Salvation Occurring in Our Past

The word “saved” indicates something that has already happen; something that happened in the past, something that has been done, something that is complete. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior in our hearts and speak that belief with our mouths we are saved; really, truly, sincerely and completely saved. (Romans 10:9)

Children may ask…

“Saved from what?”

We are saved from the punishment for sinning against God (doing bad things, disobeying God). That punishment is death. Jesus was punished instead of us. God sent his Son to take our punishment so that we would not die. God said that if we sinned we would die. Because, He cannot lie and he loved us so much, He sent His son, Jesus, to take our place. (Gen 2:16-17), (John 3:16), (1 John 4:9)

So, when we accept Jesus as the Son of God, believe that He died on the cross for our sins, believe that He rose from the dead and confess our sins we are saved. We will live forever with God. (Romans 10:9), (John 3:36)

“What happens after I’m saved?”

Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit. He lives within us; helping to remove sin from our lives, convicting us when we disobey God, teaching us and helping us with our prayers. We are changed, we no longer have to sin. We have the power through the Holy Spirit to conquer sin. As we get rid of the sinful things we do, the Holy Spirit will fill in those sinful places; we will grow closer to God and become more like Jesus. (Gal 3:14), (Eph 1:13-14)

When we sin, in spite of trying not to, if we go to God and ask to be forgiven, He will forgive us and make us clean again. He will do this over and over again. When God forgives our sins He chooses to forget them, but unfortunately we do not. This may cause us to think that we have not or cannot change. If we allow this wrong thinking to direct our actions, we have just made the work of savings grace that Jesus completed on the cross worthless. Know that this is impossible and that these thoughts do not come from God. We need to remind ourselves of God’s love the cost He paid to bring us back to Him. With prayer and perseverance, change will come. (Heb 8:12, 9:12, 10:17)

“What if other people say I am not saved because I am bad sometimes?”

It is not the things we do that saves us or makes us righteous in God’s eyes. Only our belief in Christ justifies us. He covered all of our sins (past, present and future) when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. (Tit 3:4-7) (Rom 5:1)

Being justified by having our sins forgiven does not mean that we should continue to sin and disobey God. On the contrary, because we are grateful for the gift we have been given, we should give our all to avoid sin and strive live as Jesus would have us to do. (Rom 6:15-18)

We should hold each other accountable to God’s word with love, compassion and understanding. We should examine ourselves before others and remember that Holy Spirit is constantly working in all of us. (Luke 17:3-4)