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First thoughts...
here are 35 actions that you will take after you have been saved... 1. You
have a new outlook on life. 2. You believe in essential biblical doctrine.
3. You have a yearning to proclaim Jesus to others. 4. You surrender
yourself to Jesus. 5. You pursue holiness
6. You grow in holiness daily.
7. You discover new gifts.
8. You believe in the bible.
9. You have a hunger for bible teaching.
10. You have a servant's heart.
11. You love other believers.
12. You have a "new nature".
13. You overcome Satan's lies.
14. You no longer have shame in your life.
15. You overcome Satan's temptations.
16. You have an "attachment" to Jesus.
17. You have an abundance of love.
18. You overcome anything contrary to God's word.
19. You are more productive.
20. You fear God.
21. You turn away from things evil. 22. You have a new sense of
fellowship. 23. You are not ashamed of Jesus. 24. You deny selfish
things. 25. You are ready for the return of Jesus. 26. You grow in
grace daily. 27. You grow in knowledge of the bible daily. 28. You
have a humble heart. 29. You mourn over any sin. 30. You obey God's word.
31. You forsake sin.
32. You love Jesus.
33. You endure persecution for Jesus.
34. You have a new sense of intimacy.
35. You have an aversion to sin.
These are all great "actions" to the question but lets look a little deeper...
you are not saved by doing these 35 actions! You can do all 35
those "actions" but "actions" do not make you saved! Actions come
after you have been saved!!! Lets look at scriptures and find the biblical answer.
Biblical References...
John 3:16...
"For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes
in Him will not perish, but have eternal life."
John
10:28-30...
"...I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one
will snatch them out of My hand.
My
Father, who has given them to
Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's
hand. I and the Father are one."
1st John
1:9...
"If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1st John 5:13...
"These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that
you may know that you have eternal life."
Acts 16:30-32...
"...
Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?”
They (Paul and Silas) said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,
you and your household."
And they
spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house."
Romans
2:5-7...
"...the
righteous judgment of God, who will
repay each person according to his deeds: to
those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He
will give eternal
life;"
Romans
8:3-4...
"For
what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as
an offering for
sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so
that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not
walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
The NASB version quoted above is difficult to understand... the New Living
Translation, quoted here provides a
much easier version to understand...
Romans
8:3-4 (NLT version)...The
law of Moses was unable to save us
because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God
did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a
body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that
body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his
Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
He did this so that the
just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us,
who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead
follow the Spirit.
Romans
10:9-10...
"that
if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for
with the heart a
person believes, resulting
in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
Ephesians
1:13-14...
"In Him, you
also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation -
having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the
promise, who
is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s
own possession,
to the praise of His glory."
Matthew 6:19-21...
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break
in or steal;
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
2nd
Corinthians 5:10...
"For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may
receive compensation for his deeds done through
the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad."
Ephesians 2:8-9...
"For
by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not
of yourselves, it
is the
gift of God; not
a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Discussion thoughts...
The above scriptures are indeed wonderful... they say all we need to know about
God's salvation! John 3:16 is, of course, the
primary scripture that all who are believers have memorized; and know by heart!
The scripture that tells it best in two short verses is
Romans 10:9-10... but we need to expand on exactly what those two verses
are saying:
1 - Read the Gospel of John
especially Chapter 19 and 20... to be saved we need to fully
understand
exactly the entire story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus... not
just what happened,
but WHY it happened! Since the very
beginning of the human race,
everyone was
required to give a portion of their wealth as a sacrifice to God (this was
sometimes known as
the "first fruits")... read the story of Adam's sons Cain and Abel
in
Chapter 4 of Genesis where they gave offerings to
the Lord. God was following this
same principal of
offerings when He gave His only Son (John 3:16 and Romans
8:3-4) as
his offering! It is impossible to
imagine the agony God felt at the crucifixion of his only
son... he did that to prove how much
he loves us by following his own law of "offerings"
that was required of Cain and Abel,
and from everyone since ("For God so loved the
world")!
That is the
WHY it happened!
2 - As is says in Romans 10:9-10
we must believe in our heart that Jesus died on the cross
and God raised him
from the dead. Again, read the Gospel of John to make the story of
the crucifixion and
resurrection engrained in our heart! The 35 actions listed above do
not make us
saved... belief, and understanding in our heart, that Jesus died on the cross
is what makes us saved (again read
Romans 10:9-10)!
3 - We need to not only believe it with understanding,
we must as it says in Romans 10:9-
10, confess that
belief to others with our mouth!
4 - When we fully believe in our hearts
the crucifixion and resurrection, and have confessed
our
belief to others, all
as required by the first 3 requirements listed above, then God
gives us the ultimate
promise as recorded in Acts 16:30-32
...Believe in the Lord Jesus,
and
you will be saved. Notice that none of the scriptures indicate that we are required to
confess our past sins... our sins are automatically forgiven when we believe in the Lord
Jesus!
5 - Now we get to the 35 actions mentioned above...
those 35, and others, are what we
must do to live a
Christian life as we follow Gods commandments (Matthew
6:19-21
explains that the 35+
actions will store up treasures in Heaven...
Romans 2:5-7
also
suggests God will
reward each person according to their deeds...
2nd Corinthians 5:10
explains
that we must all appear
at the final judgment). We need to be
careful here...
Ephesians 2:8-9 explains that we are saved by
grace, not by works alone!!! Being
"saved" does not
mean we will never commit a sin... review the sad history of the some
of the "saints"
discussed in the
bible...
Moses murdered a man... Jacob was a thief, liar
and coward... Abraham and Sarah
took matters into their own hands instead of trusting
the Lord... Jonah forsook God's
will... David committed adultery, and then murdered her
husband... Jeremiah quit the
ministry... Jacob's sons by Leah sold their half-brother
Joseph into slavery... these
were all Christians doing evil things!
1st John 1:9
provides
the answer...
when we find that
we have not followed Gods
commandments we must
confess our sin, ask for Gods
forgiveness in prayer, and God will forgive us that sin!
My Beliefs...
This was an easy study... the 5 steps outlined above are my beliefs... the scriptures listed above are easy to understand and
the promises are wonderful. When we believe, as it says in
John 3:16 and in Romans 8:3-4, that God gave us
his son Jesus to die on the cross for us, and we follow the 5 steps listed
above, we will have everlasting life in
Heaven.
Comments from a Bible Scholar Minister...
In item 4 above I stated "When
we fully understand and believe in our hearts the events of the crucifixion and
resurrection"... the Minister pointed out that it would be very difficult for
any of us to "fully" understand... so the wording was changed to
"When we fully believe in our hearts the events of the crucifixion and
resurrection".
Revised 4-15-21 removed the word "understand";
5-2-21 added Romans 8:3-4.
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