Saved?

Last week we were talking about choosing to live life as if God is real. The first step to that of course is salvation. Salvation is a word that we throw around a lot. We ask our friends about a cute guy they are dating, “Is he saved?” While these words may be common in Christian circles, someone may be wondering, “What is salvation?” or “What does it mean? What am I saved from?”

Firstly salvation put simply is being saved. So question is, what does it mean to be saved?

In summary, as Christians we believe that Adam and Eve were created in perfect relationship with God and without sin. Sin first entered the world through Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, Genesis 3. Sin affected the relationship between Adam, Eve and God and they could no longer live in the garden of Eden where they had closeness with God and intimacy of relationship with Him.

What this meant is that as descendants of Adam and Eve, when we are born, we are all born into sin because of that sin nature that entered humans at the beginning after creation. This also means we are born separated from God.

In addition to that, we are not perfect. We make our own mistakes. We drop the ball. We fall short of the standard. What is the standard? For a long time the standard was the law which is found in the Old Testament. It is a whole list of do’s and don’ts.

But falling short of the law, or sinning created distance between us and our Heavenly Father. In the Old Testament people had to make animal sacrifices so they could be cleansed of their sins. But this was a temporary fix. Animal sacrifices could only do so much for so long.

Why animal sacrifices? Because the bible says in Hebrews 9:22, “Actually, nearly everything under the law was purified with blood, since forgiveness only comes through an outpouring of blood.” So in order for people to be forgiven their sins in the Old Testament, an animal had to die. But this all changed with Jesus.

The relationship between God and people in Old Testament days was very limited. God wanted a more intimate, more hands on, more tangible relationship with us. So He sent us Jesus, who is fully God and God’s Son, John 3:16.

So instead of us getting temporary fixes with animal sacrifices, Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb that was slain for all our sins. All our sins, past, present and future were punished in Jesus. ‭‭Romans‬ ‭6:23‬ ‭says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus died for our sins so we wouldn’t have to suffer the second death, that is to spend our eternity in hell. Hell was never created for human beings. It was created for fallen angels who rebelled against God. We are God’s most precious ones. He loves us so much. He made us in His image. He made us to be just like Him, we carry different aspects of Him and His personality. Why would He want to be separated from us? He wants nothing more than to be with us.

Through Jesus we can have that relationship with God that was lost in the garden of Eden restored. How awesome is that!! And it all starts with salvation. So what does it mean to be saved? It means we are saved from the wages of sin which we are told are death but not only are we saved from something, we are saved for something. We are saved for relationship with God. So we can learn what it is like to be His children, to be loved by Him. To be the centre of His attention and affection. We are saved so we can be free, full of life, joy, peace, love, patience, kindness, all these wonderful characteristics of God. We are saved so we can be all that we were created to be. To find out who we really are, to discover our identity in God as sons and daughters of God.

How do you get saved? Romans‬ ‭10:9‬ ‭TPT‬‬ says, “And what is God’s “living message”? It is the revelation of faith for salvation, which is the message that we preach. For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will experience salvation.”

God has already done all the hard work. All we have to do is believe what the Bible tells us about Jesus and declare that Jesus is Lord and you will experience salvation. It’s simple, right?

If you wanna do some reading, read any one of the books of Matthew, Mark or Luke and also read the books of John and Romans, all are in the New Testament portion of the Bible. They are not books in the literal sense, they are all found in the Bible. You’ll see what I mean. I recommend either the Passion Translation or the New Living Translation.

Also if you are reading this and are in Sydney Australia, this is my personal invitation to you, come check out Maximize Church on 18 Bridge Street, Rydalmere NSW 2116 Sundays at 10:00am. We’d love to have you with us!

Love and blessings!

Melissa Tsingano.