Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
The Gospel of Your Salvation
Ephesians 1:13 (NASB)
13 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 promise,
To really understand salvation, you need to first understand free will. When God created man, He could have chosen to not give us free will. Then Adam and Eve would never have sinned. All of the pain and suffering in the world would never happen. And you and I would never have the ability to laugh, love, or basically to live life. Without Free Will, we would be nothing more than Ken and Barbie dolls in a child’s hands.
Free will gives us the freedom to choose for ourselves. To choose what we like. What foods we like more. Which music we like. Who we fall in love with. Without free will, we could do nothing unless God told us to do it. We could not make a single decision on our own. Free will is not just the freedom to choose to serve God or not, but it is the freedom to make any minute choice we ever make in life. Just changing the channel on a TV is an act of free will.
Without it, we would not be able to live our lives. We would be nothing more than pawns on a chess board. Well, God loves us too much to just want us to be pawns. God wanted us to enjoy our lives. To live! To taste what we want and play the games we wanted. To enjoy what we want to enjoy.
Unfortunately, with free will, comes the ability to choose to do what is wrong. Before God even made Adam and Eve, He knew they would fall to sin. With that sin, the souls of all of their descendants would also be stained with sin. Once that happened, God knew that no man or woman would ever be good enough to get into heaven on their own. Mankind would be lost. Thankfully, God loves us enough that He planned for that.
In the old days, before Jesus came to us, God used to allow man to sacrifice animals to atone for their sins. This allowed their sins to be forgiven so they would continue to grow closer to God in their relationship with God. However, no animal sacrifice was pure or holy enough to wash them clean of that stain of sin. So the sacrifices would aid their relationships with God, but they would not save them from burning in the Lake of Fire come judgment day. So God sent the Word to us.
God is not just a single spirit as many religions believe. God is spirit, but God is more than that. The easiest way to explain it is this… There is one true God, who reveals Himself in three distinct persons. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All three of them are God, but they are distinct from each other.
The Son, was also known as the “Word”. When the Word took on flesh and was born human, he became the Son. The only begotten child of God. He was named Jesus. What even a lot of Christians don’t realize, is that the Word had to set his godly powers aside to be born in the flesh. He did not stop being God, but He could not use his powers. He was fully human.
Many will claim this is heresy, but it is the truth. Every miracle that Jesus did, it was either the Father or the Holy Spirit who did it, through Jesus because of faith. You can read about this with scripture to prove it here. When you really stop and think, it makes everything He did that much more important. He was a man who lived by pure faith. A perfect example of how God expects us to live. It also means His sacrifice was that much more amazing because He could not just switch off the pain or shame or anything. He truly suffered.
So Jesus lived with us and taught His disciples how to live. How God wants us to live. Then he gave His own life as a sacrifice to save us from our sin. Even before he was taken, He knew what he would go through. He knew they would beat Him. He knew they would scourge Him, the pieces of metal in the whip shredding His flesh with each lashing. He knew they would mock Him and then nail Him to a cross. And when the soldiers came for Him, he went willingly. He knew what was going to happen and He chose to do it. Why? Because it was the only way mankind could be saved from spending all of eternity in the Lake of Fire.
God knew that no animal sacrifice was pure enough or holy enough to truly wash us clean from sin. So He chose to take on flesh and become that only sacrifice that would be pure and holy. The most amazing thing is He offers that salvation to us as a gift. We do not need to earn it. It is a free gift to anyone who will accept it.
Here is the thing however. That gift of salvation is a spiritual gift. In order to accept it, you have to truly believe it in your heart. If you don’t truly believe it, then you will not receive it.
Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)
9 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; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
There is nothing else you need to do to be saved. Simply believe in your heart and you will be saved. Many denominations will preach that sin sends you to hell. This is simply not what the Bible actually says. Never once does it ever say sin will send anyone to hell. It says the unbelievers will burn for their sins, but they will do so only because they did not believe. Every believer is forgiven for their sins the moment they believe in their hearts and from that point on, they will no longer burn for their sins, so long as they continue to believe.
Ask yourself, do you believe? Do you truly believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God? If someone put a gun to your head and told you to deny it, would you? Can you truly say you believe in your heart if you are not willing to die for Him?
I have given this a lot of thought, and I believe there are ways to know if you believe in your heart or just accept it in your mind. Willing to die for your belief is one way of knowing. There are other ways to know as well.
Those are minor things to look at, but I do not believe that anyone who truly believes in their heart is going to be annoyed when someone talks about God. They will never take the side of being against God or Christianity. You can’t believe Jesus is your Lord and not care when someone ridicules Him or even uses the Lord’s name in vain.
The simple truth is, there is nobody who has ever lived who is more worthy to follow than Jesus. There is no one else who is more worthy to die for. Where every other religion makes you earn your way into heaven, as if man could ever be worthy of that on his own, God sacrificed Himself to save us. That makes Jesus clearly the only one worthy.
13 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 promise,
To really understand salvation, you need to first understand free will. When God created man, He could have chosen to not give us free will. Then Adam and Eve would never have sinned. All of the pain and suffering in the world would never happen. And you and I would never have the ability to laugh, love, or basically to live life. Without Free Will, we would be nothing more than Ken and Barbie dolls in a child’s hands.
