Salvation. Period.

On your birthday, remember that God has promised us life after death when we have accepted His gift of salvation. What does that mean? Let us take a quick trip down the Roman Road of salvation. We will start in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” this verse needs little to no explanation for an honest person. We certainly have all sinned! If you are unsure just ask your spouse or best friend.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, we all deserve to die in our sins, but we don’t have to! The gift of salvation is the greatest gift of all eternity!! It is truly a gift of grace, not something any of us could ever earn. In this Christmas season it is often easy to forget about this gift of all gifts. I was at a shopping center this past Saturday and just watched the craziness of buying gifts. Several years ago, I saw two ladies fighting over a game for children. Literally these two ladies were pulling each other’s hair out – over a game! Both women were taken away in handcuffs by police. What a sad example of the joy of giving gifts! Jesus died on the cross in true agony because He loved us and made the act of giving it all beyond our human comprehension.

Romans 5:18 “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” Take note of ONE trespass affecting ALL people and ONE righteous act affects the life of ALL people. ONE God for ALL people. No prejudice, no acts of service or no way to earn our salvation. Not to mention Jesus died once for all. So many times, I’ve heard people say (sometimes within my head as well) that we have too many sins or too severe of sins that we can’t possibly be forgiven by a perfect God. How often can we do a study on the gift of grace and still not fathom the amazing gift of grace? It’s truly mind boggling but then we must exercise faith, don’t we? Of course, that’s another study within itself!

Back to the Roman Road – Romans 10:9,10 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Please note here that there are periods after both times the word “saved” was used. There is no room for argument with that period being there! 

Now back to Luke 12:4. With the understanding of salvation there is truly nothing else that man can do to us. Yes, they can take our physical lives, but they cannot take our spiritual heritage when we are saved. Period! There are no stop signs or speed bumps paving the road to heaven. We are heaven bound regardless of what man may say or do to us. It’s a victorious gift from God. Like Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Philippians 1:21

Denise R

’67 / ’81 Quarryville, PA