Salvation in Christ refers to the divine act of being cleansed from sin and granted eternal life through faith in Jesus. It is often depicted through vivid images such as tasting sweetness to signify personal experience, being made spotless to represent cleansing, and visible transformation to show the gospel's power. This mystery surpasses human understanding yet assures believers of God's saving grace (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5).
No one can enter heaven without faith in Christ, regardless of earthly status.
A person may go to heaven- without wealth without beauty without learning without fame without culture without friends But no one can go to heaven without Christ.
Jesus seeks and finds faith and transformation in unlikely people from all backgrounds.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. The Lord finds faith in a Roman soldier. He finds faith in heathen women. He finds lost womanhood in the Samaritan woman at the well. He seeks and finds generosity in that tight person called Zacchaeus. He seeks and finds courage in Peter, that coward who wouldn't reveal even to a little maid who he was while Jesus was being tried. The Lord seeks and finds an apostle in a persecutor like Saul of Tarsus and makes him Paul.
God's message of mercy can reach a person even in the most unlikely and remote places.
Off the Florida coast, Mike, a professional diver, was engaged in salvaging parts of a ship which had sunk some months previously. He had just descended one morning and was making his way slowly toward the sunken hull when he noticed something white in the mouth of an oyster or shellfish of some sort. Stooping, Mike picked up the small piece of white paper and turned his marine light on it. A gospel tract! He read its message slowly and carefully, and conviction struck home to his heart. If God's message of mercy in Christ had pursued him to the bottom of the sea, he could not hold out any longer. Standing where he was that morning, Mike accepted Christ as his Savior. When he returned to the surface, he took with him the little tract which had followed him to the bottom of the ocean.
Christ longs to enter your life and bring peace if you open your heart to Him.
One day the great artist, Michelangelo, stood outside a window. Inside he saw a canvas with a few brushes and paints next to it. All that was missing was the hand of the artist. "Oh," cried Michelangelo, "if I could only be inside, what a picture I could paint!" That's exactly what Christ wishes when He stands outside your life. "Oh, what I could accomplish, if only I could get in!" Allow Him to get in. Open the door of your heart. Believe on Him. Then He will bring peace to your troubled soul.
God’s final invitation offers salvation freely to all who will come and receive it.
It was Dwight L. Moody who said, "Many men fold their arms and say, 'If I am one of the elect-in other words, one of those God willed to be saved-I shall be saved; and if I am not, I shall not. No use bothering about it.' I have an idea," he said, "that the Lord Jesus saw how men were going to stumble over this doctrine of election, so after He had been thirty or forty years in heaven, He came down and spoke to John. On the Lord's Day in Patmos He said to him: 'Write these things to the churches.' John kept on writing. His pen flew very fast. Then the Lord, when it was nearly finished, said: 'John, before you close the book, put in one more invitation: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." ' "
Only Jesus, not Mary, can accomplish salvation in the human heart.
Jane, a deeply religious woman, presumed that the Virgin Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, could do the work of her Son just as effectively as He. And of course, being a woman, she identified more with a female. She was discussing her religious beliefs with a friend who, on the other hand, believed that no one could be what Jesus Christ was and is, and that no one else could effect the work of salvation in the human heart. But nothing could persuade Jane. The friend who believed in the exclusiveness of Jesus Christ to save was employed as a maid in a doctor's home. One day Jane became seriously ill and called for the doctor, her friend's employer. The friend answered the phone and said, "I am sorry, but the doctor is not in." Then this Christian woman, who had put all her trust in Jesus Christ, thought of all the theological discussions that she had had with her friend and added, "But, Jane, you know the doctor's mother is in. Maybe she can help you." "Is she a doctor?" "No, but she is the doctor's mother. She will do, won't she?" Immediately Jane could see what her friend was driving at. She wanted to show her in this vivid way that Mary, although highly respected and honored, cannot do the work of her Son.
Even the best cannot save themselves; only Christ can save.
It is said when one of the most noted English physicians was succumbing to a fatal disease, he went from one authority to another until he had reached the highest on the continent. Telling this man his trouble, he received the reply, "The only man who can save you is an English physician, Dr. Darwin of Derby." Sad was the reply, "I am Dr. Darwin of Derby." He was the best, but he could not save himself. Even the best of us cannot save ourselves. The Father's Child Dwight L. Moody gives us a fine illustration of the fact that the commandment of Christ to follow Him is given to His children and not to strangers "I was standing with a friend at his garden gate one evening when two little children came by. As they approached us, he said to me, 'Watch the difference in these two boys.' Taking one of them in his arms he stood him on the gatepost and, stepping back a few feet, he folded his arms and called to the little fellow to jump. In an instant the boy sprang toward him and was caught in his arms. Then turning to the second boy he tried the same experiment. But in the second case it was different. The child trembled and refused to move. My friend held out his arms and tried to induce the child to trust to his strength but nothing could move him. At last my friend had to lift him down from the post and let him go. 'What makes the difference in the two?' I asked. My friend smiled and said, 'The first is my own boy and knows me; but the other is a stranger's child whom I have never seen before.' And there was all the difference. My friend was equally able to prevent both from falling. The difference was in the boys themselves. The first had assurance in his father's ability and acted upon it, while the second boy, although he might have believed in the ability to save him from harm, would not put his belief into action." So it is with many today who give credit to the gospel story but are unwilling to cast themselves into the arms of the Savior.
