What Is Required For Salvation?

Learn what is essential in order to have Christ in your life and spend eternity with Him. There are other important things, but one essential.

What Is Required For Salvation?

Every once in a while, someone asks why we make it so "easy" to come to Jesus on our evangelism websites. There, we give people the option to click a link that says, "I believe In Jesus and want to be connected with God." Each Christian who expresses concern, feels there is something in addition to belief, required for salvation. Some feel we should have the "sinner's prayer." Others think we should tell them to repent of their sins. Some want a confession of sin, others a confession of faith, still others, baptism, etc. The list of things the Bible says to do for salvation is actually quite long. We can approach this list as a sort of obstacle course, where no one is considered saved until they've overcome the last obstacle, or we can try to find a way to the root of the issue so people can find God, who really does have the answers. Because of the importance of this issue, I thought I would publish an answer I recently gave one such concerned Christian.

I'm spending the time, because I can see your sincerity and interest. It's easy to be pessimistic about us humans. In my experience, much of what constitutes the beliefs of Christians, today, is defensive in nature. What I mean is, over the last 2,000 years, we've experienced many different human/evil attempts to alter and manipulate sound doctrines, along with valid disagreements on non-essentials that have been amplified so as to exclude other Christians who don't agree, which I believe is also the work of the devil. Every time we have, we've changed our doctrines to "protect against" the latest controversy. So, we have doctrinal statements to protect against Gnosticism, Catholicism, Judaizers, Calvinists, Arminianists, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals...etc. As you look at the doctrinal positions of the denominations, you see defenses against all their perceived or real enemies. Unfortunately, most of these doctrinal positions also exclude the people God wants us to reach...anyone not reached.

The doctrine of Soteriology (salvation) has become so convoluted from denomination to denomination that almost no one outside of their own Christian sect would be considered "saved" by the standards of another sect. Throughout Christianity, I can think of no single thing more destructive than this, that there is so much confusion about salvation even Christians don't know what it is. How can we hope to reach non-Christians when they hear a different story everywhere they go? When God led me to start a non-denominational evangelistic ministry, this was His centerpiece, taking the complications out of finding Him.

Jesus said everyone who seeks, finds...everyone who believes is saved. That's hard enough, when you think about it. The kind of belief that saves requires we let go of anything we think WE can do and rest in His power, alone. Jesus, the author of salvation, put no other qualifications on it. Oh, there's plenty He expects after He's saved us, but that's all in His power, working within us to will and to do His good purpose. These are the works James speaks of.

Paul, the same guy who explained why confession is important, also said we could find God by observing the things around us, and, if we obey God through such observation, we are saved. Have you ever wondered how Jesus is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved, but people in the Old testament died without ever knowing His name...but were saved? Paul explains it! Ever wondered why Jesus never baptized, never asked for a confession, never even expected to hear a prayer asking for forgiveness or salvation, yet He forgave, healed, fed and promised eternal life to people?

Personally, I believe the Scripture is pretty clear God loves us and doesn't want any of us to suffer eternity without Him. His love, combined with the simple statements of Christ and Paul, and the examples throughout the New Testament, have convinced me that God will accept any gesture of faith in Him and take it from there."Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."

We are all given a measure of faith. If we exercise that little bit, He will begin a work in us He is faithful and able to complete. Therefore, I ask for the simplest of expressions of faith, just click on a hyperlink that says "I believe in Jesus and want to connect with God." Since no one can even sincerely do that without the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I trust that same Holy Spirit to continue to lead them, as the Bible promises. Web-Church.com is just one place He might lead. So, I'm very pessimistic about us humans, but wholly optimistic about God, and His ability to make miracles from mustard seeds.

Well, looks like I've gone to preachin'

What do you think?

What Is Required For Salvation?

I'm honored that you've allowed me to be a part of your Christian life. Please return often for fellowship, study and prayer. Thank you very much for visiting.

Love & Hugs,
Glen

Learn what is essential in order to have Christ in your life and spend eternity with Him. There are other important things, but one essential.