How can I be saved

: : How Can I Be Saved? : :

This question is at the heart of every person that wants a working relationship with their God and it’s the primary point of Jesus’ story. Jesus comes not only because God is willing to save us, but because he is able to save us!

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
—Romans 3:23

The bible teaches that every single person has sinned and fallen short of being a perfect person… everyone.

We already knew that though. We tend to be pretty hard on ourselves when we let someone else down or when we lose our temper or when we end up doing something that we really hate doing but keep doing anyways. We try to make it right, but we all have regrets. Some regrets are bigger than others, but they all hurt and leave hurt in its wake.



: : WHAT IS SIN? : :

There are a few definitions of sin that are helpful for a deeper discussion. For this short introduction, the word “sin” simply means “to miss the mark”. 

The idea is if our life is a series of archery shots at a target, sometimes we land some shots and sometimes we miss the bullseye. Oftentimes, it seems, we not only miss the mark a little but we’re way, way off the target. Other times, we seem to be doing better and only have a few decisions that don’t quite line up with how things ought to be. We’re a little closer to where we want to be but we’re still working on honing it in more.

What Romans 3:23 above says is is that if we’re honest with ourselves and look at the whole of our life, there are going to be more than a few times that we missed the bullseye. Those times are usually followed by stories of regret or hard life lessons.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
—Romans 6:23

When Romans says “wages” it's using the same word we would use for our paychecks. It’s not that death is just a consequence of sin…it’s the earned outcome.

But we already see this in the world around us, don’t we? How many times have we seen on the news some big shot get caught lying to his employees or investors and gets hauled off to prison? We say he gets what he’s owed. 

How many friends do we know that have betrayed their spouse and are now dealing with a divorce? We might say she made her decisions and now has to live with them.

How many of us remember putting off that term paper for a few too many days and then had to face the bad grade? We say we got what we earned. In the real world, we see that actions and choices have consequences even when we didn’t intend them. That’s how the real world works.

Romans is teaching us that sin has a consequence and that consequence is death. 

Unfortunately, there is no discrimination on the size of the sin or who all was affected by that specific sin. All sin, big and small, has the earned consequence of death. Death is a pretty total thing. There isn’t a lot of spectrum with the death. Nobody ever comes back from the funeral saying, “Well, grandma was only a little dead.” 

Death is death and it always hurts. It hurts the person in the coffin and it hurts those that are nearby to mourn. The same is true of our sin.

If we’re honest with ourselves and see that we missed the mark - either by a little or by a lot - we feel the consequence of death and, many times, the people close to us feel some of its pain, too. If we feel the pain of this spiritual death we may describe it as shame, regret, or guilt. It can be a persistent feeling or something that we can grow numb to sometimes, too.

BUT… what a great word the word “but” is when it’s following such bad news… BUT the free gift of God is eternal life.  With sin we earn death BUT God gives a free gift that repairs death.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
—Romans 5:8

Romans teaches us that God didn’t wait for us to get our act together before sending the rescue plan. If he did, Jesus would still be sitting around in heaven waiting for us to stop making a mess of things before coming.

Of course we can’t ever make it from our birthday to our funeral without making some mistakes we regret. God didn’t wait for me or you to score the perfect score on life before showing us who he is.

While we were still sinning God showed his love for us. What great news is that!

That means we can turn to God now even if our life doesn’t look quite like it should or we wish it could. We can turn to God before we fix our addiction, before we clean up our mouth, before we buy a nice wardrobe to show off, or even before we stop pretending we’re OK and tell someone how big of a mess we’ve made.

We can turn to God right NOW because God didn’t wait for us to get our act together before sending us a rescuer.

: : BUT WHY DID CHRIST DIE? : :

Remember, the wages of sin is death. You can see this played out from the beginning of the bible to the end. 

When there is sin, there must be death. God doesn’t change the rules for Jesus - he met the requirement that we could never meet. 

The gift of God is that Jesus willingly came, he lived a perfect and sinless life, and chose to take the death he didn’t earn - my death and your death.  In return, he gives those that follow him something we could never earn - eternal life!

That new life can start RIGHT NOW…

: : SO HOW CAN I BE SAVED : :

“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
—Romans 10:9-10

It’s pretty simple really. When we see things how they really are - there is sin, we have all sinned, and God offers a rescue plan - if you want to be rescued, or saved, Romans gives a two-step process.

Step one is confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

“Lord” is a political term like king or boss. To confess Jesus as Lord is to say that you are submitting your life to a new king. Most likely, all of your sinning occurred while you were treating your life like you were king and he is not.

