Expert: Ernie Laurence, Jr. - 4/2/2007

Question
how do you get saved

Answer
Tina, I apologize for not answering this promptly.  I am new to allexperts and this is my first question.  For some reason, the question did not arrive in my e-mail.

The Bible is very clear on this question: What must I do to be saved?

First, a person must know what they are being saved from.  The answer is sin.  We are saved from sin (Matt. 1:21; Rom. 6:7; 6:18)

Then a person must recognize that there is nothing that man could devise to do, nothing that man could do on his own, to save himself from his sins (Eph. 2:9).

We must rely on God's grace to save us (Eph. 2:5).  What is God's grace that saves man?  It isn't faith, it isn't salvation, it isn't a number of things that men teach God's grace is.  God's unmerited favor to mankind is the plan of salvation, the gospel (good news), the new testament, the word, etc (Gal. 1:6; Rom. 1:16; James 1:21; and many more).  Without this gift from God we would not even know how to be saved from sin, much less would we have the opportunity.

God provided grace, that plan of salvation, and all a human must DO is follow that plan to be saved.

1st - One must hear the Word of God (Romans 10:17) because faith comes by hearing the word of God.  If you don't know the plan, how can you follow it?

2nd - One must believe the Word, especially what it says about Jesus, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that this is the same thing as saying that Jesus is God, and that he came to earth as a man, lived a perfect life, was sacrificed on the cross as a perfect sacrifice, was buried, rose three days later, and has now ascended into heaven to rule as king over the kingdom of God, which is the church.  (Mark 16:15-16; John 1:12; Heb. 11:6)

Note specifically in John 1:12 that those who believe are given the power TO BECOME sons of God, but are not yet sons of God simply because they believe.  You can not become what you already are.  Many of the denominations of the world will teach that salvation is by faith/belief only, but they teach error.  Faith only empowers you to become a child of God, but you must do more than simply believe (James 2:19; Mark 16:16; James 2:24; etc).

3rd - one must repent of their sins.  This means that a person who is walking in darkness, who is separated from God because of their sins (Isa. 59:2) must turn around and walk the other way, away from their sinful actions and towards God, walk in the light (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30)

4th - one must confess their faith in Jesus as Christ. Romans 10:10 says that confession is made UNTO salvation, meaning that you confess in order to get to that state, but you aren't there yet.  Jesus says in Matt. 10:32 that those who confess him before other men he will confess before God the Father in heaven.

5th - One must be immersed in water into the household of Jesus Christ for the purpose of the remission of sins.  1 Peter 3:20-21 puts it simply "...eight souls were saved by water.  The antitype, immersion, does also now save us, (not the cleansing of dirt from the body, but the answer demanded by a penitent heart), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Water immersion is what saves us now, today, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It's not a bath to cleanse the dirt from your body, but the action, the response your penitent, believing heart demands based on what the scriptures teach.  Romans 6:3-23 discuss this pattern more fully.  Note in verse 3-7 that NT "baptism" is a burial, that it is the point that we die to the old sinful man and are reborn, resurrected from spiritual death.  In verses 17-18, it is when we obey this pattern of doctrine that we are THEN made free from sin, not before.  There is much more to be said about the subject of the one NT immersion (Eph. 4:5) that saves, but this is enough for now.

6th - finally, we must live our lives in faithful obedience to God.  That is the whole purpose of man on this earth(Eccl. 12:13).  We must continue to study God's word and grow in grace and knowledge of him (2 Pet. 3:18), we must continue to believe (Heb. 11:6), we must continue to walk in the light and avoid the path of darkness (1 John 1:6-7), we must continue to confess our faith in Christ by preaching the word (2 Tim. 4:2).  We must finish the course to receive the crown of eternal life (2 Tim. 4:7-8; Rev. 2:10)  Because if we do not remain faithful we will be broken off from the true vine (Rom. 11:17-22), we can fall from the grace that saves (Gal. 5:4), we can die again spiritually (James 5:19-20), and the blood of Christ will no longer cleanse us if we turn to walk in darkness again (1 John 1:7).

There are many people out there teaching a false pattern, a false plan of salvation not found in scripture.  There is only one way to get to heaven, one faith (Eph. 4:5), there is only one church that Jesus built (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:4->Eph. 1:22-23), and you must be part of that body of the saved to go to heaven when time ends.  Anybody teaching anything other than what the Bible teaches, which is what I have presented above, is trying to devise their own way to get to heaven and they are not going to be saved by God's grace.

This is a short response to your question and I encourage further study and further questions from you on this.  

In Truth and Love,

Ernie