Getting saved is easy. Check, check, check, the boxes are ticked, and we’re on the road to heaven.
There’s more, though. If we only check the boxes of belief, repentance, and forgiveness, we’ve left so much undone. Our salvation is still in the box, packaged to carry home and use. We need to put it on and live it every day.
Acts 2:38 says that baptism is a part of the salvation process, for through baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit.
“And Peter said to them, ‘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.’ ”
Mark 16:16 also emphasizes the strong relationship between salvation and baptism. We cannot have one without the other.
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Matthew 23:23 lists three things we must show to verify our salvation: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Without these, we are hypocrites.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
Micah 6:8 speaks to us from the days of the prophets, foretelling the words of Jesus. If we are to claim salvation, we have no choice but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly before God.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Genesis 2:17 is the start of it all. Salvation is all about obedience. If we follow God’s instructions, we will live in him. If we choose our own way, salvation will pass us by.
“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Finding Jesus is part of salvation. Living his message through our actions is vital, too.
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Code: FGO.H.10.17b.vp.esv