range of reading and comprehension levels. It is always a good practice to reference other translations with verses and passages that may be unclear or difficult to understand.
Please follow each linked verse by clicking on them to read them for yourself. I would ask that when you read each verse, don't just read several of the translations available and quickly move to the next verse. Scrutinize the verse you read. Determine what its meaning is. Consider what its implications are. When you have considered that verse, close that window and proceed to the next.
When you have read and thought through each verse I have presented, come back to this article for my commentary on each one and how they deliver a singular comprehensible message on just what it means to be saved and what it takes to be saved.
Romans 8:1 and Romans 8:2
My Commentary
Romans 3:10
As it is written: None is righteous, no, not one.
There are a couple of common colloquial sayings that everyone is familiar with, that are often used, and that completely agrees with this passage. Stop me if you've heard these before: "Nobody's perfect." and "I'm only human."
These quips are always offered as an excuse for not being perfect whether the error is physical, emotional, or intellectual. They are offered because of the innately accepted universal knowledge that there are no perfect people.
Christians and non-Christians alike agree 100% on this point. Christians refer to what keeps people from being perfect as "sin".
This verse conveys the same message: there are no completely good people. The most common word used for good in this context is "righteous". Keep in mind that this term is an implication of perfection and flawlessness.
That absolute perfection and flawlessness is God's unchangeable standard. However by human standards there are some people we consider more good than others, but the human scale is faulty. If there are no perfect people, there can't a measure of perfection on our human scale.
The scales would be something like this:
Perfect Bad
100........0.......-100 God's Scale
-1......-100 Man's Scale
By human standards, it is a true statement that John Wilkes Booth was technically a better person than Adolph Hitler, right? Booth only murdered one man whereas Hitler was responsible for the horrific murders of several millions of people.
By human standards, it is also a true statement that Mother Teresa was a better person than I am. Mother Teresa spent over 50 years living among and helping the poor and underprivileged, where I have only been involved with supporting the poor and underprivileged in a somewhat limited way for 7 years (at the date of this writing).
Regardless of how much good any of us have done during our lives, even though it may be considerably more than how much bad we have done, neither Mother Teresa, John Wilkes Booth, Adolph Hitler, nor myself are on the perfect and righteous side of God's scale standards.
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This verse further confirms that everyone does wrong things. Christians call it sin because that is what God calls it.
When speaking with people, one evangelist uses just the Ten Commandments to point this out to them. The Ten Commandments were the first ten laws given by God to Israel at Mt. Sinai. Among them are things such as "You shall not steal.", "You shall not commit adultery.", "You shall not use the name of the Lord your God in vain", and "You shall not murder."
This evangelist asks people a series of questions:
► "Have you ever stolen anything regardless of value?"
That is simply taking something that wasn't yours, even something trivial and worthless, without the owner's permission. Many people will admit to it whether it was when they were a child or much more recently. He then asks them, "What does that make you?" Sometimes the person will dodge the answer until he makes it personal by asking, "If someone took something that was yours without your permission, what would you call them?" to which they will admit that makes them a thief.
► "Have you ever looked at another person with lust?"
Almost everyone admits to that especially in today's hyper-sexualized society. He quotes Jesus' words from His message commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount during which He said, "You have heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery’, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
► "Have you ever hated someone?"
Again, many people will admit to having hated someone at some time. He will again quote the words of Jesus. To be clear, the term 'brother' used by Jesus in His instruction indicates another human rather than simply a male sibling. Jesus taught, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
► "Have you ever used God's name in vain?" Again, many people will also admit to this indicating they have used vulgarity using His name. [In the strictest sense, this isn't limited to exclamations of profanity but can even be attributed to using His name idly, worthlessly, or foolishly]
The evangelist will then show them that by their own admission they are a lying, thieving, blaspheming, adulterous, murderer at heart.
Then comes the most difficult question:
► "When you stand before God on Judgement Day, and if He was to judge you only by those 10 laws so that if you're innocent you'll spend eternity with Him in heaven but if you are guilty you will spend eternity away from Him in hell, by your own admissions just now will you be innocent or guilty?"
How would you honestly answer that question for yourself?
Before you settle on an answer, also consider the next verse.
James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
This verse is fully condemning. At its heart, it says that if you break a single law you are a criminal or if you break a million laws you are a criminal. Before you object that this is unfair, consider that it is the same in our human judicial system.
Whether you have an innocuous infraction on your record for driving without a seat belt or you have a heinous crime of mass murder on your record, in the eyes of the law you are guilty of breaking the law. The only possible outcomes are innocent or guilty. Regardless of the number of infractions or the severity of infractions, you are a lawbreaker; you are guilty; you are a criminal. The difference comes only in the severity of the crime and the proportionate punishment.
