A few months ago, one of my students asked: How can I be saved? By saved, she meant being made right with God so that she would not be separated from God here on earth and even after she dies because of her sins. From the Bible, I showed her that a person can only be saved by repenting and believing that Jesus is God, that He died on the cross for our sins, and that He rose from the grave on the third day (Mark 1:15; Acts 16:31; John 3:16). As we continued talking, I asked her if she would like to be saved. To this question, she answered that she would need to think about it. After hearing this, I prayed that God would reveal to her how much He loves her and desires to save her, as it is written in the Bible in 1 Timothy 2:4-6, “God wants everyone to be saved and to fully understand the truth. There is only one God, and there is only one way that people can reach God. That way is through Christ Jesus, who as a man gave himself to pay for everyone to be free. This is the message that was given to us at just the right time.” Even though God wants everyone to be saved, he does not force people to believe in Him. In His great love, he lets them choose whether they want to be saved by Him or not.
After one week, she came back to continue talking about how she could be saved. She mentioned that she wanted to be saved, but that she was not good enough. My student’s statement reflects one of the misunderstandings that many people have today, including adults. Some people think that we can be saved (being forgiven of our sins, restoring our broken relationship with God, and going to heaven after we die) by being good, or at least considered good enough, or doing good things so that we can be saved. Sadly, this has prevented many people from being saved, because the mark of being or doing enough good things to approach God is unreachable (Rom. 3:23). Nonetheless, Jesus loves people so much that He cleared out this misunderstanding when He was here on earth.
One way that Jesus addressed this issue was by answering the disciples’ question, “Who can then be saved?” (Matthew 19:25). To this question, Jesus said: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (v. 26). The Lord Jesus, being God, knows that even if humans tried their hardest, they will not be able to reach the marker that was placed to be accepted by God. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The fact that we have sinned, even one time, makes one unworthy of reaching salvation on our own. Nonetheless, recognizing that we are unworthy and incapable of working salvation out on our own, it’s all we need to come to Him. Jesus came for the unworthy people. We are all unworthy because of our sin. Sadly, not everyone wants to admit it. But admitting it is also what draws us to Jesus for salvation. Jesus said, “For the Son of Man [Jesus] came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10). The lost are the unworthy, those who do good things and those who do not, everyone who has not believed in Jesus for salvation.
Jesus let unworthy people come to Him to save them. He saved a thief (Luke 19:1-10), a woman who cheated (John 8:1-11), a man who could not walk (Mark 2:12), a pharisee, which is a person who did a lot of good things (Acts 9), and children (Matthew 19:14). By Jesus saving all kinds of people, those who did good things and those who did not, shows that all have the same problem – sin. And this problem was only solved in Jesus Christ.
One reason people are not saved by the good things they do is that it represents a prideful heart before God. It is like saying, I deserve salvation for all I that I have done. Yet, none can say that. Because to say this, one must have never sinned, which is impossible. Nonetheless, acknowledging that it is only through Jesus Christ represents a humble attitude of saying, “Jesus, there is nothing I can do to be saved; only you can save me.” Ephesians 2:8-10 reflects this by stating, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” After we are saved by faith in Christ alone, the Lord Jesus empowers us to do good things. Therefore, good things are evidence of our faith in Jesus, not our means to be saved.
When my student understood this, she decided to place her faith in Jesus by repenting, believing in her heart, and confessing: “Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner, I believe Jesus, you are God and you died on the cross for my sins, and rose on the third day. I receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior, in Jesus’ name, Amen!” If you have not done it before, and you would like to be saved. Remember to repent and believe in Jesus. You can pray right now on your own, telling Jesus how you believe that He is the only one who can save you. If you want people to guide you on how to place your faith in Jesus, tell your parents, people at your church, or you can also follow the prayer that my student did if you desire – remember more than the words, it is your heart.
If you have questions, you can follow the example of John Wesley, a famous preacher, who struggled to understand how a person is saved only by believing in Jesus without doing good things to be saved. Wesley asks God to help him understand how one is saved only by faith in Jesus, and not by doing good things. God answered Wesley. After a while, God helped Wesley to understand and bring the conviction of this truth to his heart. Like Wesley, you can also ask God your questions and read the Bible. God can reveal the answers as you pray, or as you read your bible, or as you talk to people, or in a way that we do not expect. Sometimes God answers immediately, sometimes it takes time. Nonetheless, do not lose hope and keep trusting what he says, even if you cannot understand it or fully believe it yet. He will help you through and reveal you in His good timing. Someone said to me, God is never early, he is never late. He is always on time. Since he loves you and desires to save you, he will reveal to you what you need to know. Remember, you and I do not need to be good enough or do good things for God to make us right with Him. He just wants our humble and repentant hearts, crying out to him for salvation.
Written by Camila Hernandez