How are we saved?

[arunangelo]

God gave life to our soul (Romans 8:13) by gifting it with His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27). When we rebelled against Him and rejected His Spirit our soul lost its life. This brought eternal damnation upon us. However, because of this infinite mercy, God reinstalled His Spirit in us by sacrificing His own life for our sins. This free gift of God to us is His grace. All we have to do to be saved from eternal death is to accept His Spirit which He expressed by His sacrificial act. To accept it is have enough faith in it to live it (Galatians 5:16). To live His Spirit we must love one another as He has loved us (John 15:12). We must, therefore, put our life on line in the process of helping those who betray us and are unfaithful to us. We must also keep the commandments (Mark 10:17, 18); forgive others without any limit (Matt. 18:35); love our enemies (Luke 6:27-36); keep our marriage covenant permanent (Mark 10:1-12); and be humble (1 Corinthians 13:4), non-judgmental (Luke 6:37), charitable (Matt 25:31-46) and merciful (Mark 9:33-37). Some of these teachings may be hard to follow; but if we hold on to the truth till the end we will be saved (Matt 10:22; 24:13; & Mark 13:13).

 

[glorydaz]

God gave life to our soul (Romans 8:13) by gifting it with His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27). When we rebelled against Him and rejected His Spirit our soul lost its life. This brought eternal damnation upon us. However, because of this infinite mercy, God reinstalled His Spirit in us by sacrificing His own life for our sins. This free gift of God to us is His grace. All we have to do to be saved from eternal death is to accept His Spirit which He expressed by His sacrificial act. To accept it is have enough faith in it to live it (Galatians 5:16). To live His Spirit we must love one another as He has loved us (John 15:12). We must, therefore, put our life on line in the process of helping those who betray us and are unfaithful to us. We must also keep the commandments (Mark 10:17, 18); forgive others without any limit (Matt. 18:35); love our enemies (Luke 6:27-36); keep our marriage covenant permanent (Mark 10:1-12); and be humble (1 Corinthians 13:4), non-judgmental (Luke 6:37), charitable (Matt 25:31-46) and merciful (Mark 9:33-37). Some of these teachings may be hard to follow; but if we hold on to the truth till the end we will be saved (Matt 10:22; 24:13; & Mark 13:13).

It's a little easier than that. A good picture of salvation is given in the OT when the Children of Israel were being attacked by venomous snakes. Moses made a pole of brass and afixed a brass serpent to the top. When someone was bitten, they only had to look at the serpent and they would live. The snakes venom is sin. If the one bitten trusted in the brass serpent and looked upon it, he lived. If he doubted and ran in circles hoping the poison would work it's way out of his system, he would die. If he sought help from some healing herb, he would die. If he laid down and cried in his misery, he would die, but if he looked and believed in the brass serpent...he lived.

All those things you listed, being humble, charitable, merciful, forgiving etc. are the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. They all come as we look to Jesus. He is our shepherd, we are his sheep...we hear his voice and obey it. If we wander off, He uses His staff to guide us or His rod of correction to bring us back to the path He's chosen for us. His yoke is easy and His burden light...we enter into eternal life when we are born of God, and as His children, we wait for our inheritance in His kingdom to be realized when He returns in glory.