Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to a brand new series called Q&A. Over the last month, we’ve been collecting questions from you. In this series, I’m going to answer some of those questions. There’s no way we could answer all of them, but through the next three weeks, we’re going to work through some great questions that you submitted.Some people are afraid to question things. They’re afraid to seek the truth for difficult questions. Don’t let that ever be true of you. God is not afraid of your questions. His Word is true. It is solid. It is reliable. So we shouldn’t be afraid to dig into his Word to seek answers to the questions that we have. That’s what this series is all about.

I’m so excited about the questions that we’re using to kick off this series today. This is going to be awesome. Let’s pray and then we’ll get into our Q&A series.

Here we go. Question #1 – “What does it mean to truly repent and trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Is there any criteria you can measure yourself against to see if you have done that?”

This is an incredible question. It’s a question that every single one of us had better wrestle with. Actually, it is the most important question you could ever ask.

Let’s boil this question down to its core. What this person, and so many others are asking is this: How do I know that I’m saved? How do I know that I’m a Christian? How do I know that I’m going to heaven? Is it even possible to know for sure?

And I’ve got some really awesome news for you. You can know for sure. The Bible has some definitive answers to this question. There are a lot of things that God doesn’t fully explain. A lot of things in our faith journey with Jesus are more abstract gray areas.

But not salvation. God didn’t want to leave any room for doubt on this. He doesn’t want his people walking through life wondering, “Am I really a Christian? Have I really made Jesus my Savior and Lord? Am I really going to go to heaven?” That’s not what God wants for your life. And that’s why he gives us such a clear picture of how we can know that we’re saved.

And it all starts with this. We are saved by God’s grace. A lot of times people wonder whether they are saved or not because they wonder if they’re good enough to be saved. There’s an easy answer to that question…the answer is no. No, you are not good enough to be saved. And neither am I. But our salvation isn’t based on our goodness. It’s based on God’s grace.

In Ephesians 2, the Bible says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,

expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:4-9, NIV)

It is by grace that you have been saved. The Bible explicitly says here in Ephesians that, “this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” It’s not by works. It’s not by anything that you can say or do. You are saved by the unmerited, undeserved, inconceivable, illogical grace of God.

But grace isn’t just some abstract concept. God gave us something concrete, something tangible to demonstrate his grace…Jesus. Jesus was God’s Son and he was the very embodiment of God’s grace. We can receive the grace of God because Jesus died for our sins.

The Bible says in 1 Peter, “[Jesus] never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.” (1 Peter 2:22-24, NLT)

Jesus personally took your sin and my sin on himself when he was on the cross. The Bible gives us this beautiful paradox: by Jesus’ wounds, we are healed.

Those of you who know me well know that I’m a huge Reds fan. I’m already getting all jacked up for this year and we’re only halfway through spring training.

Any of you who are Reds fans remember the trade that the Reds made with the Washington Nationals a few years ago. The Reds sent Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez to the Nationals in exchange for Bill Bray and Gary Majewski.

The Reds ended up filing a grievance against the Nationals because it became apparent that Majewski had been injured before the trade. The Reds claimed that the Nationals never told them about the injury. The Reds traded away some solid players and claimed that they received damaged goods in return.

You don’t have to be a baseball fan to see that this isn’t a good trade. No one in their right mind would want to trade away something of value for something that is damaged. But that’s exactly the kind of trade that happened when Jesus died on the cross.

Listen to how 2 Corinthians describes it. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV)

The cross of Christ is the scene of the most unfair trade in history. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. But when he was on the cross, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.” On the cross, God transformed Jesus into our sin. When God looked at his Son during the crucifixion, he didn’t see Jesus’ sinless perfection. He saw the filth of our sin. Every sin you have ever committed in your life, every sin you will ever commit in your future, God placed it all on the broken and bleeding back of his Son.

And look at what the Bible says we get in return. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV) Jesus became our sin. And in return, we become the righteousness of God.

I don’t know everything you see when you look at yourself in the mirror, but I know one thing you probably don’t see: perfection. You probably don’t look at your life and say, “Wow. I’m perfect.”

I’ve got news for you…if you are in Christ, that’s exactly what God says when he looks at you. He no longer sees your sin. He doesn’t see all the times you messed up. He doesn’t see the screwed up, messed up, jacked up life that you see. He looks at you and he sees righteousness. Absolute perfection. That is the trade that happened at the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus took the nastiness and filth of our sin, and in return, he gives us his righteousness. His perfection. We are the recipients of the most unfair trade in history. God willingly traded away his Son for damaged goods. Namely, us.

This is the only way we can be saved. There is nothing you can say, nothing you can do to save yourself. We are saved only by the grace of God through the death of his Son. So now the question becomes how do we respond? If salvation is a free gift of grace from God, how do we accept the gift? The New Testament gives us a five-pronged response to God’s grace. It tells us exactly how we can accept his grace; how we can become a Christian and know that we are saved.

