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Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
- Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
- The Apostle Paul said;
- Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
- Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
- Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
- Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
- Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
- Rom 10:11 For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Paul, in Romans is letting people know that the faith that brings salvation is not a doubting faith. It is not a weak faith that says “if someone can go to heaven and come back or get Jesus to come reveal himself to us we will believe”. Neither is it the kind that says “if someone can go into hell and come back or show me that Jesus is arisen, I will believe”. All of these have already happened when Jesus came the first time and still people do not believe.
The kind of faith Paul is talking about here is the kind that confesses with their mouth unashamedly, “I believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead”, and this kind of faith comes from the depths of the heart itself.
It is an unshakable faith,;
A faith that knows without seeing;
Believes having just heard;
Trust’s even though all worldly evidence is against it.
It is the kind of faith that leads to works for the faith’s sake like James talks about:
 Jam 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Jam 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.Jam 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
The entire Christian life from their spiritual birth through faith in Christ to the time they go to meet the Lord is a life of faith driven works. I do because I believe. Salvation by faith rewards by works.
There are some questions people usually ask when you present the Gospel message to them and it hardly ever involves faith or works. I will try to keep this as brief as I can. It is not the length of the discourse that is important, but the message. Among these questions are;
1. Why do I need salvation?
2. I think I am a pretty good person. Why can’t I just be a “good” person and go to Heaven?
3. Why is Jesus the only means of salvation?
4. I think God is cruel to throw people into hell because they don’t do things his way!
5. How can I be saved?
6. What if I do not get saved?
First, we will look at why people need salvation.
Science tells people they are getting better and better and more intelligent but with all that science can do, people still die. Corruption is rampant the world over. Personal sinfulness is raging.
There is a lot that science does not know.
Actually, seeing man die even physical death was not the original design of things.
Man walked in innocence in the garden of God and death only came after sin entered.
Without eating the tree of life, the eternal life that man enjoyed was conditional on his continued walk of innocence.
God made man to walk with him and be his friend, not in ignorance but in innocence. There is a vast difference between ignorance and innocence.
God placed man that He created in this special garden and the very purpose of that paradise was to make man happy.
It was there for his pleasure. God gave man dominion over it all.
God did place a tree in the middle of this garden and told man not to eat of its fruit (Obedience is better than sacrifice). This was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God placed another tree in this garden with no conditions upon it. The fruit of this tree would have given unconditional eternal life. This is the type of life we now receive in Christ Jesus. No one knows what kind of tree these actually were. That is not important. What was important was that God wanted man to trust and obey him implicitly.
In the innocence of this paradise, man was clothed not with garments that would rot, but in the very glory and essence of innocence (The Bible tells us man was naked and was not ashamed).
God cannot do anything against his thrice holy nature and the Bible tells us that God came down into the garden and walked with Adam in the cool of the day. This is because man was holy in his innocence.
When man disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden tree, he did die immediately as God had told him (In that day thou shalt surely die). He died spiritually.
The Bible tells us that God came down in the evening like He usually did and called out to Adam “Where art thou”? This is not saying that God did not know where Adam was. It is like us saying to someone, “Look where you are now, you really blew it”.
That part of man that walked with God was dead leaving an empty darkness in man that he has been struggling to fill ever since.
All of the physical lust, power struggles, greed, hate, jealousy, and every other work of the flesh are attempts by man to fill this empty void.
Man tries everything he can imagine trying to find true fulfillment. Nothing man can do will ever suffice to fill it. That empty place in man can only be filled by God. Nothing else will suffice.
Adam eventually died physically as the corruption of sin worked its toll on his perfectly formed body. Every seed of Adams race has this curse of death on them. It is a curse that man brought on himself.
God did not bring this fallen state on mankind. Just think if man had eaten of the tree of life in his sinful state. That would have been a true nightmare; never being free of sins corruption and its results.
God loves man and wanted to provide a means where man could put this curse of death behind him and regain that place with God (spiritually now and physically in a resurrected body not touched by sin, pain or grief) where he was meant to walk.
The entire Bible up through the Old Testament is the story of how God was preparing a people and a plan to bring mankind back to his special place of honor with God.
