How Do We Receive This Needed Salvation

The fourth question we need to ask along the Romans Road is, “How do we receive this needed salvation?” We find our answer at Romans 10:9 – 10, 13.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. . . For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”” (ESV). These verses contain three words we will use to develop the following diagram.

I believe a word of caution is needed here. I have watched many people who are subjected to pressure by a person’s witness or brought to an emotional state of mind to where they raise their hands or walk down the aisle to pray the sinner’s prayer or accept Jesus Christ into their hearts before God had properly prepared them. Our saying a prayer or even confessing with our mouth can be done without the heart being ready. Unfortunately these people go away thinking they are Christians, but they are not. These may very well make up the multitude Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:22 – 23, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (ESV). Over time these people realize that not much has changed in their lives and they begin to fall away from their walk with the Lord. These do not validate their salvation because they do not endure to the end.

I pray that this lesson helps you understand that spiritual life takes place in the heart and it affects the understanding of the mind. Spiritual life is a brand new life created by God. It is not a change of life we make with decisions of the mind apart from a new heart.

Correspondence

After sending my friend the lesson titled, “How God provides salvation” he sent the following note back to me.

I am much understood of the relationship between Him, Christ and me. It is something in my mind or spiritual world, instead of the actual world explained by the nature of science.  My scenario is that I still focus on too much of the physical world in which I experienced real world people, things happened around myself, learning I owned, so that I can NOT be into a state of silence, peace, quietness, to trust and believe Him, to achieve spiritual satisfaction I have ever experienced.

I have been trying to pray, and deeply thinking about them every day and now I feel that I am getting less annoyed day by day!

Thank you so much for all these lessons

I then wrote a longer note back titled, “What Is Next”. Very soon my friend wrote back the following.

You have tried all your best and I have been changing but slower than you and I expected. The lessons and teaching so far work well for me, and I may need some accumulation and an icebreaker. I am just at cross road, the magic moment, where I need to have a push. I do need the spiritual belief and satisfaction in my mind, but it will take a while.  

The reason why I mentioned evolution, is that I have been confusing myself now and then with what I learned and was taught in the past 50 years in China, something deeply rooted in my brain, and it is time to make a change now.

You are right that I need to start from the basic, the basic concept of spiritual world and God, from which I can build the foundation a bit by a bit till I am very clear and calm in mind. I am to spend more time in learning from the websites you suggested.

The conversation is now back to me and I sit here prayerfully thinking what to write next.

[Name], I respect your honesty and willingness to continue reading what I write in hopes that one of the lessons might be the icebreaker or the one that turns the light on in your thinking. I send this brief note to you and then I will write the next Romans Road lesson, which I will send to you tomorrow.

What Is Next

After receiving my lesson titled, “Why Do We Need Salvation”, my friend sent back a note to me, which I responded to under the title, “What Is Man”. My friend responded back with a note, which makes our conversation even more difficult. In his note he said:

I have been trying to ask Him to reveal that He exists and help me with my spiritual work, but I could not get this so far.

I have been taught and educated in my background with Darwin's evolution of mankind, which was deeply rooted in my thinking. Thus I am very confusing myself if I do believe that Man is created by Him or evolved from billions of years of natural development.  But for spiritual world, I do believe that God helps and created a lot into our spiritual body.

Since I was not sure how to respond to this new piece of information I decided to send him another lesson on the Romans Road to think about titled, “How God Provides Salvation”. As I thought about my response I went and got my hair cut and continued my conversation with her about her spiritual life. She is different than my friend because she is totally convinced that reincarnation is the correct way where my friend is in a state of confusion. One thing that is becoming very clear to me is that unless God is at work spiritually in the person’s heart, no words of mine will have any meaning or make any difference. I need to pray to prepare the soil and I need to sow the seeds of the word, but if God has not chosen this person to be a vessel of honor then there will not be spiritual progress. I continue to pray and write, patiently waiting for a glimmer of hope, but I confess I am not sure how to continue. I eventually decided on the following.

[Name], I am not sure what to say now as I can’t find a good point to build from. It is also clear that what I am sharing of a spiritual nature is not understood. Unless God gives you the “spiritual software” needed for understanding there will not be progress. Unless there is a sincere desire to ask God for what you lack, nothing new is going to happen. I will share two simple points for now.

The problem with evolution is you cannot obtain a more complex form of life without the input of some help from outside. You should understand that from your work in the factory. Given billions of years the products you produce will not produce themselves. You can’t get man from animal through advances do to evolution. You need intelligent design and creative power to produce the marvel of man. Evolution is progress from the simple to the more complex. You are getting more from less. But if you go to the beginning, you must start with nothing. You just can’t get something from nothing without some intelligent creator producing it. Evolution was created by men who do not want a God in the picture that they might be responsible to.

Secondly, I would like you to check the following link. If you can open it, as time permits, I would like you to begin to read the gospel of John. This might help you gain some understanding. The link is:

Link to John

How God Provides Salvation

The third question we need to ask along the Romans Road is, “How does God Provide salvation?” We find our answer at Romans 5:8 using the link below. Check out my diagram for this.

