Why do we need salvation?
How do we get it — and when?
What do we receive when we do obtain it?
WHY DO we find many religions in the world?
Some people today say that religion is merely a superstition. And others today spread propaganda that religion is the opiate of the people! But MOST of the people in the world embrace some ONE of the world's many religions!
How many of them ever stop to ask, sanely and candidly, why? Why do they need religion — and what does it offer them?
Of all the world's great religions, the only one that offers forgiveness of sin and salvation is the Christian religion. The sin question and the receiving of SALVATION is the very heart and center of the Christian religion.
But just what is this thing that is called "Salvation"? It is something everybody (who knows anything about Christianity) has heard about — and yet, do you realize that almost nobody — even of those who profess the Christian religion — really KNOWS what salvation is!
Why World Is in Ignorance
A man 82 years of age, who had been for many years an elder in one of the major Christian denominations, came to me once and said: "I have heard many hundreds of sermons about Christ, and about salvation — but in all my 82 years of life I have never heard one explanation of the plain WHYS and WHEREFORES of SALVATION. What is this thing we call salvation, anyway?
WHY do we need it? How do we get it, and when? And what do we get, when we get it, anyway?" Those things he asked me. In his 82 years this man had never heard a plain and a simple explanation that made it clear.
Many of you have heard sermons about salvation, but not many OF YOU have ever heard a plain, clear explanation of just what it is, why you need it — and most of you have been deceived and unconsciously misled about how to obtain it!
The HOLY BIBLE is the only textbook of the TRUE religion of the Creator GOD, as brought and revealed by Jesus Christ. You can prove that! And you can prove that the Holy Bible is the inspired revelation of the Creator who created this earth and put life upon this earth; who is the very source of life, the Supreme Ruler of the entire universe.
Now the prophecies of the Bible say very plainly that all nations — with their many religions — are today deceived; and that even among professing Christians, it is the many who have been deceived — who have turned away from the truth, and accepted fables.
It's time that we wake up and realize the state of religious affairs in this world today! It's time to wake up to the fact that pagan doctrines and practices began, even 1900 years ago, creeping into Christianity — and that today most of us have been reared from childhood in the assumption that these pagan teachings and practices are true, and that they came from the Bible. Most of you have never known any better. Why should you? — you haven't taken the trouble to look into the Bible for yourselves to see just what it does say!
Only ONE Authority
Now let's see if we can understand plainly and clearly just what are the whys and wherefores of this thing called salvation.
The sole authority on this subject is the Bible. If the professing Christian world has turned from the truth (and remember that the Bible is TRUTH), and if it has turned to beliefs of MEN, then you must expect that what you are going to find, in the Bible, will be DIFFERENT from what you have been led to believe the Bible says!
Yes, it's going to be very surprising, so prepare yourself for some surprises — and expect to find something different from what you have believed!
The Apostle Paul, who was the Apostle to the Gentile nations, under inspiration of GOD, instructed the young evangelist Timothy how to find the true way of salvation. You will read of that in II Timothy 3:15-17.
"From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures." The only Scriptures that Timothy had known from a child were those that we call the Old Testament Scriptures. None of the New Testament had been written when Timothy was a child.
"From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Then he continued: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
Before all of the NEW Testament had been written, God inspired Jude to write about SALVATION in Jude 3 and 4:
"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation [he was writing about salvation], it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for" — what? "for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares." This was before 90 A.D., before all of the Bible was even written.
Even then there were "certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [license to do what you please], and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ," turning men away from THE WAY of GOD into the ways that might seem right to men.
Let us go back to the faith once delivered unto the saints, for it is only the Holy Scriptures which are able to make us "wise unto salvation." In them, in the Scriptures, we are to find the faith which was once delivered!
All Scripture is INSPIRED of GOD —and is profitable to CORRECT us where we have been in error! So you can expect some correction in what you have believed!
What Is Salvation?
First, what does this word "SALVATION" mean?
The expression "to be saved" means TWO different things: 1) Deliverance from trouble or danger; deliverance from sin and its consequences, from DEATH. We often hear of the expression "to save someone from a house that is on fire." You would want to be saved, to be rescued from the penalty of sin. 2) Salvation means to preserve — to keep, i.e., to keep us alive eternally by the GIFT of eternal LIFE.
The Holy Scriptures do NOT say that the penalty of sin is to live forever in the torment of a hell fire. No, they say precisely the opposite! You've been taught that the Bible says that the wages of sin is eternal life in hell fire. Romans 6:23 says just the opposite! Notice — this is in your Bible:
"The wages of sin is death." That is the wages you're going to collect for sinning. Death is the thing that stares you in the face, that stares every man in the face.
"But the gift of God is eternal life." You do not now have eternal life abiding within you! It is a free gift of God, and you don't have it unless you obtain it. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23
You need deliverance from the eternal DEATH penalty that you already have incurred — from that everlasting punishment, which is death, that you have brought on yourself as the penalty of violating God's Law. Everyone has sinned and brought that penalty upon himself.
In order to be delivered from total and eternal death, in order to save your life — that is, to KEEP or to PRESERVE you ALIVE forevermore, and throughout all eternity, you need to receive the gift of eternal life, because you do not possess it from natural, human, fleshly birth. It is not inherent in you — and it can COME to you ONLY as a divine GIFT from God!
What do you need to be saved FROM? From the penalty of sin. To be saved FROM the penalty of sin, you must stop sinning.
What Is SIN?
But how can anyone stop sinning, unless he knows what sin is? Most people SUPPOSE that sin is doing something that you think is wrong — that hurts your conscience. Many seem to think that sin is the BEST way to live, but which a harsh and stern God denies us — the forbidden fruit which is really sweeter. They think God isn't quite fair.
All right, now answer this: How many sermons have you ever heard in all of your life, explaining FROM THE BIBLE what sin IS? How many sermons have you ever heard giving you the Bible definition, reading right from the Bible, "SIN is . . ." and then giving you the definition of what it is? How many have you ever heard to read, right out of the BIBLE, the BIBLE definition of sin?
Not very many, I'm sure! No, it usually is just taken for granted that everyone automatically KNOWS what sin is — it is almost universally assumed that sin is doing what YOU THINK is wrong —or what society or each church denomination says is wrong — or that which troubles your CONSCIENCE! But the Bible says "there is a WAY that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12; 16:25). Your Bible says that what seems right to a man is the way that will end in DEATH; therefore it is the way of sin. What one man THINKS is wrong, another thinks is RIGHT. And what hurts one man's conscience will not disturb another man's conscience at all!
Millions of people today believe that sin is the more DESIRABLE and ENJOYABLE way — the way that is BEST for us, and so they put off turning from sin just as long as possible. They want to EN JOY sin right up to the last minute, and then get in on a death bed repentance just before they die!
Exactly what is sin? Here is the plain Bible answer: "SIN is THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW" (I John 3:4).
Sin is what God, in His Law, says is wrong! Repentance means we quit breaking God's Law!