Are You Saved? (By MDH)

ARE YOU SAVED? If you don’t understand the question, or can’t answer with an enthusiastic “Yes!”, this may well be the most important question that you’ll ever be called on to consider in all your life! For your sake, please read the tract all the way through. When you come to the end of it, fairly appraise your initial feelings when first being confronted with this issue, and then compare those feelings or thoughts with what you’ve discovered upon completing the reading of this message to you. In the last two centuries, more and more people have become familiar with hearing this great question: “Are you saved?” It is a question that has its basis in the grand old gospel message and is to be clearly seen as contained in Holy Scripture. Yet, because at its basis it challenges the religion of man, religious man has tried to distort the implications of this question. Just as a test, what was your first thought as to the meaning of this question, “Are you saved”? Are you thinking about your possible answer? Does it go along with any of the following types?: You recall a time in your life that you almost died, and at that serious time you recognized there is a God and that God has saved you from death, and perhaps because of it you have vowed to live as a better person. You have just joined a local church and have dedicated yourself to serving God better, or at least thinking about Him more from time to time. You have recently gotten free from an alcohol or drug addiction, and trust that your life will go better and that you’ll have a better chance for heaven. You were baptized or christened as an infant, later confirmed after attending religious studies, and make it to church on a regular enough basis to be considered a practicing member of your church. The question remains, “ARE YOU SAVED?” The tragedy is that most of the dear folks that find themselves in some of the above examples can’t say they are saved. Perhaps you might say the matter of describing oneself as being saved is just the peculiarity of some mistaught zealous religious groups. Yet, you must acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ is universally accepted in all professing Christian groups as being the Savior! And, what, pray tell, is a Savior? A Savior is one who saves. So then how can you confess the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and not be saved? What is it that the saved are saved from? Somebody might answer, “From their sins.” Someone else might say, “From hell.” Which is true? Both are true because it is the judgment on us because of our SINS that will place us in hell. God has punished sins and visited judgment on His own divinely appointed substitute, the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why isn’t everyone saved, because isn’t it true that Christ died for everyone? Yes, that is true. He did die for everyone, but that just makes Him the available Savior to everyone. As the Scripture says, He must be “received” (John 1:12), He must be “believed in” (John 3:14-16), one must come to Him (John 6:37; Matthew 11:28), one must trust in Him (2 Corinthians 1:9-10). Receive, believe, come and trust all mean the same thing. They are all action words that describe putting one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Man’s religion will tell you that Jesus is a helper in your salvation. The gospel of God tells you Christ is the only Savior of sinners! Man’s religion will tell you that if you confess Christ and become a member of a local church, you will be given life, but that you have to hold on to it. The gospel of Christ says that God gives eternal life to everyone who believes in His blessed Son! A salvation that one can have and lose has at its basis a temporary life and failing man who couldn’t keep it. God’s salvation has at its basis the precious shed blood of Jesus, the death of Christ on the cross, and the empty tomb of the risen and exalted Lord! God’s salvation promises that, because of Christ’s finished work, the sinner who trusts in the Lord Jesus receives everlasting life! The question remains: ARE YOU SAVED? Not to be saved is to be lost. To die in that condition is to be lost forever! Hell is eternal! SAVED in the Bible: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be SAVED, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31) “Who hath SAVED us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” (2 Timothy 1:9) “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are SAVED it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) Dear friend, now that you have read this message through, where does it leave you? (MDH) “ARE YOU SAVED?” Amazing grace (how sweet the sound), that SAVED a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see. - John Newton