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The Defining Moment of the Salvation Experience

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For the sake of continuity and progression of thought, all scriptural references will be listed at the end of, instead of being interspersed throughout, each division. Readers are encouraged to look-up and verify the references and their application to the doctrinal positions expressed.

The Question

When is a person actually saved? At what instant is he assured eternal life in heaven with God? Is it when he prays to Christ to save him? Is it when he walks an isle in a church? Is it when he is baptized? Is it when he publicly declares his devotion to Christ? Is it when he passes from this life to the next after rigorously following a religious system? In brief: What is the “defining moment” of the salvation experience?

The Problem

But first it would be prudent to define from what a person must be saved. After all the word “saved” implies that there is something from which a person must be saved. The Word of God (Bible) clearly teaches that man’s initial disobedience (sin) to God in the Garden of Eden, when against God’s clear instructions Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, brought to man instant spiritual death (his spirit, man’s link with God, ceased to live) and he also began to die physically. Actually, Adam’s commission of sin took place prior to the picking and eating of the fruit. Adam’s sin was complete when he, within his will, made the decision to disobey God. The moment he made the firm decision to defy God’s command, which surely led to the act, Adam sinned against God and suffered death.

In Adam’s disobedience he acted “in behalf” of all mankind. From that moment on the Bible clearly reveals that Adam’s sin and resulting death is passed on down through birth to every person who has succeeded Adam, with only one exception—Jesus Christ. Every person, excepting Christ, is born with a “sin nature” and is spiritually (his spirit is) dead. Because of this nature, no person is capable of living without sinning against God. The end result of this condition is that every person’s soul (the thinking and feeling part of man) will eventually, upon physical death, be assigned to an eternity apart from God in a most horrible and blistering destination—Hell. The reason for this ultimate end is that God, who is pure and holy, cannot tolerate sin. He is a just God, and justice must prevail against those who sin against Him.

[Genesis 2: 15-17; 3:21, 22; Romans 2:15-17; 3:9-19, 23; 5:12, 16-19; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22; Galatians 3:22; Ephesians 2:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15]

Counterfeit Solutions

There are many false solutions to this condition, which portend an escape from an eternity in Hell. They may all be classified under the category of “self-effort,” meaning anything that man does to seek the approbation (approval) of God. At the very beginning of man’s rebellion, man sought to cover his nakedness and shame by his own efforts. In the Garden it was with leaves of plants, which was unacceptable to God who eventually clothed man with the skin of an animal (an act requiring the shedding of blood and which foretold of the future death of Christ).

Man’s self-effort often takes the form of virtuous (good or kind) deeds (acts or works). It may be expressed by ministering to the poor, loving and caring for one’s family, attending one’s church, praying for others, or a thousand other decent and noble accomplishments. The primary embodiment of such bogus solutions is religion. Jesus Christ, while on earth as the God-man, was always compassionate toward the sinner, but He was devastating to the pious (religiously devout). Today there are thousands of religions and beliefs, all vying for the souls of man and all promising deliverance. Yet they all defy God’s “plan of salvation.”

[Genesis 3:7, 21; Isaiah 64:6; Galatians 2:16; 3:11; Ephesians 2:8, 9; Matthew 23:1-33]

Scriptural Direction

Man may readily discover God’s one and only solution to his lost (unsaved) condition if he will only turn to God’s Holy Word, the Bible. God’s solution is declared both simply and frequently throughout His Word, both in type and in direct dialog. But even with the clarity of Scripture, man seeks to confuse and complicate the issue with a “series of steps” or various ordinances.

The basis for God’s “plan of salvation” rests solely in the Person and work of His Son,

Jesus Christ. Because of God’s love for man Jesus was born of a virgin and lived a life without sin. Eventually man delivered Jesus up to a Roman rugged cross to be crucified, not knowing that this was all in the plan of God. Upon the cross Jesus Christ bore the sins of all men and women who have ever and will ever live upon earth. Jesus, by His own death, paid the penalty-price for all of the world’s sin in order to satisfy the justice of Holy God. Because Jesus paid the price for sin, as mankind’s substitute, man may be excused from paying this price upon exercising only one requirement.

The Bible states that God’s way is one of grace and not works, which is best expressed in the phrase, “Faith alone in Christ alone.” God’s way, as stated in approximately 150 different scriptural verses, is when a person realizes he can do nothing to save himself (through religion, good works, noble thought, etc.) and simply turns (this is repentance) only to Jesus Christ and places his total trust (faith) in Jesus and what He did on the cross of Calvary in order to secure his eternal salvation. This is what is known as “believing in Jesus Christ”—not a “head belief” but a sincere, genuine heartfelt belief to which one commits. This acceptance of the free gift of Jesus Christ and His penalty-payment on the cross for the sins of mankind provides a spiritual rebirth within the person, that is, his spirit (connection to God) comes back to life (by instrument of the Holy Spirit) and henceforth will never again die. The body, because it retains the “sin nature” will continue toward physical death, but the spirit and soul of man will continue past physical death to forever be with God in Heaven.

[Luke 8:12; John 1:7, 12; 3:15-18, 36; 6:29, 35; 7:31; 8:30; 10:42; 11:25, 26, 45; 12:11; 20:31; Acts 3:16; 4:4, 8:12, 13; 9:42; 16:30, 31; 26:18; Romans 3:22, 25, 28; 4:5; 5:1, 2; 9:30; 10:6; Galatians 2:16; 3:6-9, 11, 22, 26; Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:38; Ephesians 1:13; 2:8, 9; 2 Timothy 1:12; 1 Peter 2:6-8; 1 John 3:23; 5:13; etc.]

Conclusion

So what is the defining moment of the salvation experience? It is that nanosecond period of time when a person decides (an act of will) to turn from every other confidence and to only trust (place one’s total faith) in Jesus Christ for one’s personal salvation. It may come as a result of a message from a minister encouraging the person to “ask Jesus to come into the person’s heart” or “repent of sin and trust in Jesus” or “call upon the name of the Lord,” but the defining moment is nothing more than “an act of the person’s will.” Once the person “wills” such a decision, he is instantaneously saved. He may think that his subsequent prayer to Jesus Christ or his walking down an isle in a church in public profession is what brings salvation, but he would be wrong.

God only requires genuine “faith” to be placed in His Son, and such faith is an act of the will. God made man in His image at Creation. A primary component of the “nature of God” is self-will. Man is not a robot with a predetermined and unalterable destiny. Man has been given the ability to make choices and the freedom to use it. Only in this way, by the freedom to choose God and His way, is God ultimately satisfied and glorified by man, the pinnacle of His creation.