Salvation Through Jesus Christ

Simply put, salvation is the act of God when a person receives the Lord Jesus Christ into their life. The Bible calls this being "born again."

"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:"

A person would need salvation who is separated from God. Since God created the world, and everyone in it, He is the One who has set our desires and our needs. Our need is to have a relationship with Him. Unfortunately, every person has offended God by sinning against Him; therefore, in our natural state, we are separated from Him, and do not have the relationship with Him that will fulfill our need.

"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."

The Bible says that every person needs to be saved in order to know God and go to heaven. You should ask yourself and God if there was ever a time that you followed what God's Word says you should do to be saved. Perhaps you didn't know that you needed to be saved.

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:"

The Bible uses two words to describe what needs to happen for a person to be saved. The first word is a command. Jesus told people that they needed to "repent" of their sin so that God could forgive them. When you realize that you have offended God, you should be sorry for your sin and be willing to give it up. Once you are willing to turn away from your sin, you are ready to receive Jesus. The Bible then uses the word "faith" to describe the belief in Jesus that we are called to have. These two words, repentance and faith, describe what is necessary to be saved.

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."

If you have never realized that you are a sinner, you must admit that you are. You are guilty of breaking God's law, and deserve to be punished for it. Once you admit to yourself and to God that you are a guilty sinner, believe what Jesus did for you so that you wouldn't have to pay the penalty for your own sin. Because the penalty for your sin is eternal suffering and death, Jesus suffered and died so that you wouldn't have to. After He died, He came back to life. If you believe that He did this for you, ask God to forgive your sin and tell Him that you believe in Jesus Christ.