To confess Jesus as Lord is in some ways an apology for acting like he wasn’t your rightful king. To confess Jesus as Lord is to hand over the reigns of your life, to turn away from your own way of doing things, and to turn towards his way of doing things.

The word the bible uses for turning around like that is the word “repent”.  The word “repent” literally means to turn around and walk the other way. So, the first step to being saved is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and to begin turning your life towards him.

Step two is to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. 

Jesus was crucified on a cross, he was buried in a tomb, and he came back to life three days later. It’s hard to take in at first, but the evidence is there that it really happened. If Jesus faked his death, all the authorities would need to do would be to arrest a few people, find where Jesus was hiding, and Christianity would have stopped in its tracks. 

If his followers hid his dead body to fool everyone, they surely would not have rode that lie all the way to their own execution for believing in Jesus… which is how almost all of his early followers died. It would have only taken one person to break the silence and Christianity would have fizzled out that same day. 

The guy that wrote the book of Romans, a guy named Paul, was so against Jesus being alive that he spent his free time hunting down Christians that said otherwise, beating them, arresting them, and taking some of them to their execution for saying Jesus was Lord. 

One day he meets the resurrected Jesus face to face and turns directions on the spot - he repents.  Paul will immediately meet with some Jesus followers, learn about God’s rescue plan, and spend the rest of his life telling everyone that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus is willing to save every single person that confesses with their mouth that he is Lord.  Nothing except a risen Jesus can turn someone around like that!

: : SO, IF YOU CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH THAT JESUS IS LORD AND BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD YOU WILL BE SAVED! : :

If you’re ready to do that, you can pray to God right now! 

God is listening. He’s not far from you and he’s not really into playing hide and go seek. He loves you deeper and truer than any love you’ve ever known. After that prayer you’re saved. Being saved isn’t a feeling or a list of secret words or a certain amount of church attendance. It’s a gift from God.

You can pray it any way you want. 

If you’d like to think through the words, here’s a simple example of what that prayer could be:

“Dear God, I’ve been living my life like I was in charge and I see how I’ve made a mess of things. Thank you for offering to rescue me through Jesus. I’d like to confess Jesus as my Lord right now and ask for your help in turning my life towards His way of doing things. Help me to become the person You’re calling me to be. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

: : NOW WHAT? : :

Well, now you gotta tell someone! Tell anyone. In fact, tell everyone!

Telling others is one of the jobs Jesus gives all of his followers. You need to find someone that is a follower of Jesus and tell them what God is doing in your life. 

You may even find that they have been praying for you this whole time! If you have a church home, you gotta tell your pastor or someone else up there. They love you and would love to pray with you about what God is doing in your life. If you don’t have a church home, give Carpenter's Way a call and we would love to celebrate what God is doing with you. 

The first thing you need to do is NOT keep this a secret. Getting a new life is kind of a BIG DEAL!

What else? There are a few things that every new follower of Jesus wants to consider. 

• Every new Christian wants to get baptized. Find out about baptism. 

• Every new Christian needs a church to join and begin doing life with others. Joining a church is an important commitment. It’s a commitment that you make to them and they to you that together we will learn how to follow Jesus. People at church are people that are trying to grow together towards God and learn about Jesus. Join Carpenter's Way as your church home. 

• Every new Christian wants to begin serving someone somewhere. Jesus was a servant and he invites every single one of his followers to join his work and mission to bring his rescue plan to the world. You are invited to participate in the greatest rescue plan mankind has ever seen. Look for your ministry at Carpenter's Way. 

• Every new Christian needs a copy of the Bible that they can read and understand. The Bible is our clearest way to hear about this God that loves us so much. We would love to give you a physical copy if you want one or to help you choose a bible that is right for you. Below are some online or digital options to get started:

• BibleGateway is an online website that has the bible for free along with several other articles and resources that help explain the bible to you. You can open it in your browser and begin reading anytime you want.

• YouVersion Bible App is a free app for your phone or tablet that has bibles and a seemingly endless stack of videos, reading plans, and helpful resources for every age Christian. You can invite friends to join you in reading the bible together, share a verse that is really meaningful to you on your social media, or highlight a verse to ask someone a question about later.  The bible app becomes a sort of digital copy of your bible that keeps your notes and bookmarks just like a physical bible.

If there is anything we can do to serve you or your family, don’t hesitate to call or email. We believe that every single person wants a right and working relationship with God. We’re so thankful that God, in his love for us, sends a rescuer that makes that possible.