Are you saved or not saved that is the question?
Brendan Mc Crossan
Are you saved or not saved that is the question? Brendan Mc Crossan Copyright@21-07-2012
Chapter one Everybody wants to go to heaven, but not everyone knows how to get there and so Christians are always asking this question to people they meet, “Are you saved?” And other people get rather annoyed at this question. But you know this is a very important question. There are only two places that you’re going to go to when you die either heaven or hell, there is no in between place that God talks about. Did you know that getting into heaven is the easiest thing that you could ever do? All it takes is to ask Jesus into your heart and say to someone else that Jesus is your lord and saviour and believe it, it is that simple. Jesus did everything for you in advance of your desire to get to heaven. There are many Christians out there who are shoving the bible down people’s throats and in doing so turn them away from God. Being saved is associated with ‘religion’ sadly to Catholics; they think that when someone says they are saved, they mean they have become religious, a religious protestant or Methodist or Church of England or some other denomination a religious group or church. But being saved simply means they know that they are guaranteed getting into heaven, they know that they did not get saved by their own actions or deeds or goodness but because they accepted God’s word that he sent Jesus to prevent them from going to hell, by him taking their sins on to himself an him being punished for our sins not his. As Catholics we find this difficult to understand, we are not taught this from the pulpit, and so reject it when those saved people ask us if we are saved also, thinking they’re religious nuts. I asked God one time when I was just a very young Christian, what he meant by being saved, and as I sat in my car at the traffic lights he explained to me what being saved meant. He said, ‘if you fell into a river and were drowning and someone jumped in after you and rescued you, what would you tell people afterwards, that you drowned, or that you were saved?’ I answered him, ‘I’d tell them I was saved from drowning,’ and he replied, ‘well that is the same with Jesus; when you were drowning in sin Jesus jumped in and pulled you out and he saved you.’ That’s why Christians say they are saved. People are drowning in sin and they don’t realise that all they need to do is to call on Jesus to save them and he will. It is that simple, you ask Jesus to come into your heart, that place where you are drowning you in sin, and he will come in and save you and that means that you will never be unsaved, you will always be saved and God guarantees this in his word.
1 Corinthians 1-6-Contemporary English Version (CEV) 6 Now you are certain that everything we told you about our Lord Christ Jesus is true.7 you are not missing out on any blessings, as you wait for him to return. 8 And until
the day Christ does return, he will keep you completely innocent. 9 God can be trusted, and he chose you to be partners with his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the same scripture but from a different translation, 1 Corinthians 1-6-Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) 6 Indeed, the testimony about the Messiah has become firmly established in you; 7 so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift and are eagerly awaiting the revealing of our Lord Yeshua {Jesus} the Messiah.8 He will enable you to hold out until the end and thus be blameless on the Day of our Lord Yeshua {Jesus} the Messiah — 9 God is trustworthy: it was he who called you into fellowship with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord. God promises to keep you blameless and innocent on the day he comes for your soul. My Bible, ‘The Way Bible,’ says it like this, “He guarantees right up until the end that you will be counted free from all sin and guilt on that day when he returns.” Everyone knows what a guarantee means; we get guarantees with our electric appliances and other things, meaning they will replace any item that has a fault in it. He God guarantees he will keep us free from sin and guilt on that day when he returns for us who belong to him, that’s what being saved means. It is not a religion or a religious practice or that you have to earn your way into heaven, it is all God’s work. Salvation simply means getting into heaven by God’s grace alone through his son Jesus. Nothing else, God won’t ask you what religion are you when you stand before him on the day of Judgement, but Jesus will be there also and he will say when you step forward to face God, “He, or she, is mine,” ‘so Father let them in.’ That’s being saved in a nutshell. You are drowning in sin and Jesus dives in and saves you, religion does not save you only Jesus does. Amen