How Can We Be Saved?
John 2:23
22/03/09
John 2:23-25
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Many people believed in Jesus yet Jesus knew their hearts, and He knew that while they might believe something about Him, that belief did not make them His disciples. Some may have believed He could be a political king. Some may have believed Him to be a great teacher. Some may have believed that He could meet their physical needs, like providing food for the crowds and healing for the sick. None of these beliefs qualified them for membership in His kingdom.
Is belief enough, or is something more required?
Do we need to believe and be baptized?
Mark 16:16
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
This verse seems pretty clear! What about Romans 6…
Romans 6:3-4
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Do we need to be baptized properly and have hands lain on us?
Acts 19:1-7
While Apollos was at
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
What about Repentance?
Acts 2:38-39
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Acts 17:29-31
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Do we need to make a public confession of faith?
Romans 10:9-10
9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Matthew 10:32
32 “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven
Do we need to confess our sins to God?
1 John 1:8-9
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
So, to be on the safe side, we should:
· Believe in Jesus
· Be baptised into His name (in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
· Turn away from our sins
· Publicly confess our faith in Jesus
· Confess our sins to God
Or are we looking at this the wrong way?
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son
John 20:30-31
30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do
Danger of having a list of things to qualify for salvation is that it becomes an issue of our works – have we done everything properly in order to be saved?
Our salvation is a gift from God, an expression of His grace. We access this gift through faith alone – not through any other qualifying act. However as verse 10 points out, we are saved by the work of God in order to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do.
Why then does the bible mention all these other things in relation to salvation?
We need to recognise that there is a difference between acts that earn salvation and acts that accompany salvation.
Our salvation has been earned by Jesus, and is received through believing in Him (not our own ideas about Him, as in John 2:23, but the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of God).
Salvation is always accompanied by certain actions, as Jesus Himself explains in Matthew 7…
How can we tell if a person is truly saved?
Matt 7:15-23
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
There are going to be people who seem to have all the right boxes ticked, but who have not genuinely believed in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. They might be deliberately deceptive, or they may tragically deceived. Jesus knows the condition of the heart where we cannot, but what He tells us to look for are the acts that accompany salvation – the evidence that a person has genuinely been saved.
These include many of the things we have already mentioned:
· Being baptised into His name (in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
· Public confession of faith in Jesus
· Turning away from sin and toward obedience to God
· Evidence of the fruit of the Spirit – Christlike character
· Confession of sins to God and each other (James 5:16)
When it comes to the passages listed earlier, a proper study of each of them in consultation with the whole counsel of Scripture makes it clear as to why each of the things listed are not things that earn salvation, but rather accompany it. If I were to step through each of the passages that list something other than faith or belief, we would be here for a very long time, but I will just mention some principles that will help you understand most of these better.
- In passages that discuss baptism, you should keep in mind that there are various types of baptism: a water baptism of repentance, a water baptism into the name of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Understanding which baptism is being discussed is the key to properly understanding these passages.
- In passages that discuss repentance, it should be noted that repentance is simply a change in orientation – a change of mind or heart that leads to a change in behaviour. When repentance is talked about in relation to salvation, it always describes a change from unbelief to belief, or a change from ignorance to belief. It is not talking about a change in lifestyle. The change in lifestyle – the change from a life of sin to a life of obedience - will always follow salvation as the Holy Spirit exposes sin and helps the believer to overcome it. We cannot turn from our sins except with the help of the Holy Spirit and the community of believers. If we make repentance about turning away from sin we place this as a condition of salvation, which it cannot be, since there is nothing we do which merits our salvation. Not only that, but can any of us claimed to have turned away from all our sin? Not according to the Bible, which urges Christians to continue to confess sins and seek restoration. On the contrary, repentance that brings salvation is to believe in the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus, and in Him as our Lord. The implications of believing in Jesus as Lord will be realised as “we work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12).
- In other types of passages simply paying attention to the context of the passage is enough to give a clear understanding of what is being said and why.
When it comes to the doctrine of salvation, there are 2 errors that we must avoid:
· Salvation by works argues that there are things we must do in addition to believing in Jesus in order to be saved.
· Easy-believism, or cheap grace, argues that all we need to do is believe in Jesus and we will be saved – end of story.
If you argue against one, you are nearly always accused of teaching the other! In reality, both of these positions are almost right but dangerously wrong. Taking either of these positions will lead to legalism or licentiousness. They lead to insecurity because we can never be sure if we have done everything correctly or to the standard God requires, or we can never be sure if our belief really is genuine. They distort the gospel and make it impossible to clearly witness to the incredible grace of God which is expressed in Jesus.
The only way to be sure of your salvation is to understand the biblical position that is neither salvation by works nor easy-believism.
The bible teaches that salvation is by faith in Jesus alone, but that it will always be accompanied by the fruit of salvation, by which we can be sure of what God already knows about the genuineness of our faith in Him.
*all bible passages from
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