What does it take to be saved?

[daniel]

Just a quick question. According to your understanding - what does
it require for the average Joe to be "saved." I know you believe
once someone is saved - they don't have to look back - their
salvation is guaranteed. I am teaching a lesson this Sunday that
deals with salvation - and would like to have your input and
scriptural source(s) for your belief. I know you are busy - so you
can keep it brief.


Regarding salvation and the average Joe.
First my belief in once saved always saved does not hold for all of Christianity.
Some believe the way I do, others believe you can loose salvation if you turn away.  This is a debate that i often have with people.  I feel scripture clearly teaches those who are "truly" saved will not loose their place.  This is based on several scriptures.  This answer also relates to your question, what does it take for the average Joe to be saved.

Jesus says no one is able to snatch or take "His sheep" so if someone truly belongs to Jesus, I dont see how they can be His sheep and then not be His sheep.


27    "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28    "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29    "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
John 10:17-29


Secondly, the Bible also demonstrates when someone comes to know Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God Himself comes to dwell in the saved person.  The person literally becomes the Temple of God. Also, the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of God's redemption.  It's God's down payment on the person of their salvation.  So how good is a guarantee if it is later taken back, not too good.

13    In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14    who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14

16    And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
2 Corinthians 6:16

So what does it take to be saved?

Well when somebody is saved they understand their are a sinner, who needs a savior.  So being saved means coming to "Saving Knowledge" of Jesus Christ. Knowing He is Lord and died for your sins.  This does not just mean saying a few words, and boom you are saved!

Its about having a relationship "Knowing" Jesus, Jesus refers to this on the day of Judgment, when many people will claim to have known Jesus, but he will say, I "Never Knew" you, there was no relationship, even through they thought they knew Jesus they did not.

21    "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22    "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23    "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
Matthew 7:21-23


When someone knows Jesus, they are Born Again, the Holy Spirit is dwelling in them, they are new creation.  They are not saved by their works, but their life is transformed because God's Spirit is present.

3    Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4    Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5    Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6    "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7    "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8    "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9    Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"
10    Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11    "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12    "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13    "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
14    "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15    "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16    "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17    "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:3-17

For the average Joe to be saved, they need to have a relationship with the Jesus of the "Bible", that is what it means to know Him.  You see many faiths, might have a "Jesus", but that does not mean if you acknowledge that Jesus existed you are saved.

The Muslims have a "Jesus" but their Jesus is "another" Jesus, the Da Vinci Code has a "Jesus" but its another Jesus.  The Bible requires faith in the Biblical Jesus.  Paul writes about this to Corinth.

For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted-you may well put up with it!
2 Corinthians 11:4