The Bible tells us that in Adam all died but in Christ all will live.
- 1Co 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
- 1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
This does not mean that all will go to heaven. It does mean that all will live again in a physical body but each in their own order, some to everlasting life in heaven and some to everlasting torment.
The reason for this last will be made clear later. This is not the plan of salvation. It is the reason man is in need of salvation. Once you see the depth of God’s magnificent love for man you will understand why there is no other means of salvation.
This brings us to the second question.
“I think I am a pretty good person, why can’t I just be good and go to heaven”?
Most people think of themselves as being pretty good people.
When we look at being good before God though, we have to look at it from God’s perspective and not ours. Our vision is clouded by sin and only a very small picture of God’s plan.
Even as a Christian our spiritual sight is hazy and limited. You see, it is God that has the power of eternal life and it is in the presence of God’s holy nature that we will be living eternally so it is God’s goodness that we have to match if we wanted to stand on our own merits.
This means that our nature would have to be equal with God’s. This is a tall order. This is why the Children of Israel always stumbled at the law. God gave them rules to live by since they did not want to walk by faith and the only rules God could give them were rules He himself would live by if He were a man. It is impossible for a fallen man to live by these rules without ever being guilty in the least thing.
This is where the law was a school teacher in showing them they needed something the law could not provide. True fulfillment of the law is living in a constant state of perfect agape love. Only the Son of God could do this.
Israel constantly had to keep taking sacrifices to the temple because they were constantly falling short of God’s standard (The law). They even had sacrifices for presumptuous sins (Sins they were ignorant of).
You say you want to stand on your own merit.
Have you ever done the least thing that would be considered wrong by biblical standards? Have you ever fallen short in the least thing by God’s standard?
Have you ever fallen short of perfect love?
I know there are some who would just try to be facetious and say no but if you are one of those you know you are lying. If you say you have never sinned, that in itself would be showing what a sinner you are because you would be calling God himself a liar. He has said you are a sinner.
- Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
You were born with the nature of sin. Sin is something you do not learn. Have you ever taken a newborn baby and laid it in the crib and walked into another room? A moment later and they scream like they are dying. Wild visions of something wild chewing on their leg runs through your mind (Or some other terrible thing was happening).
You run in and pick them up and they immediately start smiling. You did not teach that baby to be deceitful. It was born with the capacity to lie and sin. There comes a time in every person’s life when they make a choice to follow a sinful path. It may be small but it is still sin. It is for this very reason that you need a savior. You need someone who is sinless to take your sin away so you can stand before God sinless and without condemnation. This is what God’s love provides in Jesus Christ.
Next is the question;
“Why is Jesus the only means of salvation”?
When you look at the world around you, an unsaved person can’t help but think, “all of these religions can’t all be wrong”.
They are and that is what we are going to talk about here if you will stay with me. Virtually every religion on earth except Christianity provides a way for man to work his way to perfection. This is appealing to people because it tells them there is some redeeming virtue in everyone. No one likes to be told they are helplessly lost unless they get saved.
Let us remember something here. God is one God. There are not gods by the numbers. All of the gods of the world’s religions are false gods.
God revealed himself to man in three ways, separate yet one. That is for another article. Suffice it to be enough for this article that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost (Spirit) are one yet three separate manifestations of the one true God.
It was Jehovah God who created all things.
It was Jehovah God who created man.
It was Jehovah God who promised salvation to man.
It was Jehovah God who became man and walked in this life in the person of the man Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. Jesus told Thomas when he asked Jesus to show them the Father that “If you have seen me you have seen the Father”.
In the book of Hebrews when talking about Jesus, the Bible tells us that “all things were created by him and without him was not anything made that was made”.
It was this Jesus that healed the lame, raised the dead, cast out demons, fed and taught the multitudes
It was this same Jesus that laid down his life on the cross at Calvary and bore the sins of everyone who would receive him.
It was this Jesus who provided the perfect life, the fulfilled law, the atoning blood as payment in full for fallen man.
It was this same Jesus who arose from the dead showing that death had no hold on him.
It is this same Jesus who is sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven to intercede for you and me.
