Your Soul Can Be Saved

But what does it mean to be saved?

First of all, you need to be forgiven. Without forgiveness, your soul will remain separated from God. If nothing is done within your lifetime to reconcile you with God, you will be separated from God forever. This is what Jesus came to resolve first, our alienation from God due to sin. The wages of sin is death, and death is first and foremost our separation from the source of life itself, God. Jesus died on the cross so that you can be forgiven once and for all. This is called reconciliation with God.

Second, you need to be born again into God's family. This can only happen through union with Jesus Christ. You need to be united with Him in His death as well as in His resurrection to experience new life. You will become blameless and righteous only by being united with Him. He alone will give you the right to become a child of God. He will pour out His love in you by filling you with His Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will enable you to cry out to God, "Abba, Father!" He will testify in your spirit that you are now a child of God.

Third, you need to be transformed. This will be the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Each day He will guide you and lead you, transforming you from the inside out. If you will obey Him, He will teach you how to live according to the way of Jesus together with others. This process will also include difficulties or sufferings, but fear not, as a child of God, nothing will come to you unless it comes through Jesus first. What He allows will always be for your good. Therefore, you can rely on Him as you follow the Holy Spirit each step of the way. In time, you will become more like Him through this process of transformation.

Fourth, you need to fulfill your mission. God has a purpose for your life. You are to represent Him in this world by being like Jesus His Son. By obeying Him each day, you will understand the will of God. He has prepared good works for you to do while you are in this world. You can only fulfill your mission in life by remaining in Him. Through His work in you, you will understand His good, pleasing, and perfect will. You will be able to say and do what Jesus will say and do if He was you.

Last but not least, you need to persevere until He returns to establish a new creation. This new creation has already started in His first coming. But soon He will return to complete it and begin a new creation where there will be no more suffering and death. Everything will be totally new. This is His promise. In the meantime, our calling is to persevere and remain faithful, serving Him with our time, talents, and treasures until He returns and give us our rewards. The Bible says those who endure until the end shall be saved.

So, this is what it means to be saved.