How to Be Saved
One part of God’s church is recognition that we are all created as special individuals that God loves. Recognizing that each of us are more than just our physical bodies on this earth and that we all have a soul which lives on after death. God loves us and has provided the way to truth and life from His word, the gospel. The invitation is open for all. You do not have to have a college degree to be saved, you do not have to be wealthy or influential, but rather we are all the same before God in Jesus Christ.
The gospel message involves hearing the Word, believing in it, repenting of sin, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, and becoming baptized. Here we will explore each of these.
Hear
To have a willingness to hear the Word of God is the first step towards becoming a Christian. To hear the word of God can mean several things. It may mean independent study and reading of the Bible. For some, the Bible is hard to understand on its own and it may mean studying with someone or in a group. For others, it may come upon hearing the gospel message being preached. Regardless, a willingness to hear God’s word is the first step.
Believe
If one hears God’s word the second step would be belief. If you read or hear God’s word you would have to believe that it is the truth in order to believe in Jesus Christ and that he died to give you a new life.
John 3:16-18:
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
Repent
You may have heard that no one is perfect, and how true a statement that is. The definition of our imperfection is sin because we are given a conscious and moral law in our hearts by God. God gives each of us a choice that we freely make based on how we live our lives. When we truely believe that Jesus is Lord based on knowledge from the Bible, God’s Word, it leads us to want to change our lives. Repenting of our imperfection, of our sin, is key to accept the forgiveness that God freely wants to give us.
A public confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is part of accepting that we are forgiven. To believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God does not mean accepting him as our Lord and savior. We could believe that he exists but still have a heart that does not want to accept that he died for our sins. The only remedy for our imperfection, our sin, was a public sacrifice of the Son of God on a cross. Christ asks that we do the same by confession publicly that he is our Lord and Savior.
Confess
Baptism
To be saved and become part of Christ’s church means to be baptized. After hearing God’s word, believing that Jesus Christ is Lord, repenting of a life of sin, confessing that Jesus is Lord, God gives us his holy spirit through baptism. To be baptized is more than a physical act because it is something we cannot do ourselves. We have to submit to God’s word and with baptism he gives us his holy spirit. This spirit is a spirit of a new life, a life that lives and breaths forgiveness, mercy, joy, kindness and other good qualities that God has given to us. Does being baptized and becoming part of Christ’s church mean a life of perfection? By no means are we still perfect on our own. As Christians, we have to continually want to grow and change to be better people.