With God, His own perfection and demand for perfection can not simply ignore and dismiss even the slightest imperfection to allow entry into heaven.
Imagine a glass of unadulterated water offered to you. It is a pure and healthy drink. But imagine if only a teaspoon of antifreeze was mixed in with it. It would become an impure, dangerous, and potentially deadly drink. Heaven can not be heaven with any impurity of sin in it.
As we asserted earlier with Romans 3:10, certainly you acknowledge that you are not perfect just as I must admit I am not.
"At least I'm not as bad as [insert name]" is not a sound legal standing in the Supreme Court much less in God's court. Comparison of your own virtues to some monstrous person's virtues from Adolph Hitler to Jeffrey Dahmer are insufficient. When measuring something with a slight impurity with something that has considerable impurity, it doesn't make what's slightly impure become pure.
Imagine another glass beside the first. The first glass now has water with that teaspoon of antifreeze mixed in. The second is a glass of antifreeze with a teaspoon of water mixed in. Neither is pure and healthy, and neither is safe to drink despite the difference in the amounts of impurity.
God is perfect and holy. As a result of God being perfect and holy, heaven is perfect and holy. What would happen to heaven's perfection and holiness if your (or my) imperfection of sin was admitted? It would cease to be perfect, and therefore cease to be heaven, right?
How's your innocence or guilt looking now?
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This verse is the sentencing of sinfulness. It is literally a death sentence.
All sin is condemned, and the judgement is death. While physical death is certainly a byproduct of sinfulness, this death is referring to spiritual death of being in utter separation from God's presence for all of eternity. The second half of the verse confirms that by contrasting that death with God's gift of "eternal life" in conjunction with "in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Take note of two important things in this verse: "wages" and "free gift".
Wages are payments for labor or services. Just as when you are hired into a job, you earn wages by performing the tasks inherent to that job. Wages are earned for performance (action). Through performing our acts of sin, any act of sin, we earn the wage of spiritual death for those acts.
Obviously the alternative to death is life. But by acquiring death there is no life negate it. A person cannot simultaneously be alive and dead whether physically or spiritually.
By indulging in sin, we earn and deserve condemnation from holy justice and a punitive injunction to settle our debt. Remember, even the tiniest amount of impurity (sin) can not be allowed into heaven (God's kingdom).
The verse specifically states that the wages (the payment) of sin is death. We have already acknowledged that no one is perfectly pure. That means we are all guilty, we all earn and deserve that penalty of spiritual death: eternity away from God (hell).
Things look rather bleak and damning for every one of us at this point, don't they?
Gifts, however, are given freely out of love and without compulsory compensation. God offers us the free gift of eternal life with Him in heaven despite our earning and and deserving to be sentenced to an eternity in hell away from His presence.
Another thing about gifts: gifts are not just free, they must be accepted by the recipient. Gifts are not, and cannot be, forced on a recipient. It is a conscious act of the recipient to receive the unearned gift.
Romans 5:8
But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Here is where the good news begins! God does not wait for us to clean ourselves up. He knows we can't!
Once we have earned spiritual death for our sin, that is our condition: dead in sin. Only spiritual life, which we lost when we acquired that spiritual death, can eradicate and replace that death. But in that state, we lack the power and means to reacquire it.
That's the beauty of this verse: while we were still sinners (spiritually dead) God Himself acted on our behalf to provide a way for us to receive life again!
Let's now look at how we can be saved and why we can't do it ourselves.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
This shows just how much God loves us. God, in the person of Jesus, was given to humanity in order to pay the debt to sin of death.
Jesus was uniquely fully God and fully man. He lived (as a man) a sinless life and did not earn those wages of death from sin. Being sinless, He was able to lay His own life down to pay the debt of sin for the sinfulness of others, and His infinitely divine nature (as God) is more than sufficient to pay for all debt of sin.
Whoever believes in Him will have their debt payed and be awarded by God that free gift of eternal life through Jesus.
This is the greatest message ever! We don't have to be perfect, and God doesn't expect us to be. He is perfect on our behalf!
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Because of Jesus' unique nature as both God and man, He alone can provide the payment required by the sins of humanity. He specifically and directly addresses this so that there can be no questions, no alternatives, and no doubts.
There is no other means, method, or name given among humanity that mankind can be saved.
Romans 10:9-10
Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Profession that Jesus is Lord and believing that God miraculously raised Him from the dead is the formula for being saved from paying that debt of your life for sin.
Some people miss this because of its simplicity. Even in our interactions with each other, most of the time when someone does something nice for us we feel indebted to do something as nice (if not better!) for them.
