Rescue

May 27, 2023

Christians talk about the importance of being “saved.” What exactly do they mean? What are people being saved from? The easy answer is “eternal separation from God.” That’s not persuasive unless you believe in eternity and God.

It’s easy to go through life not seeing a need for being saved or having a relationship with God. Life is what it is. People make choices that lead them on the path they think is best. They do the best they can with the cards they are dealt. They aren’t convinced there is a God.

From time to time the unexplainable happens. For instance, miracles of healing occur that the doctors can’t take credit for. A helping hand appears that you didn’t see coming. Someone prays to God and circumstances change for the better. In those cases it’s impossible to be confident there is no God.

Life processes, like a beating heart or respiration, logically could not have developed by chance. Photosynthesis or rain are other such processes. The easiest and most straightforward explanation is the existence of God.

To be saved is to be in right-standing with God. Those who have heard from God over the ages have consistently related that we are destined for punishment, because we fail to always do what God calls us to do, because we just can’t.. To be saved means to take the one option God has provided to ‘get right’ with God: Believe that Jesus is God’s son and that his death paid the penalty for all our mistakes.

To be saved is more. It’s not only being saved from punishment, but being saved to a better life. We are saved to a right-ness that doesn’t change with the whims of society. We get saved to having hope in all circumstances, to an assurance that we don’t have to solve every problem and carry every burden by ourselves.

“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