Saved from What?

It must sound a little odd to a non-Christian when Christians talk about being saved. What are we saved from? They might say, “We don’t need to be saved from anything we just need to live our best life now. We need our lived enhanced not saved.”

However, all that are somewhat healthy want to be saved from pain and harm. Sometimes however, people get so used to the pain and emptiness and it is like an old shoe that they don’t want to throw away, because it fits so well. It is hard to give up patterns and habits that have been ingrained for a long time and that have some pay off.

Those who have been socially and financially successful find it even harder to give up old unfulfilling patterns and approaches to life. Life is going somewhat well for them, even though they know something is missing. There is an emptiness that is not being filled. They are trying to fill it but it is like a bucket with a hole in it and it keeps draining out. They are experiencing what the Solomon experienced even thought he was very wealthy and nothing was denied his flesh.

The first thing we are saved from according to God in the Bible is, futility. Solomon said that striving after pleasure is like “vanity and striving after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14) Vanity is about something being worthless or futile. It is striving after something that cannot provide what we are looking for or satisfy. A person can spend their whole life trying to achieve great things or just trying to live their life to get by and realize that they have run after what is worthless compared to what could have been. They have done what is good but missed the best.

What is the purpose of life? Is it just to get by the best we can or is there a much larger purpose? According to the Apostle Paul and those who have been born again of the Spirit, they consider knowing God and responding to the love in Jesus Christ it far more valuable than any other thing in this world. The Apostle Paul had great educational and social credentials in his former live and great recognition as a religious leader and this was great in the culture he lived in, but he says, “ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:7-9)

As a hippie in my former life, 52 years ago, I was looking for the ultimate purpose of life and essence of life. As I thought about the essence of life, I picked up a second-hand book on the philosophical topic of goodness. That book and the book by Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking, lead naturally to think about God, who was the very essence of goodness and also what is most positive. Over the span of about a year I read through the Bible before coming to saving faith in a church evangelistic sermon invitation. God’s waves of love poured into as I repented of sin and turned to Him.

Of course, the second reason we turn to God is because of the guilt of sin. Our world has become experts at denying the guilt of sin, but it effects each person in their sub-conscious. There are many addictions that are also destructive and some that are very socially acceptable. Sin enslaves us and makes us an unwilling servant. Only Jesus Christ can truly remove the guilt and the power of sin in our lives. Jesus defeated Satan on the cross for those who are in Christ. He truly is our victory. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

The third reason and this is bottom line, is because everyone who is not in Christ is on their way to hell. Jesus spoke a lot about hell. He spoke more about hell than heaven. It is a dire warning that has a great urgency to heed. We can only be saved in and through Jesus Christ who took the penalty for the sin of those who receive Him as Lord and Savior. Jesus took our sin on the cross to satisfy Divine justice. He lovingly provided for us and He is the remedy for hell. We must turn to Him in order to be saved from our own deserved destruction. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). If we have sinned even once our wages or what we deserve is hell. Sin brings death. Spiritual death here and eternal death to come. However, every one, has sinned many times in life. We need to be saved from the emptiness and violence of sin against ourselves for sin does great harm.

To receive this gift is to truly love yourself. It you loved yourself would you not receive the gift that would divert your life from hell and bring you to heaven? No one comes to Jesus Christ without self interest. (Romans 3:10-18) If you find yourself in hell you will have only yourself to blame because Jesus provided and gives the power to become children of God. (John 1:12) By God’s grace you can receive Him and be born again (John 3:3), changed from the inside out. God does a work in your heart by giving you a heart responsive to Him, a heart set free and a close love relationship to Him. (Ezekiel 36:26). He also gives us freedom to be our true self, created in the image of God.

You can be saved if you respond to God’s grace with integrity and with repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. The essence of sin is that we want to be God. This is the sin of the devil and we can either be followers of the devil or followers of Jesus. There is no middle ground. Choose today who you will serve. As Bob Dylan said in His Song, “You Got to Serve Somebody—either it is the devil or the Lord.

What is stopping you—is it flutily, guilt or pride? Will it be worth it? Count the cost of following Jesus or count the cost of following the devil. Who you follow will determine whether you experience fulfillment or emptiness, victory or defeat, heaven or hell.