It starts with faith. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)

Faith is the starting point. It only makes sense that, in order to please God, you have to believe in him. You have to believe and trust in God as he is described in the Bible. Faith is the centerpoint to pleasing God and it is the basis of our salvation.

In Acts 16, the Bible tells us about the time that the Apostle Paul and his friend Silas were thrown into prison because they were preaching the gospel. Around midnight, God sent a massive earthquake that shook the entire prison. The doors of the prison were thrown open and the chains of all the prisoners came loose.

Starting in verse 27, the Bible says, “The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don't harm yourself! We are all here!”

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” (Acts 16:27-31, NIV)

Faith in Christ is the core of our salvation. How do you know that you’re saved? It starts here. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for your sins on the cross, and that he rose from the dead to give you victory over sin and death and hell? This is where it starts. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. It all starts with faith. Without faith, nothing else we’re going to say today makes any difference at all. But according to the New Testament, faith isn’t the only thing needed to be saved.

It’s also very clear that we must live lives of repentance. The concept of repentance has kind of been eschewed in our minds. When we hear the word repent, a lot of us think of this guy. We think of the religious sign guy who stands in the middle of the crowd, yelling at people, warning them to repent or they will burn in hell. And for some of us, that type of “evangelism” leaves us with a bitter taste in our mouths.

Don’t let religious sign guy ruin you on the concept of repentance. The Bible is really clear that repentance is critical to our walk with Christ and it is central in our salvation.

In Acts 3, the Apostle Peter says, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord… (Acts 3:19, NIV)

This verse is a great picture of what repentance actually is. A lot of people believe that repentance is just expressing sorrow for your sin. That’s part of it, but it’s so much more than that. To repent means to do a 180° turn in your life. I was going this way, but I’m making the decision to turn and go in the other direction. I’m making a conscious decision to turn away from my sin and toward a life that is pleasing to God. That’s why Peter said repent and turn to God. And it’s through our repentance that our sins are wiped out and God refreshes us and changes us.

But we need to be clear about this…repentance isn’t just a one-time event. It’s a lifelong process. For the believer, everyday is a day of repentance. Everyday is a commitment to turn from sin and toward God. It doesn’t mean that you’ll be perfect. If you were perfect, you wouldn’t need a Savior. Repentance is committing to turn away from sin, and it is expressing sorrow and remorse when you make the wrong choice.

Repentance is a key part of our salvation. Jack Cottrell said, “The point is that we cannot sincerely accept what Jesus did for us on the cross without hating the sin that put him there.” That’s ultimately what repentance is. It is committing to see sin as God sees it. Expressing sorrow and remorse for the sin in our lives. And making the decision to turn away from sin and toward a God-honoring life.

A third condition of our salvation according to the Bible is confession. Again, this is a word that has become confusing. When we hear the word confession, a lot of think of a confessional booth. You go to confession, where you confess all your sins to the priest.

That is not even close to a Biblical picture of confession. In Romans 10, the Bible says, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10, NIV)

The Biblical idea of confession is that you confess out loud that you believe in Jesus. He is the Lord and Savior of your life. And the Bible ties this directly into our salvation. Verse 10 says that “it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

But keep this in mind…before you think this is something you do to earn your salvation, remember what you are confessing. You are confessing your faith in Christ. You are openly admitting that his death on the cross is your only hope. It is a confession of faith, not in yourself, but in Jesus.

And again, this isn’t just a one-time event. This is a lifelong process. Confession is a public admission of your faith in Christ whenever you are questioned about it. Instead of being ashamed of your faith, you freely admit that you are a Christ-follower. But if you are ashamed to openly confess your faith, Jesus has a pretty severe warning for you.

In Matthew 10, Jesus said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33, NIV)

If I am ashamed of Jesus, then he will be ashamed of me. If I won’t confess my faith in front of other people, Jesus will disown me before the Father.

The Bible ties confession directly into our salvation, because if we’re ashamed to confess our faith in Christ to others, then our commitment to Christ is a fraud. Our heart hasn’t truly been changed. Jesus can’t truly be our Lord if we’re ashamed to claim him in front of other people.

Which leads us to a fourth step in the salvation experience: baptism. In Acts 2, the Bible tells us how the church began and it records the very first gospel sermon ever preached. It was preached by the Apostle Peter. Peter told a huge crowd in Jerusalem that Jesus had been crucified for their sin.

Starting in verse 37, the Bible says, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:37-38, NIV)

Peter very clearly ties baptism into the salvation experience. Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

Now, we need to realize that most Christians teach that all you have to do is pray a prayer and you are saved. Simply invite Jesus into your heart and you are saved. Baptism comes later. Baptism is just an outward sign of the salvation that has already occurred. They will quote Scriptures that talk about salvation without mentioning baptism.

