In Response to Jesus’ teachings — How can I be saved?

First, you have to understand that God wants to save you. It’s His idea. That’s why He sent Jesus into the world in the first place. You are reading this because God loves you and wants to save you through Jesus.

What does it mean to be saved? Saved from what? Good question.

There is a separation between you and God—between everyone who was ever born and the God who created the universe. This separation was caused by sin. All people are born under the curse of sin, and all people spend their entire lives making it worse by sinning. We hurt people, we mess up our lives, and we live as though there is not a God. We act like we are God. This is the problem that we all face. Left to ourselves we would die and remain separate from God—to be separate from God is to be in the outer darkness, a miserable place of our own making.

But God doesn’t want you to be separated from Him, He doesn’t want you to have a miserable life outside His blessing, He doesn’t want you to die under the weight of your sin and failure. He wants you to know joy. He wants you to experience peace—to realize His great love for you. He wants to show you kindness and mercy, for you have have a meaningful life that’s full of hope. Hope for today and hope for eternity.

So that’s why God sent Jesus into the world—because He loves you. Jesus is the Son of God, He has been with God from the beginning, He was with God and He was God. He is God. This is a great mystery but somehow God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all One God. One God, three Persons.

Because all people had sinned and fallen short, because we all were separated from God—He became one of us so that He could save us. God the Son became a human baby, grew to be a man, taught us what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love our neighbor as our self.

He also died for us and raised from the dead so that we can be saved—so we can be forgiven, and so we can also have the hope of raising from the dead and living forever. His kingdom of hope has already begun for all of us who believe in Jesus.

So how can we be saved? By believing in the One God sent to save us. Believe on the name of Jesus and you will be saved. Your sins will be forgiven. You will be connected to God. You will inherit eternal life—and your life will be full of meaning and hope and purpose.

Pray this: Father in heaven, I confess that I need You. I have sinned against You by my thoughts, my words and the things I have done. I have not loved You. I have not loved others. For all these things I am deeply sorry. Forgive me for all these things. Forgive me because of the promises offered in Jesus Christ. I believe His life, death, and resurrection are true—and that they are for me. I renounce the world, my old life, and all false gods. I pledge myself to Jesus Christ who lives and reigns now and forever. AMEN.

As the Scriptures say,
“No one is righteous—
    not even one.
No one is truly wise;
    no one is seeking God.
All have turned away;
    all have become useless.
No one does good,
    not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12)
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. (Romans 3:23-25)
The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
God showed us His great love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
IF you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13)
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:16-21)

It’s very important that all followers of Jesus are part of a local church. To follow Jesus is to be a disciple—one who is learning from Jesus. Hearing God’s promises and believing them is only the beginning. You don’t have to do this alone. Find a local church, ask about baptism, start each week with worship, study and meditate on the Word of God (the Bible), pray throughout the day.

If you are near Katy, Texas—we would love for you to join us at NewChurch. If you are anywhere else in the world, maybe this local church locator website can help. Here is a link to the Gospel of Mark, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Pastor Frank. May the Lord bless and keep you.