According to the Bible, accepting Christ as your savior involves acknowledging the following:
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“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23)
First, we’re told that all of us are sinners. God intended for each of us to live in perfect relationship with him, but every person who has ever lived has broken God’s commands. The Bible teaches later on in Romans (5:12–21) that sin entered the world through the first man, Adam. Because of Adam’s sin, we’re all incapable of meeting God’s standards. Sin isn’t just something we do. It’s our nature.
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“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23)
This defines the consequences of our sin, which are twofold: Because of our sin, our earthly lives are destined to end. But more importantly, our sin leads to eternal death, which is eternal separation from God. This verse ends with good news, however. We’ve earned death. It’s what we deserve. But we’re offered a free gift that we don’t deserve—“eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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“God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8)
After we’ve established our sinfulness, the consequences of our sin, and the hope of eternal life, Romans 5:8
paints a vivid picture of God’s love for us even when we’re at our worst. God’s love for us isn’t an abstraction. He loves us so much that even when we were sinners (or enemies of God, as Paul describes us two verses later), he gave his Son to die for us. This arguably is the clearest, most powerful, most explicit description of God’s love ever written. -
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation” (Rom 10:9–10)
With Romans 10:9–10
, Paul tells us how we can respond to the gospel affirmatively and accept God’s free offer of salvation. Paul has already told us that we cannot do anything to earn God’s gift. So we shouldn’t think of confessing and believing as a “works” but as a faithful response to the offer of salvation. -
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13)
Finally, Paul reminds us that the offer of salvation is for everyone. No matter where we’re from, what we’ve done, how intelligent we are, or what socioeconomic class we’re in, God’s offer of salvation is for us.
If you are ready to acknowledge each of these points, give us a call at (215) 887-4357. Someone will answer your call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.