“What must I do to be saved?”

Saved, like many words in English, has multiple meanings depending on context as E. Paul Hovey illustrates saying “A publishing concern ran the following advertisement: ‘You can save $2.00 on The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ’. Which leads one to question what we mean when we use the words ‘save’ and ‘salvation’” Generally we may think “saved” means we have to be a “Christian” right? So then comes the question…

Well what is a Christian?

Think about that for just a minute. Early on members of the church were called "Followers of the Way". Later the world began calling them Christians. This watered down the truth I think because it's not enough to be a Christian as the word simply means Christ like. It is not enough to be good like Christ we must be followers of the Way. Jesus Christ is the Way. We must have a relationship with Him and dependence on Him.

A lot of churchy terms are used to describe this phenomenon-- "saved" "born again" “believer” and the list goes on and on. Churchy words like this can be confusing but I'll use "salvation" or "being saved" as these are the most commonly used. I hope you will understand just how I use them by the end. In any church whether it be this one or any other one, a lot of us here may claim to be “saved” but none of us here are completely “saved”. Huh? Let me repeat myself. No one including the “saved” is completely “saved”. So how can we be saved but not saved?

Remember the multiple meanings well different Greek words are translated to what we see as saved or salvation and they can each have different meanings based on context so we must look at different meanings of saved.

Salvation is really a three-step program.

1. There is a time, a life changing experience, after which we can say we are saved.
2. Then there is an ongoing process of being saved.
3. And in the future comes a final time of being saved.

Whoa! Alarms went off for a lot of you just now but please hear me out ok. It will make sense and it will be scriptural I promise.

In this moment we are promised eternal life with God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and saved to heaven. At this time we also have a place prepared for us. Various analogies are used for this. Jesus refers to it as a second birth in John 3. Later, it is called a freeing of slaves in John 8:31-36. It is called redemption in Ephesians 1:7. And other places refer to it as a covenant, testament, a marriage, and adoption. Notice - all these things are events or things that have a definite date and time. Not a single one of these events can be undone. We may die but we can not be unborn. We may get married but not married (a divorce is not the same as being unmarried). Once we know someone we can not un-know them.

During this time we are choosing spirit over flesh on a day to day basis. We are to strive by love to grow in faith and are delivered daily from sin. We also lay up treasures by our service in the place that has been prepared. Various passages refer to this with different analogies. Paul states we are to die daily to sin and have the inward man renewed in 2 Corinthians 4:16(For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day) Look at the model prayer found in Luke 11:2-4. Notice that it is a daily prayer, we must daily ask for bread. We are to daily ask God to “deliver us from evil” and “lead us not into temptation”. Back a couple of chapters in Luke 9:23 Jesus says we are to pick up our cross and follow him. Now crosses back then weren’t jewelry for our necks, lapels, or ears. There was only one reason you picked up a cross and that was to die on it. Our sin nature must die so our spirit nature can grow. Before the fruits can grow we have to remove the weeds then keep removing them so they don’t choke out the good later on.

A former player retells a story about Frank Howard, a former head coach for Clemson. He had a tough game the next weekend. With 5 quarterbacks on the roster, the week started with the 1st and 3rd string quarterbacks out on injuries. Five minutes into the Monday practice, the 2nd stringer injured his knee. Ten minutes later 4th stringer hurt his knee leaving only the 5th string quarterback. He called the remaining player over and asked, “Son do you believe in magic?”
   The player stops and thinks about it a minute then says, “Well, sort of”
   “Poof! You are now a first string QB.”
Many of us expect the Christian life to be the same way. Poof, all sin and strife is gone. Poof complete perfection because of one life changing moment but it just doesn’t happen like that.

We must work at it. We sin less when we do good more. The old saying, “Idle hands, or idle minds, are the devil’s workshop”, holds a lot of truth. If we are doing nothing good then we leave lots of time for the old deceiver to slip in and it is easy to fall back into the life we used to live. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 calls this “salvation through sanctification until we obtain the glory”. Philippians 2:12, another Pauline epistle says it is worked out with fear and trembling. Ephesians 6:12 says we wrestle (present tense) with evil spirits. And in I Timothy 6:12 Paul encourages a young pastor and urges him to fight the good fight, an ongoing campaign.

Notice, we are always saved by him; it is never us; it is never anything we have or do. First by his mercy we are saved. Then it is by his strength that are we saved. And lastly we are saved by His grace. A preacher I heard once gave this illustration to explain the difference between grace and mercy

Joe was speeding through Opelika, Alabama. If you’ve ever been there you know its an easy area of flat road to speed down. Well before long Joe sees blue lights in his rear-view. He pulls over and the cop gets his license and registration.
   “Oh Hi Bill. Remember me? I preached at your church a few weeks ago!”
   “OK yeah I remember you” then he returns to writing. After a minute he hands Joe a piece of paper.
   “I’m letting you off with a warning Joe but don’t speed through here anymore”
   That was mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Joe deserved a ticket. Instead Bill showed mercy.
   If, as Bill hands the paper to Joe he says “Congratulations, as the 1000th speeder on this road the State Patrol and Board of Tourism are proud to present you with your very own patrol car. Here’s the title to that car.”; then, Bill would have shown grace. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.

At that time we shed our imperfections and this mortality puts on immortality. We are restored to the same condition as the pre-Fall Adam. And finally we occupy the place that has been prepared and stocked. Many passages tell us of this salvation I hope for. 1 Peter 1:9 says the end of our journey of faith is the salvation of our soul. In Matthew 10:22 and Mark 13:13, Jesus himself speaks of this saying that we must endure to the end to receive salvation. Romans 13:11 says our salvation is nearer than it was when we first believed. We aren’t there yet but we are getting closer.