For another religion to say they are the way is to spit in the face of God’s perfect love.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
To refuse God’s gift of total love is to reject God himself. To turn to another way is to call Jesus Christ himself a liar.
I for one would hate to stand on that great Day of Judgment and tell God that I thought the sacrifice of his only begotten Son was worthless.
I would hate to stand there and tell God almighty that I thought teachings and precepts of man and the wisdom of men were more important to me than the sacrificial death of God’s only begotten Son.
I would hate to stand there and tell God that his plan for my salvation was not important to me.
I would hate to stand there and tell God that I chose this other way because it better fit my lifestyle or it made me feel more comfortable.
There will truly be no excuses on that great and dreadful day.
This brings us to the next point.
“I think it would be a cruel God who would throw people into a burning hell because they chose not to obey him”.
This is so far off of the mark it is hopeless. A remark like this tells me that the person saying it has no understanding of Gods plan of salvation or of God’s great love. I am going to make a bold statement here.
Without salvation you are going to hell on your own. God has done and is doing now all that is in his power (within the confines of his holiness) to provide you with a way to escape the consequences of your sin.
You say, “Why does he not just let everyone go to heaven then if he is all powerful”? I will say this another time. God’s nature is Holy, Holy, Holy.
Sin cannot stand in God’s presence. It would be consumed by his holiness.
There is a way provided to carry away the sin so you can stand in God’s presence with a righteousness that is acceptable and pleasing to God.
The cross of Christ is like a life raft on a stormy sea.
Let’s call this great sea sin.
All who will come into the life raft are safe from the storm.
God’s judgment on sin is the storm.
Sin will be judged by God and no works will stand the judgment.
If you are caught in this sea of sin when judgment falls you will be destroyed.
- Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
- Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
- Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
- Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
- Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
If you are caught in the sea (sin) when the storm arrives (judgment), you will face the wrath of the storm but you don’t have too.
God’s love for you is so vast, He has provided in mercy and grace a safe haven, a shelter from the storm.
Come into Gods haven of rest by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord now so your name will be on the Lambs Book of life.
If you choose in stubbornness or pride to throw away God’s gift of love and hope, what is left but suffering the wrath of the storm, God’s judgment on sin.
Next comes the best part of all.
“How can I be saved”?
This is the best part of this entire essay. I am going to give you some scriptures straight from God’s word, and then we will talk a little about them.
- Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
- Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
- Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
- Joh 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
- Joh 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
- Joh 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
- Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
- Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
- Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
- Rom 10:11 For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
- Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
- Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
First, these scriptures tell us that Gods love is so vast that He let his only begotten Son die in your place so you might believe on him and be saved.
Next it tells us that judgment comes because we choose to reject this great love of God and had rather walk in darkness away from God.
Next it tells us that all of us are sinners in God’s eyes and we all are in desperate need of this gift of love from God.
Next it tells us that if we will not be ashamed of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us and confess him with our mouths publicly and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we too will be saved.
Next it tells us that this great love gift from God is by his grace alone and even the faith to believe is a gift from God.
It tells us that there is no good deed or work on this entire earth that we could do to earn this gift.
It is a love gift, freely given and it must be freely received. It is perfect love. His commandment to us is “Love one another as I have loved you”.
This is why no one can stand before God and boast about having done something in this life that merited them salvation. Everyone that is saved will be saved by the unmerited favor and undeserved grace of God.
What a marvelous and wonderful gift. Will you please ask Jesus Christ into your heart today and accept this gracious gift of God that will make you a joint heir with Christ in all things.
Glory to God in the highest!
Our Lord Jesus Christ said it himself in the book of John;
- Joh 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
- Joh 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
- Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
- Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
- Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
- Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Some have used this text to say you had to be baptized but they are clearly taking it out of context. Jesus cleared it up in the next verse “that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit”. Just like you came into this world through your mothers womb in a birth of water, so you must be born of the Spirit (Capital “S” always signifies Holy Spirit). This is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
- Heb 9:25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
- Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
- Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
- Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
- Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Next comes the hardest part of all.
“What if I do not want to get saved?”
I think this was covered sufficiently in the last part. There remains no hope. As Peter told the house of Israel at Pentecost;
Act 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Act 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Act 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
- Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
The final question is one posed by our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Mat 22:42a What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?
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