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Details about Salvation:
   
  
My Friend: I am
asking you the most important question of life. Your joy or your sorrow
for all eternity depends upon your answer. The question is: Are
you saved? It is not a question of how good you are, nor if you are a
church member, but are you saved? Are you sure you will go to Heaven
when you die?
God says in order to go to Heaven, you must be born again. In
John 3:7, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.”
In the Bible God gives us the plan of how to be born again
which means to be saved. His plan is simple! You can be saved
today. How?
First, my friend, you must realize you are a sinner.
“For all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Because you are a sinner, you are condemned to death.
“For the wages [payment] of
sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This includes eternal separation
from God in Hell.
“ . . . it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
But God loved you so much He gave His only begotten
Son, Jesus, to bear your sin and die in your place. “
. . . He hath made Him [Jesus, Who knew no sin]
to be sin for us . . . that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus had to shed His blood and die.
“For the life of the flesh is in the
blood” (Lev. 17:11). “ . . . without shedding
of blood is no remission [pardon]” (Hebrews 9:22).
“ . . . God commendeth His love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:8).
Although we cannot understand how, God said my sins
and your sins were laid upon Jesus and He died in our place.
He became our substitute. It is true. God cannot lie.
My friend, “God . . . commandeth all men
everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). This
repentance is a change of mind that agrees with God that one is a
sinner, and also agrees with what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
In Acts 16:30-31, the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas:
“ . . . ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’
And they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved . . . .’ ”
Simply believe on Him as the one who bore your sin,
died in your place, was buried, and whom God resurrected. His
resurrection powerfully assures that the believer can claim everlasting
life when Jesus is received as Savior.
“But as many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name” (John 1:12).
“For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:13).
Whosoever
includes you. Shall be saved means not maybe, nor can,
but shall be saved.
Surely, you realize you are a sinner. Right now, wherever you
are, repenting, lift your heart to God in prayer.
In Luke 18:13, the sinner prayed: “God be
merciful to me a sinner.” Just pray: “Oh God, I know I am a
sinner. I believe Jesus was my substitute when He died on the Cross. I believe
His shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection were for me. I now receive Him
as my Savior. I thank You for the forgiveness of my sins, the gift of salvation
and everlasting life, because of Your merciful grace. Amen.”
Just take God at His word
and claim His salvation by faith. Believe, and you will be saved.
No church, no lodge, no good works can save you. Remember, God does the
saving. All of it!
God’s simple plan of salvation is: You are a sinner.
Therefore, unless you believe on Jesus Who died in your place, you will spend
eternity in Hell. If you believe on Him as your crucified, buried, and risen
Savior, you receive forgiveness for all of your sins and His gift of
eternal salvation by faith.
You say, “Surely, it cannot be that simple.” Yes, that simple!
It is scriptural. It is God’s plan. My friend, believe on Jesus and
receive Him as Savior today.
If His plan is not perfectly clear, read this tract
over and over, without laying it down, until you understand it. Your
soul is worth more than all the world.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?”
(Mark 8:36).
Be sure you are saved. If you lose your soul, you miss Heaven
and lose all. Please! Let God save you this very moment.
God’s power will save you, keep you saved, and enable
you to live a victorious Christian life.
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be
able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Do not trust your feelings. They change. Stand on
God’s promises. They never change. After you are
saved, there are three things to practice daily for spiritual
growth:
- Pray -- you talk
to God.
- Read your Bible --
God talks to you.
- Witness -- you
talk for God.
You should be baptized
in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ as a public testimony of your
salvation, and then unite with a Bible-believing church without delay.
“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord . . . .” (2 Timothy 1:8)
“Whosoever therefore shall confess
[testify of] Me before men, him will I confess also
before My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32).
Salvation Prayer
YOU MUST BE
BORN AGAIN
“You must be born again.” The religious
leader who heard these words first spoken
2,000 years ago seemed stunned by them. This
man, Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the
Jews, had already acknowledged his belief
that Jesus Christ had come from God, “for no
one can do these signs that You do unless
God is with him.” Chapter three of the
Gospel of John records this intriguing
conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus,
giving us a vital key to the kingdom of God.
