This very question was asked by
a jailer two thousand years ago. Paul and Silas had a simple response: "Believe
in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31 NIV)
But what does it really mean to "believe in the Lord
Jesus"?
Before we can determine that,
we need to realize that "Salvation is found in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
(Acts 4:12 NIV)
There is only one way to heaven, and when you compare
the gospel message to what other religions proclaim, it makes sense: Only Jesus
asserts salvation by faith, all other religions are work-based!
This is confirmed all over the New Testament:
"For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-
not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2:8-9 NIV)
"And if by grace, then it is no longer by
works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace." (Rom 11:6 NIV)
"However, to the man who does not work but trusts God
who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the
same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits
righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are they whose transgressions are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will
never count against him.'" (Rom 4:5-8 NIV)
Why, as humans, are we so tempted to try and do our
own part in obtaining salvation? I don't know how many times I've heard: "I try
to be good. At least I'm better than Hitler!" But this isn't what Jesus was
proclaiming. If we rely on our actions, we will fall short of our goal! "For all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Rom
3:23-24 NIV)
There is only one way to heaven and it isn't through
our efforts, but solely through Jesus' efforts!
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone
die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to
die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by
his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if,
when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his
Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Rom 5:6-11 NIV)
Salvation was
only
made possible by God's love. We are the ones who strayed away from Him. We are
the ones who wanted to lead our own lives, filled with lust, unforgiveness and
selfishness. We weren't even aware we had wandered away, except for the remorse
that kept haunting us and our
past that couldn't be erased. But aware or not, we became alienated with God. We
weren't even talking to Him any longer, and we didn't even care to hear His
voice.
Our attitude didn't discourage God, however. After
all, you can't discourage true love. His love drove Him to do the unthinkable.
Who in their right mind would be willing to die for someone else, especially if
that person is ungrateful? Who in their right mind would be willing to set all
His comfort aside and give up His richness to die for a race in rebellion? Yet
this is what God did though through His son Jesus the Christ!
"For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have
eternal life." (John 3:16 NIV)
He is the One who is madly in love with us, who is
pursuing us in order to catch our hearts so that we can experience His
resurrection life for eternity!
The only catch is that it is only available to those
who believe "in Him"!
"To believe in Him" means much more than accepting
that God is somewhere out there! "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even
the demons believe that - and shudder."
(James 2:19
NIV)
The apostle Paul digs deeper into its meaning: "But
what does it say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,'
that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with
your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are
saved. As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be
put to shame.' For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same
Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" (Rom 10:8-13 NIV)
"To believe in Him" means to "believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead". As we are dealing with real love here, it is
an affair of the heart! Faith has to stem from our hearts. We really need to
mean it! He loves us so much that He willingly died for us! We can't just stay
on the side unaffected. We need to respond from the heart, where love resides.
And if we do respond that way, we will realize what His sacrifice means to us!
He died because He loves us. He rose up from the dead so that we, too, can
experience resurrection from living among the dead, as well as resurrection to
eternal life!
But we also need to "confess with our mouth". And what
do we confess? "Jesus is Lord"! Or in other words: "I am tired to be the one in
control of my life. I hurt people. I tend to be overbearingly selfish and feel
utterly empty inside. Jesus be in control of my life! Redeem me!"
In the olden days everybody understood the term
"Lord", but in today's day and time, we don't even understand the term "king" or
"dependence". People in the past depended on their lord for survival and
protection. And it is true that many of these humanly conceived "lords" often
were far from trustworthy. But none of them ever willingly died to save their
people like Jesus did!
With Him at the helm of our heart, we can be assured
that He will lead us with our best interest at heart. With Him as our Lord,
worry will become unnecessary, because He will take care of us (See Mat
6:33-34). Only by depending on Him will we experience utter inner peace (See
Philippians 4:7).
This is the complete gospel message that was
proclaimed by Jesus' apostles: "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the
gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your
stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the
word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I
received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on
the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and
then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the
brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some
have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and
last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." (1 Cor 15:1-8
NIV)
It's unbelievable to notice that these same apostles
were running for their lives and hiding when Jesus was crucified (See John
20:19). None of them at that time would have had the guts to stand up for Jesus.
All of them however, except for the apostle John who died of a natural death,
died the death of a martyr, proclaiming this very message called the gospel.
They underwent a transformation that filled them with boldness. They had met the
resurrected One personally!
This same message is still being proclaimed today,
although some have altered its content for their own purposes. We, too, can
receive the same assurance the apostles did, and we can also proclaim without a
doubt: Jesus is alive!
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple
and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Cor 3:16-17 NIV)
"This is how we know that he lives in us: We
know it by the Spirit he gave us." (1 John 3:24 NIV)
Jesus promised us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us (See
John 16:13) and once we experience Him in our lives, we too will have the
assurance that He is truly alive and that He lives in us through His Spirit.
How can we be saved? Simply: "Believe in the
Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31 NIV)
Samuel Willey was the proud owner of a home in the
heart of Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, located in the shadow of what is now
known as Mount Willey. He had turned it into a cozy inn to accommodate those
travelling on the desolate notch road. He noticed that at the back of his
property, up a bit on the mountain, stood a solid outcropping of boulders. "It
sure doesn't hurt to have those here!" He decided.
The night of August 28, 1826 his good fortune turned
sour. A long drought had dried the mountain soil, and a violent rainstorm now
lashed over the land. Suddenly an unusual noise was heard, and Samuel Willey
realized it was the rumbling sound of a landslide. Samuel left his glasses on
his Bible and gathered his family together. They then left their house behind in
search of a more secure haven.
Unfortunately, they left the only safe haven in the
surroundings. The landslide hit them head on, while the house, protected by the
boulders at the back, survived unscratched!
We all tend to try and work out our own way to
salvation, but only One can guarantee it. He is the One so many are confused
about, but He is also the One who is referred to as "the rock"! Just like the
boulders at the back of Wiley's property, He is the One who, literally, can save
us!
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put
to shame." (Rom 9:29 NIV)
The prophet Isaiah spoke of Jesus more than seven
hundred years before His birth: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he
was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and
carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for
our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and
by his wounds we are healed." (Isa 53:3-5 NIV)
Remember "if you confess with your mouth,
'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved." (Rom 10:9 NIV) Why don't you invite Him in your
heart right now? Only then will you start experiencing "real living" (See John
10:10). For a sample of how to accept Jesus into your heart, visit
http://answers2prayer.org/salvation_prayer.html
P. S. If you have just accepted Jesus into your heart,
let me be the first to welcome you to the family of God. Please share this
moment of rejoicing with us!
Rob Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.