Free will gives us the freedom to choose for ourselves. To choose what we like. What foods we like more. Which music we like. Who we fall in love with. Without free will, we could do nothing unless God told us to do it. We could not make a single decision on our own. Free will is not just the freedom to choose to serve God or not, but it is the freedom to make any minute choice we ever make in life. Just changing the channel on a TV is an act of free will.
Without it, we would not be able to live our lives. We would be nothing more than pawns on a chess board. Well, God loves us too much to just want us to be pawns. God wanted us to enjoy our lives. To live! To taste what we want and play the games we wanted. To enjoy what we want to enjoy.
Unfortunately, with free will, comes the ability to choose to do what is wrong. Before God even made Adam and Eve, He knew they would fall to sin. With that sin, the souls of all of their descendants would also be stained with sin. Once that happened, God knew that no man or woman would ever be good enough to get into heaven on their own. Mankind would be lost. Thankfully, God loves us enough that He planned for that.
In the old days, before Jesus came to us, God used to allow man to sacrifice animals to atone for their sins. This allowed their sins to be forgiven so they would continue to grow closer to God in their relationship with God. However, no animal sacrifice was pure or holy enough to wash them clean of that stain of sin. So the sacrifices would aid their relationships with God, but they would not save them from burning in the Lake of Fire come judgment day. So God sent the Word to us.
God is not just a single spirit as many religions believe. God is spirit, but God is more than that. The easiest way to explain it is this… There is one true God, who reveals Himself in three distinct persons. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All three of them are God, but they are distinct from each other.
The Son, was also known as the “Word”. When the Word took on flesh and was born human, he became the Son. The only begotten child of God. He was named Jesus. What even a lot of Christians don’t realize, is that the Word had to set his godly powers aside to be born in the flesh. He did not stop being God, but He could not use his powers. He was fully human.
Many will claim this is heresy, but it is the truth. Every miracle that Jesus did, it was either the Father or the Holy Spirit who did it, through Jesus because of faith. You can read about this with scripture to prove it here. When you really stop and think, it makes everything He did that much more important. He was a man who lived by pure faith. A perfect example of how God expects us to live. It also means His sacrifice was that much more amazing because He could not just switch off the pain or shame or anything. He truly suffered.
So Jesus lived with us and taught His disciples how to live. How God wants us to live. Then he gave His own life as a sacrifice to save us from our sin. Even before he was taken, He knew what he would go through. He knew they would beat Him. He knew they would scourge Him, the pieces of metal in the whip shredding His flesh with each lashing. He knew they would mock Him and then nail Him to a cross. And when the soldiers came for Him, he went willingly. He knew what was going to happen and He chose to do it. Why? Because it was the only way mankind could be saved from spending all of eternity in the Lake of Fire.
God knew that no animal sacrifice was pure enough or holy enough to truly wash us clean from sin. So He chose to take on flesh and become that only sacrifice that would be pure and holy. The most amazing thing is He offers that salvation to us as a gift. We do not need to earn it. It is a free gift to anyone who will accept it.
Here is the thing however. That gift of salvation is a spiritual gift. In order to accept it, you have to truly believe it in your heart. If you don’t truly believe it, then you will not receive it.
Romans 10:9-10 (NASB)
9 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; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
There is nothing else you need to do to be saved. Simply believe in your heart and you will be saved. Many denominations will preach that sin sends you to hell. This is simply not what the Bible actually says. Never once does it ever say sin will send anyone to hell. It says the unbelievers will burn for their sins, but they will do so only because they did not believe. Every believer is forgiven for their sins the moment they believe in their hearts and from that point on, they will no longer burn for their sins, so long as they continue to believe.
Ask yourself, do you believe? Do you truly believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God? If someone put a gun to your head and told you to deny it, would you? Can you truly say you believe in your heart if you are not willing to die for Him?
I have given this a lot of thought, and I believe there are ways to know if you believe in your heart or just accept it in your mind. Willing to die for your belief is one way of knowing. There are other ways to know as well.
- When someone starts talking about God or the Bible, what is your natural response? Roll your eyes or try and ignore it? Not good enough. If you believe in your heart, your natural response will be to have your ears perk up. You feel a sense of interest at least a little.
- When a discussion picks up on the subject of God or religion, do you take the stance of supporting God and Christianity?
- When someone makes fun of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, or God or Christianity, do you feel a sense of ire in your heart or sadness? Or do you not care?
Those are minor things to look at, but I do not believe that anyone who truly believes in their heart is going to be annoyed when someone talks about God. They will never take the side of being against God or Christianity. You can’t believe Jesus is your Lord and not care when someone ridicules Him or even uses the Lord’s name in vain.
The simple truth is, there is nobody who has ever lived who is more worthy to follow than Jesus. There is no one else who is more worthy to die for. Where every other religion makes you earn your way into heaven, as if man could ever be worthy of that on his own, God sacrificed Himself to save us. That makes Jesus clearly the only one worthy.