Salvation Doesn't Need to be Confusing

Depending on your family background or religious tradition, you may have heard a variety of ideas about salvation.
Perhaps you think it’s what happens when you walk an aisle, pray a prayer or get baptized. Maybe you believe salvation is only for “good people,” or that salvation is something you have to earn with good works or something you can lose if you do bad things.
You don’t have to wonder or doubt. Jesus wants you to know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13). That’s why the Bible — God’s Word to us — is clear about every aspect of salvation:

Perhaps you’ve felt unworthy of salvation because of your past. Perhaps you’ve thought good works and keeping rules saved you. Maybe you thought you were saved because you were baptized or prayed a prayer, without experiencing a change of heart. The good news is that Jesus is calling you to trust and believe that He has done all the work. Jesus' death, burial and resurrection means we are forgiven and set free to live an abundant life with God here on earth and in eternity.
Jesus said, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Jesus is clear that if a person of this world is to be accepted into this other kingdom—the kingdom of heaven—he must be converted. Put very simply, to be converted is absolutely necessary to enter the kingdom of God.
What does the word conversion mean?In the biblical sense, conversion means a turning—a spiritual turning away from sin in repentance and to Christ in faith. It is a dramatic turning away from one path in order to pursue an entirely new one. It involves turning one’s back to the system of the world and its anti-God values. It involves a turning away from dead religion and self-righteousness. It involves a complete pivot, an about-face, in order to enter through the narrow gate that leads to life.
Conversion also involves the idea of changing direction.A true spiritual conversion radically alters the direction of one’s life. It is not a partial change wherein one is able to straddle the fence between two worlds. It is not a superficial turning, a mere rearranging of the outward facade of a person’s life. Conversion is not a gradual change that occurs over a period of time, like sanctification. Instead, a genuine conversion occurs much deeper within the soul of a person. It is a decisive break with old patterns of sin and the world and the embracing of new life in Christ by faith.
This spiritual conversion is so profound that it involves many changes in a person.It involves a change of mind, which is an intellectual change; and a change of view, a new recognition of God, self, sin, and Christ. It involves a change of affections, which is an emotional change, a change of feeling, a sorrow for sin committed against a holy and just God. It involves a change of will, which is a volitional change, an intentional turning away from sin and a turning to God through Christ to seek forgiveness.
The entire person—mind, affections, and will—is radically, completely, and fully changed in conversion. The whole purpose of conversion is to bring men and women into a right relationship with God.
This is why Christ came, and it is the reason for which He died. It was God who was “in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself ”(2 Cor. 5:19).
Conversion is the crying need of the soul. Until one’s life is turned from sin to Christ, nothing else matters.
If you have any questions, we want to help you take the next step.