The argument you will run into the most is the faith-only argument. People will quote Scriptures like Acts 2:21: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21, NIV) And Romans 3:28: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith…” (Romans 3:28, NIV) They will use these Scriptures to teach that faith is the only requirement for salvation.

So what about that? How do you explain why some scriptures mention baptism in the salvation experience while others do not?

We have to understand that each passage highlights a different aspect of the salvation experience. There are salvation scriptures that emphasize faith, there are salvation scriptures that emphasize repentance, there are salvation scriptures that emphasize confession, and there are salvation scriptures that emphasize baptism.

The point is that we have to take the New Testament as a package. We don’t have the option to take certain verses and leave others out. If you want to know how to be saved, you’ve got to look at the New Testament in its entirety. You can’t just cherry pick certain verses to the exclusion of others.

Faith is the core part of the salvation experience. As I said, without faith, nothing else matters. Baptism without faith is nothing more than taking a bath with your clothes on. It just gets you wet. But the Bible does not teach a faith-only conversion experience.

Listen to this Scripture from 1 Peter. “…God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—

not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ…” (1 Peter 3:20b-21, NIV)

The Bible teaches that we are saved at baptism. It is clearly part of the salvation experience. But, I do want to say this. I realize that a lot of other Christians have come to a different conclusion about the purpose of baptism. And I’m definitely willing to have discussions with them, but I’m not willing to have arguments. Here’s why…if someone disagrees with my view of baptism, but they are still baptized because Jesus told them to do it, why are we going to argue about it? If someone does something because Jesus said, “Do it,” it’s kind of hard to argue with them even if they don’t share our exact theology on the issue.

So let’s talk about where we’ve been today…the Bible teaches that we are saved by grace, through our faith that is expressed through repentance, confession, and baptism.

But there is one more crucial condition of our salvation…faithfulness. Here’s where I want to answer another question that we received prior to this series.

Does the Bible teach that once you’re saved, you’re always saved? Once you’re saved, can you ever lose your salvation? A lot of believers would say no. Once you’re saved, you are always saved no matter what. You can never lose your salvation. Does that measure up to what the Bible teaches about salvation?

In Colossians 1, the Bible says, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.” (Colossians 1:22-23, NIV)

That little two letter word “if” says a whole lot in these verses. These verses tell us that we have been reconciled to God, we are holy in his sight, completely perfect…IF we continue in our faith. IF we remain firm. IF we don’t move away from the gospel. The question then becomes what if we don’t continue in our faith? What if we do walk away from the gospel of Christ?

Hebrews 10 gives us the answer to those questions. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:26-27, NIV)

If, after we have received the truth of Christ, we deliberately allow sin to retake our lives, these verses tell us that “no sacrifice for sins is left.” This passage tells us that God’s forgiveness does have its limitations. It seems very clear that, according to these verses, you can lose your salvation. Well, actually that’s not quite true. You can’t lose your salvation. You can give up your salvation. Big, big difference.

Now, a couple of things here. First of all, this is not referring to the sin that every believer has in their lives. You don’t bounce around, saved, lost, saved, lost, saved, lost, depending on if you are sinning at the moment or not. This is referring to a deliberate, prolonged lifestyle of sin.

Secondly, just like the baptism issue, I’ll discuss this with people who believe that once you’re saved, you’re always saved. But I won’t argue with them about it. Because whether you believe in once saved, always saved or not, we all agree on the main thing…as long as you stick with Jesus, you’re good to go.

So let’s bring this full circle. The New Testament gives a simple, five-pronged response to God’s grace. God does not want you to wonder if you’re saved or not. He wants you to know with all certainty that you are saved. You are his child. You are going to heaven. All you have to do is measure yourself by these Biblical conditions that are on the screen. If there is some part of the Biblical salvation experience that you’re lacking, we’d love to talk and pray with you about it.

Remember, it all comes back to Jesus Christ. To accept the free gift of salvation, we must have faith in Christ. And because of our faith, we repent of our sins and turn toward Christ, confess our faith in Christ whenever we’re questioned, we’re baptized into Christ, and commit to living a life of faithfulness for Christ. It’s all about Jesus Christ.

One more time from 2 Corinthians: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV)

That’s what Jesus Christ did for you. Took your junk. Your mess. Your sin. And in return, he wants to give you his holiness, his perfection. And the Bible tells us exactly how we can accept that gift. If you haven’t accepted this free gift of love and grace, his invitation is open to you today.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: baptism, confession, faith, faithfulness, grace, Jesus Christ, once saved always saved, Q&A, repentance, salvation