In continuation of the blog of Essentials, I thought it might be good to go into the topic of Salvation before jumping into non-essentials. This may even go to 2 parts simply because Salvation is not an easy topic to discuss and can be lengthy to explain through all the nuances.
It is for a fact that the Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light. To get to God, we have to go through Jesus Christ. Without Christ, there would be no Salvation.
But as simple as this may seem, there are arguments about how to attain this Salvation and also for what reason do we need Salvation.
For Muslims, they are told to do deeds to have favor with Allah. For Buddhist, to escape pain and suffering of this world, one must attain a form of enlightenment and empty your mind of worldly things. For Hindus, they believe in honoring their gods and goddesses and in hopes that the afterlife would lead them to reincarnation into a better being.
Even for some Christian denominations, there seems to be things like "3 steps to salvation" or a type of working our your salvation. You have to do something to earn it.
The common thread with the above is this: they have to do something to earn the favor or receive the peace their religion says they will have.
Only in the Bible, it says this:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—" ~Ephesians 2:8 (NIV)~
Salvation, in this sense, doesn't come from our works. It doesn't come from anybody except from God. It is in fact a free gift. Only Jesus did something: died on the cross and rose again. In many parts of the Bible still, God tells us that all He wants from us is our heart. And if we delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts.
After this initial belief, how do you go about becoming a Christian? The Bible actually doesn't show anything about anybody going down on their knees to pray the infamous prayer to receive Christ. Actually, it doesn't even say to repent and you will be saved (some Christian circles say that). Is it just that simple to believe in faith the One who was sent to us? But that's just too easy! (Where's the easy button?)
There is a point of realizing God loves us this much (John 3:16-17). One doesn't just say, "I believe in Christ." Really, if it were that easy, everybody should be a follower of Christ. However, there is a conscience acknowledgement that Jesus died for our sins and that he was raised from the dead. Sometimes I feel the ultimate Sin is the disbelief in God.
But what for? Why did Jesus die for our sins? In most Christian circles that I have been in, the belief is that the Bible shows that He made us to have a relationship with us. I don't think any other religion speaks to having a personal relationship with God. Most other religions, actually all other religions, seem to talk about either an impersonal god who just does whatever he wants with their magical fairy powers, or a very frightening god who scares the hell out of you.
The events after creating man and woman, God used to roam the earth just like any other guy and talk to Adam and Eve. But because of their decision to eat the fruit, there was a schism, if you will, between man and God and communication became less. God does continue to speak to us in the burning bush or from the clouds or even a mule (Numbers 22). But eventually, God gave us Jesus also as a medium and eventually still the Holy Spirit. Earth was meant to be a haven. (Or maybe God was just lonely, He wanted to talk to somebody.) From there, we are all prewired to have relationships and from the earthly sense, relationships with parents, siblings, spouses, children. But ultimately, God made us to have a relationship with Him. He is a personal God. A simple analogy that Jesus taught is in John 15: the vine and the branches. (You should go look that one up.)
So, I will end here, as I feel I have established the basics of Salvation from the Bible.
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