“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
The
term "saved" is used in the Bible to refer to a person receiving
Jesus Christ as their Savior and God forgiving them their sins and giving them
eternal life. The term "saved" is used more than fifty times in the
New Testament to refer to one receiving salvation. It means that one is saved
from the condemnation of their sins and because they are saved, it represents
the meaning that their sins are forgiven and they go to heaven when they die.
However;
being saved is not a question of how good you are, or how many good deeds you
have done in your life, nor if you are a church member or have ever been baptized,
but with the reality of living the life that you have believed in Jesus Christ
as your Savior and received forgiveness for your sins. When those who call upon
the Lord as their Savior- He will save them and give them eternal life. But
those who do not receive Christ as their Savior will deem themselves to not
having eternity in Heaven, but will perish to a more spiritual death of living
in Hell.
The
message that is depicted throughout the Gospel comes to a focus in the verse of
John 3:16. God’s love is not static or self-centered, but instead, it reaches
out and draws others in. In this verse, God sets the patterns of true love, the
basis for all love relationship. The love that God had for us is a love that He
saw as worthy of giving a sacrifice…self-sacrifice. God paid a high price with
the life of His Son, Jesus. Jesus, then, accepted our punishment, paid the
price for our sins, and then offered us the new life that he had bought for us.
Some
people are more so in a trance of repulsion by the idea of eternal life because
their lives, in their perspective, are miserable. But in all reality, eternal
life is not an “extension” of a person’s miserable, mortal life; eternal life
is God’s life that is embodied in Christ given to all believers now as a guarantee
that they will live forever. In eternal life there is no death, sickness,
enemy, evil or sin. When we don’t know Christ, we make choices as though this
life is all that we have. In reality, this life is just the introduction to
eternity. When we accept Christ and become saved, we begin to experience the
world of eternity by living our lives for God instead of within ourselves and
our sin.
No comments:
Post a Comment