Both believers and unbelievers still use
Jesus’ words “born again,” and many, like
Nicodemus, are still confused by them.
Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can man be born
when he is old? He cannot enter a second
time into his mother’s womb and be born
again, can he?” Nicodemus was thinking in
terms of the flesh. Jesus had to explain to
him, “That which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you,
‘you must be born again.’” Jesus also
explained that unless a person is born again
he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God.
Obviously, this born-again experience,
whatever it is, is absolutely necessary and
of the utmost importance. We cannot take it
lightly, for Jesus spoke imperatively, “You
must…”-a command from God.
You can imagine the incredulous look on the
face of Nicodemus. He couldn’t believe such
a thing. All his life he had been taught
that good works were the key to heaven, that
if a person observed all the laws and
requirements of God, he would have entrance
into heaven. He said to Jesus, “How can
these things be?”
You see, Jesus was talking about things of
the spirit. He compared the spirit with the
wind. You cannot see it; you don’t know
where it’s coming from, or where it’s going,
but it is real, and you see its effects. You
see what it does to the trees. You see the
leaves that are caught up in the wind. You
see the little swirls of dust. You feel the
wind on your face. Jesus said, “So is every
one who is born of the Spirit.”
The Flesh Versus The Spirit
The problem was that Nicodemus, like all
human beings, was of the flesh. He was from
the earth. Flesh is mortal. It is subject to
death, decay, and corruption. It is filled
with self-pity, self-pride and self- love.
An awesome fact exists about the flesh:
everything we see, everything visible, even
our own bodies, are perishing. Many people
try everything imaginable to ignore or
forget this, but the fact always remains.
The Bible says that things which are visible
are temporary, but things which are
invisible are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).
The truth is that we dwell in a mortal body
which will soon return to dust.
The Answer
Our old state, our old nature, and even all
our good deeds are insufficient. God is
totally and absolutely holy and righteous.
He is perfect. We cannot fellowship with Him
now or in the next life in the imperfection
of our present nature. Perfection and
imperfection are incompatible.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God,” (Romans 3:23). By our very self
seeking nature we are sinful and imperfect.
And sin results in death, and eternal
separation from God. This is the result of
our earthly nature, a nature that God can’t
look upon with acceptance. A nature that
stands condemned before Him. We need a new
birth. We must be born again. There are four
important things about this new nature, the
new birth, which we must know.
A Free Gift
First, the new birth is free, a gift from
God!
We cannot earn it. We cannot work for it, or
else we could boast, and no one shall boast
before God. An imperfect creature cannot
earn or deserve such merit from a holy God.
“For the wages of sin is death but the free
gift comes to us by grace, or unmerited
favor” (Romans 6:23).
Only God’s supreme love makes such a free
and wonderful gift possible. God did not
automatically excuse our sinful condition.
He paid the greatest price. You see, sin
must be punished. God in His holy and
righteous nature must judge sin. Not to do
so would deny His very nature. He Himself
has decreed, “The wages of sin is death.”
No Greater Love Than This
The most magnificent and incomparable act of
love in all of history is that God took our
sins and death upon Himself. Jesus, the son
of God, took the punishment in our place. He
became our substitute. “He made Him who knew
no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we
might become the righteousness of God in
Him,” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
“Jesus Christ, although He existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,
and being made in the likeness of men. And
being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross”
(Philippians 2:6-8). “For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
That is why Christ chose to die - to make
the supreme love gift of taking all our
punishment upon Himself, to reconcile the
world unto God. He totally identified with
our sinful nature when He hung on the cross,
and became sin for us though sinless
Himself, so that we might have the free gift
of forgiveness and life.
The Mystery Revealed
The second important fact about this new
nature is that it is actually the nature of
the only perfect Person who ever lived,
Jesus Christ. Only Jesus is good enough.
