BIBLICAL SALVATION

By Robert R. Breaker III

copyright 2004
All rights reserved

This tract in printed form can be ordered from Breaker Publications.

BIBLICAL SALVATION

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2
Corinthians 13:5)

These words of the apostle Paul are very important, especially in the day and age of which
we live. For there are many people who run around saying they are "Christians" when they
most certainly are not! They are nothing more than lost reprobates who've never truly been
"born again." Are you one of these, dear reader? Have you examined yourself lately as the
Apostle Paul recommends? Are you truly saved?

Someone once said, "The problem with the world today is that the world is getting churchy
and the church is getting worldly." This is exactly right. Because of this, it's now hard to tell
the difference between a true Christian and a false one.

There are many people who claim to be Christians simply because they go to church, but
they have no testimony to prove their claim. The Apostle Paul says it clearly in 2 Timothy
3:1-7 when he says:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers
of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses,
and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
This sounds so much like lost religious people today! It's uncanny how Paul hit the nail on
the head!

Most people nowadays claim something that they don't live. They might make a profession of
salvation, but by their loose lifestyles, they show they have no possession of godliness for
they deny the power thereof (which is the Holy Spirit).

In the Bible, Salvation changes a person. This can plainly be seen by Paul's words in 1
Corinthians chapter six verses nine through eleven:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God.

Notice that Paul gives a list of sins, and then says to the Christians at Corinthians "such were
some of you!" In other words, a Christian should not be guilty of any of these things! Why?
Because he's been sanctified, washed, and justified!

So what's the deal? Why are there so many who claim to be Christians in our age who have
no standards and who live dirty, filthy lifestyles?

One answer could be that they are not really saved at all. Instead they've been deceived by
the devil into thinking they have salvation when they never understood it, or truly accepted it
from the heart. It could be that they are believing in another gospel!

THE GOSPEL

The true Gospel of Jesus Christ if found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. There we read:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in
memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures.

The Gospel has five parts. They are that:

1. Christ died

2. For our sins

3. Was buried
4. Rose Again

5. According to the Scriptures.

According to the Bible, the Gospel is what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross for our sins.
And if one believes in that, he's saved! But the passage also warns about those who believe in
"vain."

The word vain comes from the same root as "vanity," which speaks about one's own self or
one's own works. In short, if someone is trusting in something he did to save him, instead of
what God did for him, he's not saved, for he's believing in vain (or in himself).

ANOTHER GOSPEL

The Apostle Paul warned the following in Galatians 1:8, "But though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you,
let him be accursed."

Paul says there are "other gospels" out there that are not correct, and anyone who preaches
one of these is "accursed" or damned.

Some examples of these false gospels today would be, "Just Ask Jesus Into Your Heart,"
"Make Your Commitment to Christ," "Just Ask Jesus to Save You," "Give Your Heart and Life
To God," and the ever popular "Just Repeat This Little Prayer After Me!"

But where in the Bible do you find any of these? They are not there, for each one of them
makes a person trust in something they do (i.e. say a prayer, make a commitment, ask, or turn
over a new leaf, etc.) instead of what God did for them!

The Gospel is not what we can do to win God's favor. It is trusting solely and completely in
the death, burial, shed blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation!

REPENTANCE

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

- Luke 13:5

The main problem with the world today is that most people don't understand the definition of
the word Repentance. It has two definitions. It means:

1. To feel sorry for something.

2. To turn from one direction to another.

For someone to be saved, he must repent. That is to say, he should feel sorry for his sins, for
they are what put Jesus on the cross and made him have to die for them. But more
importantly they must turn from trusting in their own righteousness and works, and trust
solely and completely in Christ Jesus and his righteousness. This is salvation!

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

According to Ephesians chapter two and verses eight and nine, the Bible says that salvation is
a free gift obtained by faith. But the question then arises, "Faith in what?" The answer is
found in Romans chapter three and verse twenty-five:

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

This verse says that Jesus was set forth to be a "propitiation" (which literally means the act of
appeasing wrath), otherwise known as a "substitute." How is Jesus someone's substitute? The
verse says through FAITH IN HIS BLOOD!

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is your propitiation who died for your sins on the cross
and also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). And when you trust his shed blood,
God's wrath is appeased and he saves you!!! What a wonderful thing!

Hebrews 9:22 says, "without shedding of blood is no remission." God has always
demanded blood for sin. In the Old Testament, it was the blood of a lamb. But in the New, it's
the blood of THE LAMB — JESUS CHRIST!

1 Timothy 3:16 tells us that Jesus Christ was GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH! That
means that God himself loved us enough that he came down to earth to die in our place for
our sins and shed his precious, sinless blood to purchase (Acts 20:28) and redeem us (1 Peter
1:18,19) and give us the free gift of Eternal life (Rom. 6:23)! What a wonderful and caring
God!

The Bible then tells us how to avail ourselves of this wonderful gift of eternal life. It is not by
works of our own righteousness (according to Titus 2:13), but by faith in him (John 3:36).

Let us now look at the following three verses in the book of Romans to get this all together:

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
(Romans 3:24)

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through him. (Romans 5:9)
Justification or Salvation then, according to the Bible, is by God's grace and our faith in his
precious shed blood!

And look at the same word used in each one of these verses — Justified. If we break that
word up we have JUST IF IED or "Just if I'd." When I trusted Jesus Christ as my Saviour, the
Bible tells me it's "Just if I'd never sinned!"

For Ephesians 1:7 and Col. 1:14 listed below tell me I'm completely forgiven through his
blood!

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
(Colossians 1:14)

When a person trusts the shed precious blood of Jesus Christ, according to the Bible, it's Just
as if he'd never sinned because he's fully pardoned and forgiven. Why? Because the Bible
says that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth...from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

CONCLUSION

How about it dear reader, are you saved? Are you trusting solely in the precious shed blood
of Jesus Christ to save you? Are you washed in the blood of the lamb (Rev. 1:5)? Or are you
one of those who claims to be a Christian, but instead is trusting in something they have done
or possibly is still doing to get to heaven? You'd better examine yourself. For outside of the
blood of Jesus Christ there is no salvation!

Biblical Salvation then is by God's grace and our faith in his precious shed blood! And I
know I'm saved, for as the old hymn goes, "I put my faith in nothing less than Jesus blood
and righteousness! On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand!"

How about you? Do you have Biblical Salvation? If not, then why not stop trusting in your
own self righteousness and trust the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ to save you? God
wants to save you today!

CONTACT ME AT:

RobertBreaker3@hotmail.com