What does it take to be saved? Getting an understanding of what the requirements for salvation are. When this is truly understood then the rest is a bit easier.
What does it take to be saved? Romans 10:9-19,
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made resulting in salvation.”
If you’ve ever wondered if you’ve messed up and made bad choices and you need to start over keep reading.
The words in Romans 10:9-10 about salvation is really simple. All it takes to be saved is to believe in Jesus, and that He is God’s Son, and that He died on the cross for our sins because there is no way that were going to be able to pay the penalty of our sin.
Jesus rose again three days later. He is sitting on the throne in heaven and He’s going to come back again for His people. If you recognize that you are a sinner who is incapable of saving yourself and that you cannot pay the price of sin, which is death, and recognize that Jesus is your Lord and has paid the cost for you, then you will be saved.
All it takes is for you to believe. Sometimes we wonder and question how we can know for sure that we can reconcile with Jesus. This can be a big burden depending on what you believe, what you are taught, and how you grew up.
I grew up with no teaching about Jesus and was told that if I didn’t do what I was supposed to I would go to hell. I grew up under fear-based parenting which resulted in low self-esteem and some mental health difficulties. Believing that I would never be able to please my parent or God and believing It was hopeless to even try.
John 10:27 in context is a parable of the Good Shepherd. Jesus explains how He is the Good Shepherd and that people who follow Him are His sheep.
“My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I gave eternal life to them, and they will never perish and no one will take them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” – John 10:27-30
Jesus is clearly explaining that if you believe in Him, you are His sheep, you are saved, and you are His follower. This is how to become a Christian -to follow Christ Jesus. Once that happens, you have eternal life and your soul will never perish. This is how you can know that your salvation is secure. If you follow Jesus you are secure in the hands of Jesus and His Father.
Matthew 10:28 tells us,
“Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body m but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Jesus says no one can take His sheep, His believers, His followers, out of His hands, and that includes yourself. You can’t take yourself out of His hand. As long as you continue to believe. Then He says that His sheep can’t be taken out of His Father’s hands either. You are doubly secure.
Rest in truth in knowing that scripture says right from the mouth of Jesus, that nothing is going to take your salvation away from you. Once you believe you are secure. That is it.
Another way that you can know that you are saved is when you go through conviction from God. Romans tells us that no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Satan comes to accuse us and he condemns us, but that doesn’t apply to children of God because you are secure in the hands of the Father and of the Son.
But when you go through discipline, you do get convicted by the Holy Spirit when you are doing something that does not line up with your new identity as a child of God.
John 15:1-2 tells us about the vine illustration it says you are to abide in Jesus.,
“I am the true vine and My Father the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.“
This tells us that as children of God, we are going to be disciplined. We are going to be challenged and stretched to grow through the process of specification, of becoming more and more like Jesus.
So we are pruned if we do and pruned if we don’t. Jesus does this because He wants us to bear fruit and the only way to make sure that whatever we are growing is producing what we want it to is to prune. To get rid of the things that don’t need to be there, to get rid of the dead branches and things that are sick. That’s exactly what God does in our lives and in our hearts.
He knows us and He begins to search our hearts, and He lets us know when something is going on in our hearts and our minds, in our lives that doesn’t align with our new identity as His child. It doesn’t feel good, but ultimately it is for our good.
If you are wondering if you’re saved ask yourself if you feel conviction. Are you going through discipline? Do you not enjoy doing sinful things that you used to do in your past?
That is a sign that you belong to God
From Pity to Praise 