May 10, 2022 (Tuesday)

Theme for the week: Words About Our Salvation

I follow a theme each week and write five blogs under that theme. Five theological words that seem to be most important when discussing the great salvation that is ours in Christ are: 1.Repentance, 2.Faith, 3.Regeneration, 4.Grace, 5.Justification. If each subject became a command, the list would read: 1.Change your mind! 2.Believe in Jesus! 3.Be born again! 4.Accept God’s gift of salvation! and 5.Thank God for a fresh start!

The Scripture verse, John 3:16, has been called, “The gospel in one verse.”For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In the letter to the Romans, known as his treatise on Justification by Fath, Paul tells us how to be saved: “..if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10 ESV).

When Paul and Silas were prisoners in Phillipi, they sang and prayed. The Roman jailer heard them and seemingly was impressed with their faith in the midst of suffering. When an earthquake hit and loosed the gates of the prison, the jailer assumed his prisoners had escaped. If so, he would be executed, so he began to kill himself. Paul observed him doing so and called to him, “Don’t harm yourself for we are all here.” The jailer replied, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” He went on to assure the man that everyone in his household could be saved in the same way. And so the Roman Centurion (jailer) and everyone in his household was saved by believing in Jesus. (Acts 16).

On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached to thousands of people who then believed in Jesus as their Messiah. They accepted Him in their hearts as Savior and Lord. Thousands of others did the same and soon a thriving church existed in Jerusalem. In time many of the new believers left Jerusalem and went to various places spreading the good news that by believing in Jesus one could be saved eternally.

I baptized many people through the years, and every time I repeated the “baptismal formula” to the new convert, “In obedience to the command of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and upon your profession of faith in Him, I baptize you, Name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The one and only requirement for baptism was the believer’s faith in Jesus.