How to become Saved
How to become Saved?
You cannot understand the good news, until you first understand the bad news, and the bad news is that death runs in your family and mine. We were born sinners, from parents who sinned, but...
The Gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that by believing in Him, there is life in His name. The good news for you, me and anyone else is that we don’t have to perish.
Mac Brunson states: “Aren’t you glad that you can come to Jesus and get grace? Amen? If you need grace tonight, let me tell you something. You don’t have to go through me. I’ve got to come to the cross just like you. And if you go to the cross, He gives you all the grace you’ll ever need.” (Church History: The Dark Ages)
John Calvin writes: “…only the elect have their eyes opened by God to seek him by faith.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.77, emphasis mine)
Calvin adds: “...the secret counsel of God whereby He chooses some to salvation and destines others for eternal destruction.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.53, emphasis mine)
Calvinism teaches that not everyone can be saved, but only certain “elect” people, and Calvinists insist that this is the true Gospel:
Calvinist, Charles Spurgeon, states: “I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.” (A Defense of Calvinism, emphasis mine)
Spurgeon adds: “I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, ‘You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.’ My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.” (Spurgeon’s Sermons, emphasis mine)
John Calvin states: “If we are not ashamed of the gospel, we must confess what is there plainly declared. God, by His eternal goodwill, which has no cause outside itself, destined those whom He pleased to salvation, rejecting the rest; those whom He dignified by gratuitous adoption He illumined by His Spirit, so that they receive the life offered in Christ, while others voluntarily disbelieve, so that they remain in darkness destitute of the light of faith.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.58, emphasis mine)
Additionally, to a Calvinist, in order to be saved, one must have an understanding of their total inability, and their desperate need for a grace that is so powerful, that it saves monergistically, that is, without the need of man to accept it or reject it. However, when Jesus gave His Invitation of “come to Me” at Matthew 11:28-30, all that you need to know is that 1) you are a sinner, 2) that you are condemned by the Law, and 3) that you are in need of the forgiveness that He alone can provide.
Calvinist, D. James Kennedy, writes: “Our faith and our repentance are the work of God’s grace in our hearts. Our contribution is simply the sin for which Jesus Christ suffered and died. Would you be born anew? There has never been a person who sought for that who did not find it. Even the seeking is created by the Spirit of God. Would you know that new life? Are you tired of the emptiness and purposelessness of your life? Are you tired of the filthy rags of your own righteousness? Would you trust in someone else other than yourself? Then look to the cross of Christ. Place your trust in him. Ask him to come in and be born in you today. For Jesus came into the world from glory to give us second birth because we must--we MUST--be born again.” (Why I Believe, p.140, emphasis mine)
The Simplicity of Salvation -- by Christopher Skinner
What are the 4 Spiritual Laws? What is the Romans Road?
Question: “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)
Answer: Jesus answers: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24)
Question: Does Jesus believe in Invitations to receive Him?
Answer: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Question: If someone walks an aisle and says a prayer to invite Jesus into their heart, will Jesus answer by giving them a “scorpion” instead?
Answer: Jesus answers: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:9-13)
Question: How might someone’s prayer go unanswered?
Answer: James answers: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8) “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
Question: If someone invites Jesus into their heart, will He slam the door in their face?
Answer: Jesus answers: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)
Question: Is there any such thing as a prayer of salvation?
Answer: To a Calvinist, it would amount to a “work of prayer,” and nothing more than a “silly superstition” that gives a person a “false sense of security.” However, Jesus gives this account: “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:13-14)
Calvinists, however, insist that the good news does not apply to everyone.
Bad News: The whole world stands guilty before God; there are no exceptions.
Good News: The apostle Paul taught it this way: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:24-31)
