Salvation is free, totally free, yet just like with receiving a free gift from humans, it requires some action.
If you’re headed to a baseball game and they’re giving a free gift to the first one thousand fans, you’ll have to arrive early and stand in line to get that freebie. I mean, if the stadium holds over 10,000, you have to be in that first 10% of fans arriving, right? Then you have to put your hand out to receive that gift and carry it throughout the game to take it home to house it and care for it.
God requires that if we’re to be saved from the consequences of our sin, that is eternal separation from Him in a place of unending turmoil and torment, we must do something. We have to do more than believe in God. Scripture tells us the demons believe in Him and quake. It’s more than just believing in God.
Paul wrote that one requirement is our open declaration that Jesus is Lord, meaning we say so. I don’t think that means climbing to top of the highest building in a city and screaming it to the masses below, but it does mean we tell others. Whether it be quiet conversations or an announcement/declaration within a group, we’re to openly declare that Jesus is Lord.
The other requirement is that we believe deep in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. Well, sure, doesn’t everyone believe that? No. No, they don’t.
There are even those who call themselves Christians who don’t believe that God truly raised Jesus from the dead. They go along with the enemy’s lie that Jesus was just in a coma or was somehow pretending to be dead. If we read the words here, that would mean they aren’t really saved.
You can’t have one foot in each camp.
Friend, hear me, God requires these two things because they go deep. These are things that become deeply ingrained within those who believe. They measure every step and guide every decision.
The decision to declare Jesus is Lord and believe in the deepest parts of our hearts that God raised Him from the dead is one to be thought out. We’re to count the cost. This decision doesn’t remove the target of the enemy from our backs, it makes it brighter. This decision doesn’t free us from dealing with painful, chaotic things, it means Jesus walks with us through those. It doesn’t mean we’ll never be sick or die, but it does mean that when we do suffer, our Lord is with us, and that we will be with Him throughout all eternity – an eternity without chaos, pain, sickness, and death.
Have you made this decision? Have you met these two requirements? Do you waver on that thing about the One True and Living God raising a truly-dead Jesus from the dead?
If you have not, please consider this today. You are one breath from an eternity with or without Him. One blink from eternal death or eternal life. One heartbeat from never having the chance to make or change this decision. Choose well, my friend.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