For instance, how often have you gone to lunch or dinner with someone and they unexpectedly cover the whole tab? Don't you immediately feel like you need to pay for the next outing, or at least make the offer? They gave you a gift without any expectation or desire for you to "get it next time."
Other world religions like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and even Judaism rely on justification (being made "right") through doing good things. Often it is a matter of doing more good things than bad things throughout your life.
Religions like Hinduism and Jainism believe that these good and bad things positively or negatively affect future lives through karma, and only once you reach a certain level of good do you achieve the goal of complete detachment from self and "becoming one" with the universal consciousness.
The biggest problem with any works-based systems is: How do you know if you've done enough good, and just who or what judges whether it is enough?
Unfortunately, some associations that classify themselves as Christian also believe that good works are required for that justification.
Biblical Christianity differs in that a relationship with God does not require the loss of self, but the communion with God, and that is not achieved through any good deeds but through our faith and by God's grace.
Romans 10:13
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
This promise was given to us to console and alleviate any fears and doubts about God's promise. When we see just how messed up our lives have been or can be, and what ungodly things we have done, and how we have really lived in ways that oppose God, we can be open to self-deprecation and start asking those same old questions again: "Am I going to heaven? Am I really 'Saved'?"
Everyone - not just some, not just special people, not just the best of the best - Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Those who call on the name of the Lord refers back to the previous statement in verses 9 and 10. Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead.
Saved - not given another chance to do right, not just considered for salvation, not put on probation - Saved.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
To further demonstrate that salvation can't be earned by anything we can do, it is laid out here.
Recall from Romans 6:23 that God gives the free gift of eternal life. That's grace. Both wages and rewards are earned based on merit and performance, but grace is unearned and unmerited favor. By definition, grace is not and cannot be a reward for doing good things.
We are saved by God's grace alone through our faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. "This is not of your own doing." This is a very pointed and explicit statement. Nothing we can do on our own can save us. No amount of good deeds, no amount of good words, no amount of good feelings. It is only the gift from God.
If we could earn our own way into heaven by saving ourselves, we would be able to boast about it, and God would not be needed. The same can be said for staying saved. If we can keep our selves saved, we would be able to boast about it, and God would not be needed.
Until the time referred to as "The Day of the Lord" comes, and God judges all mankind, even the saved will still struggle with sin and sometimes succumb to it.
That God's power saves us once and keeps us eternally is a beautiful gift and one that far outshines the beliefs of the worldly religions that leaves a person in a continuous cycle of righteousness and damnation based on their own power.
Once a person is saved, then what? What's expected?
Romans 8:1-2
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
This is the marvelous news! Once you are in Christ Jesus, you are no longer condemned! The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life, has set you free in Christ - free from the law of Sin and Death!
By confessing with your mouth that Jesus is lord, and believing in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you are saved. That means that by trusting in Jesus Christ, you believe that Christ paid in complete the debt for your sins and you have been set free, and given new life. Christ took upon Himself your debt and punishment, and in return gave to you His right-standing called righteousness.
You are no longer condemned!
But salvation is not a license to allow us to freely continue sinning as before.
2 Corinthians 5:15
And He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.
Once a person is saved, their attitude and devotion should be of devotion to and adoration for God, His grace, His love, His gift to us through Jesus Christ, and by the work of the Holy Spirit in reshaping our desires. This is brought about by the Holy Spirit of God changing us from the inside out. Again, the saved will continue to battle sin throughout their life on this earth, with varying degrees of successes and failures, but the saved should continue to grow in righteousness on this earth. It will be that way until the saved are made fully perfect when brought into the presence of God.
Salvation should create the desire in a person to devote their lives to Jesus who out of love came willingly to earth, born and lived as a man, and died crucified painfully on a cross, and then was raised again to life on the third day in fully victory over sin and death and then imparts to us eternal life so that we serve and worship Him, serve others in His name, and point others to Him for their own salvation.
In theological terms, the process is
- Justification This is that moment of salvation. "One believes with the heart and is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and is saved."
- Sanctification This is the earthly, life-long process of continued growth in God's righteousness. We are apt to stumble in our imperfections.
- Glorification This is our future complete perfection when we are made absolutely clean from all sin and impurity.
Conclusion
Now, let me conclude with one more passage from the apostle Paul that was written between 53 to 55 AD - only 2 decades after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection and after Paul's in-person encounter with the resurrected Lord.
Paul writes that he delivered this message to his original audience (the church at Corinth) as "of first importance". This means that it was of the greatest and primary importance. It was more important than anything else. Of the topic of whether there is an eternal life and how it can be obtained, what could possibly be of greater importance?
He wrote to them then and to us two-thousand years later:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.1 Corinthians 15:3-11
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