Only He is perfect. Only His life is
acceptable to God. It is only as we partake
of his life that we become acceptable to
God. Being “born again” is nothing less than
receiving the actual life of the living
Christ - His Spirit actually entering us and
bringing our spirit to life. Our spirit is
joined with Him. “The one who joins himself
to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1
Corinthians 6:17). We, then, become one with
the perfect One. “It is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians
2:20). The mystery is now revealed, “that
is, the mystery which has been hidden from
the past ages and generations…which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory”
(Colossians 1:26, 27).
Jesus’ identification with us is complete.
In His death He bore our sins and suffered
our death. In His resurrection He became our
life, so much so that in His Spirit we are
even joined with Him. Now when the Father
looks upon us He sees only the righteousness
of Jesus. We are accepted. We have been born
again! “If any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature, the old things passed away,
behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians
5:17).
The Abundant Life
The third important fact is that when we are
born again, we become a new creature, now.
The heavenly promise is for the future and
will be wonderful beyond understanding.
However, at the new birth we immediately
begin to experience the life of God as He
guides us, walks with us, and indwells us.
We experience His supernatural power
manifested in life situations. Life takes on
new meaning. Everything is in a new
perspective. Jesus said that He came, not
just to get us to heaven, but that we “might
have life, and might have it abundantly”
(John 10:10).
How To Receive Him
The fourth important fact to know is how to
receive this gift. Doesn’t every act of
giving require a giver and a receiver? God,
the Giver, holds out the gift to everyone.
It is not His will that any should perish (2
Peter 3:9). But to receive a gift requires
that we agree to a need. We must agree as
the Spirit of God shows us that we are,
indeed, sinful creatures in need of God’s
forgiveness and grace. “Unless you repent,
you will likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
Repentance means to change our mind, to
turn. We must change our mind about our
condition and our direction away from God,
and turn to Him.
“But as many as received Him (Christ), to
them He gave the right to become children of
God” (John 1:12). We receive Christ by an
ingenious method that only God could devise.
It is not by works, because our abilities
would vary and everyone would not have an
equal chance. It is an opportunity that is
equal regardless of intelligence, sex, age,
race, social status, or wealth. It is by
faith. “For by grace you have been saved
through faith: and that not of ourselves. It
is the gift of God: not as a result of
works, that no one should boast” (Ephesians
2:8:9).
To receive Christ, we must acknowledge our
need and who He is. Then we simply turn to
Him by faith and put our trust and reliance
in Him. We receive Him by invitation. Jesus
said, “Behold; I stand at the door and
knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him, and dine
with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).
Do you want to be born again, right now? Do
you want a new nature? Do you want to
receive the most wonderful gift in the whole
universe, the life of Christ Himself? Then,
simply but sincerely pray the following
prayer.
“Dear Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the
son of God. I believe that you died for my
sins and rose from the grave. I invite You
into my heart and receive You right now.
Thank You for forgiveness. Thank You for a
new life. Help me to be what You want me to
be and live Your life through me. Amen.”
Now What?
If you sincerely prayed that prayer, God
says that you have new life and that you are
a member of his eternal kingdom. He desires
close fellowship with you during this life
and desires for you, even now, to live
victoriously as a child of the King! Also,
since He died for you, He wants you to live
for Him. “And He died for all, that they who
live should no longer live for themselves,
but for Him who died and rose again on their
behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
As we are born again, God immediately
implants a new nature within us. Some
outward change may be dramatic and instant;
some may come gradually. As with any
newborn, our new nature needs nurture and
growth.
Talk to Him frequently. And listen to His
voice within you. That’s what prayer is.
Read and meditate upon His Word, the Bible –
another way He speaks to you. Finally, He
wants you to fellowship with other believers
and be a functioning part of His corporate
Body. That’s what church is.
What church should I attend? Ask God to lead
you, and He will. The true test of His
church is whether Jesus Christ is honored as
Lord and the Bible is honored as His Word.
May God bless you richly.
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