Changed lives visibly demonstrate the power of the gospel even to those who haven't heard it.
A missionary approached a native whom he had not seen before and asked, "Have you ever heard the gospel?" "No," he replied, "but I have seen it. I know a man who used to be the terror of the neighborhood. He was a bad opium smoker and as dangerous as a wild beast. But he became completely changed. He is now gentle and good and has left off opium."
The gospel produces miraculous life changes that science cannot explain, proving its power.
A psychiatrist who visited a rescue mission listened intently to the testimonies of many converts. The superintendent asked him if he would like to say a word. This is what he said: "Tonight I have been given an opportunity to observe something I did not know existed anywhere. It has been my privilege to listen to the testimony of men who were glad to witness to what Christ had done for them. I know nothing about that, but I confess I cannot otherwise explain what has taken place in their lives. A few of these men I recognize. As drunkards, even as dope addicts, some of them have come under my observation at the hospital. But here they are, alive, well-dressed, delivered, and in their right minds. I do not know how the miracle has been wrought, but of one thing I am confident-nothing in science can account for this change in them. That kind of gospel is worth preaching to anyone, anywhere." The End of a Quest Justin Martyr, one of the early Church Fathers, started out in his youth on a search for the highest wisdom. He tried a stoic, who told him that his search was vain. He turned to a second philosopher, whose greed for money quenched any hope of assistance from him. He appealed to a third, who required a preliminary knowledge of music, astronomy, and geometry. Just think of a soul thirsting after God and pardon and peace, being told, "You can't have any of this until you've got a college degree." How many would be shut out from God's presence! In his helplessness, Justin Martyr applied to a follower of Plato, under whose guidance he began to have some hope that he was on the right track. But one day, when earnestly groping after the truth, he was met by a nameless old man who talked to him about Jesus Christ. Immediately he felt he was at the end of his quest. "Straightway," says Justin, "a flame was kindled in my soul," and if not in the actual words, yet in the spirit he sang, "Thou, O Christ, art all I want; More than all in Thee I find."
Christ is the ladder of salvation providing a way to safety from life's storms.
To the north of Scotland lies an island called Bressay. It is one of the Shetland Islands, and its shores are very rocky. On the south coast of Bressay is a slate-quarry. The workmen had to descend the cliff to it by means of a ladder. One evening, a violent and sudden storm drove the quarrymen from their work. The ladder was left fastened to the cliff. The night was very dark and stormy. A ship which was struggling with the waves was driven close to the island. Her crew beheld with terror the white foam of the breakers as they dashed against the rocks. They knew, that, if their ship were stranded, they must be wrecked. Still the howling winds drove her forward. The waves dashed over her, filled the cabin with water, and drowned the wife of the captain. The sailors now climbed into the rigging. They were at the mercy of the furious wind, and of the raging sea. They gave themselves up for lost. Many prayers and cries for deliverance were uttered. On came the ship, and struck against the shore. The poor seamen felt that death was almost certain. On the summit of the cliff was safety; but how could they reach it, who were helplessly dashed at its foot? But, just as the ship struck near the rock, their terror was changed to joy. Close beside them, on the steep face of the cliff, was a ladder. It seemed as if placed there on purpose for them. In haste they sprang from the rigging, mounted the ladder, and reached the top of the cliff in safety. The vessel went to pieces so quickly, that, by the next morning, hardly a trace of her was left. Bible Treasury.
Salvation comes from union with Christ, not merely seeking salvation itself.
Having Christ, we have salvation also; while, without receiving Christ himself, we cannot have the salvation. Having the fountain, we have its issuing streams. Cut off from the fountain, the streams will not flow to us. Christ offers himself to be the Bridegroom of the soul. He offers to endow his bride with all the riches of his own inheritance in the heirship of his Father. Taking him as our Bridegroom, and giving ourselves to him as the bride espouses her husband, with him we have all he has as well as all he is; while without him we can have neither. The mistake is that of seeking the salvation instead of seeking the Saviour; just the same mistake that the affirmed would make if she should seek to have the possessions of him to whom she was engaged made over to her from him without their union in wedlock, instead of accepting his offer of himself, and having the hymnical bond completed, by which he and all he has would become hers. W. E. Boardman.
Christ is the sure support and plank that sustains believers through life's shipwrecks.
A Cornish minister was preaching, one day, to a congregation in which were several sailors who had just escaped shipwreck. He spoke of the sinner's danger, and introduced the figure of the drowning sailor, grasping eagerly at any fragments of the wreck: then presented Christ as the sure plank, exclaiming, "This plank bears!" Fourteen years after, that minister was called to the bedside of a dying stranger who was converted by, and now with his latest breath testified to, the glorious truth, "This plank bears!"
Adam's disobedience is inherited, but Christ's obedience brings spiritual new birth.
As the natural disobedience of Adam conveyed itself by natural propagation, from him to all his offspring forever, even so the obedience of Christ pertains to those who are spiritually begotten of him by a lively faith. Canedray.
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