In Romans 5 we read, “(For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath” (Romans 5:7 – 9 NET).

Because of our sin, without intervention, we are destined to spend an eternity experiencing the horrors of spiritual death. But because of God’s love for us he was willing to provide a way for us to obtain spiritual life and live forever with God. This provision was provided by Christ dying for us while we were still sinners. The price paid for our salvation, for this opportunity for eternal life, was the blood of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, on the cross. It is through him that we are saved from the wrath of God.

When we live only in the flesh we are drawn to live out the words in the left list. Living in the flesh we are spiritually dead. We are dead in our sin and will upon physical death experience the wrath of God forever. But by the blood of Jesus Christ our salvation has been purchased and if we are willing to humble ourselves and come to him, salvation is ours as a gift. Being born spiritually we are then alive in Christ and will experience his love forever. While living on earth we will have a living hope for our future and will be drawn to live out the words on the right.

God does provide salvation as a free gift through the blood of his Son for those who desire it and come to him to receive it.

What Is Man

Very shortly after sending my friend the lesson on “Why Do We Need Salvation” he send me the following note.

Yes, received and thanks!

I still could not understand the diagram attached. I don't understand the meaning of death and eternal life. If you are dead, everything is gone and why still have external life?

His note makes the picture much clearer. Unless God begins a spiritual work in his heart no amount of writing on my part will ever produce spiritual life or even spiritual understanding. As long as my friend is willing to read what I write I must pray and continue to write to him. Following is my response to him.

[Name], I really appreciate you note in response to the lesson on the question, “Why do we need salvation?” I think we need to go back to the beginning again and look at what God created when he created mankind. We have to understand the nature of the first person God created. In fact we must start with the fact that there is a living God who created everything that exist. The amazing complexity of the universe and its contents is impossible without an intelligent designer and creator. Man is so wonderfully made that medical science still does not understand all there is about him. This creator God is eternal and is spiritual. He created us in his image and gave us a physical body to allow us to exist in the physical world. That first man was both a physical and spiritual being that had the ability to live forever.

God’s initial plan for humans was for them to have a loving, obedient relationship with him and partner with him in managing the environment in which man was placed. God did not create a robot designed to love and serve him, but to freely choose to love and serve him. Man chose to turn from God and live life as he wanted. As a result the spiritual part of man died and the horrible results darkened his soul and produced the horrible evil and suffering we experience today. In my diagram the little stick person standing on the left side is spiritually dead but physically alive for a few years. God could have left us in that condition with no hope beyond this physical life, which is what you believe according to your note to me. But because of God’s love he provided a way, through his Son, for us to again obtain spiritual life and live forever with him after physical death. In the diagram Jesus Christ is shown as the bridge from the life you are living now to one that becomes spiritually alive. I know that spiritual life is real because of the change that took place in my life when I was born spiritually as a teen. Since that spiritual birth I have grown spiritually and understand things about spiritual life that are still hidden from you. If you sincerely, humbly ask God to begin a spiritual work in you he will. Then these things I write about will begin to make some sense. 

[Name], think really hard about this and please write back your thoughts.

Why Do We Need Salvation

In Romans 6 we read, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV). The wage we receive from our sin is death, so unless death can be replaced with life, we have no hope but to suffer forever in a place called Hell. By our sin we accomplish death, but if we come to Jesus we can receive as a gift eternal life.

Consider this verse in the form of a diagram as shown below.

When a person is born into the world you find yourself on the left side of the diagram where sin is your master and the results are death. Unless you can cross over to the right side you will end up in eternal destruction at the end of your physical life. But if you are willing to trust Jesus Christ to take you across to the other side you will obtain eternal life as a free gift because of the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. We can stand our whole life and look across and hope that when we die we will end up on the other side, but according to the Bible and the words of Jesus that will not happen. You must trust him to take you across. Don’t wait too long because you don’t know when your last heartbeat will occur.

Who Needs Salvation

In Romans 3 we read, “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one” (Romans 3:10 – 12 NET). Reading a little further we find, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). From these verses it is clear that all have sinned and before God are seen as unrighteous and thus unfit for heaven.

Before we go any further, there are two words we should define. They are sin and righteous or righteousness. The Bible looks at sin as a transgression, which means “to step across” or “to go beyond a set boundary or limit”. To sin is to step across a boundary or limit that has been set by God. Another way of looking at sin is, “to miss the mark”. We aim to accomplish something good for God, but we fall short of the goal. In either case we have not met the requirements God has set for us. Righteousness is the state of moral perfection required by God to enter heaven. This moral perfection is a standard set forth by God known as the law of God. Breaking any tiny part of that law is seen as a transgression or the crossing of a boundary. We are seen by God as guilty and unfit for heaven.

Consider the stained glass window shown. Consider all the pieces of glass that make up the window. If just one glass is broken the window is broken. Breaking just one law, once in one’s lifetime leaves one guilty before God. It is thus easy to see that everyone is guilty before God and is in need of salvation.