Jesus came to save the world from their sin, and free us from the Old Testament law. Everyone that is Christian or been around church for any period of time knows this. The message of salvation is the foundation of the New Testament and the method that God himself chose to offer us a way to heaven. God made the path to salvation simple but precise, and it is by no accident that our enemy has done everything in his power to complicate and confuse the message of salvation.

Works

Whenever I speak to someone about salvation and the enemies attack on it, the response I normally get is that he confuses it with works. Churches correctly identify this in most cases.

• Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

The works based salvation message is dangerous, seriously dangerous. When measured up against the bible and our sinful nature it becomes impossible to be saved if one believes that they are saved through any action other than their belief in Christ that he is God. There is however a more subtle attack on salvation that if often not spoken of and it has similar consequences.

Let us review a few verses about salvation,

• Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God
• Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
• John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This message is clear, very simple. If we believe in Christ, that he is God and died on the cross to save us from our sin, we are saved. So, what of repentance, where does that fit in? surely you cannot be saved unless you repent of your sin???

Repentance – Let Confusion Reign

Yes, a person must repent to be saved. That is a provocative statement but is true only when understood correctly. The word repentance means to turn from, the Greek word “g3341” means the following,

• A change of mind
• Of a purpose he has formed
• Of something he has done

Notice the absence of forgiveness, repentance is a human changing his mind. So, when we talk about salvation the question must be to change our mind from what? Here is where the enemy has worked hard, he has cleverly assigned repentance to sin in all cases. Reader sin and salvation are not related! Let’s just confirm this,

Sin and Salvation are not related!

As we have seen in the above verses salvation is a gift from God, it is achieved through belief, and not through forgiveness of sin. So, repentance simply is, to change ones mind from not believing in Christ, to believing in Christ. Yes, it is that simple.

Why is it Dangerous

The trouble with assigning any form of forgiveness of sin to salvation is twofold,

• It destroys the fact that it is a gift from Christ
• It makes the act of achieving salvation impossible

Let’s ask ourselves a few questions to verify this. Let’s say we assign forgiveness of sin to salvation, and we are washed clean and, in our mind, going to heaven.

• What happens when at some point in the future we sin again?
• Do we not go to heaven because we haven’t sought forgiveness?
• Are we now locked in a perpetual daily exercise of asking for forgiveness to ensure we are going to heaven?
• If we forget to seek forgiveness on any day and we die, does that mean we have unforgiven sin in our life and thus do not go to heaven?

Things quickly deteriorate and become very messy. All the while we have unknowingly assigned the work of seeking forgiveness to our salvation in Christ, and we are back to works based salvation.

There is however a simple concept that destroys this mess. Christ died on the cross for you, in doing so took the burden of your sin. When he did this, he did it before you were born, so he did this for all of your future sin, sin committed both prior to your salvation and after your salvation. He paid the price for all this sin some 2000 years ago. If the debt is paid, how can you be refused salvation for any sin, any time? The answer is you cannot.

Conclusion

The bible is clear and absolute, we achieve salvation by changing our mind from disbelief to belief in Christ. Once received we now have a place in heaven for eternity, done deal. Now of course when we do this with a genuine heart we should see changes in our hearts, as time progresses as a saved Christian we should see a continual attempt to turn from sin, become more Christ like, however these actions and progression have nothing to do with the initial gift of receiving salvation and our place in heaven.