The Redeemed

Are you redeemed by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?  If you were to die today, do you know without a doubt where you would be.  Over the years I have seen people who grew up in church, even pastors get saved after they realized they had not been saved, redeemed by the blood of our Lord and Saviour.

I remember growing up and seeing signs everywhere with John 3:16 on them.  Then when the pastor would have a sermon on John 3:16, I would think don’t we see that verse enough.  The answer of course is no.  I don’t see that verse on much anymore. I don’t think I have actually seen it outside of my studies in a long while.  Why was that verse so popular, because it gives you the answer to my first two sentences above.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (KJV).

Verses 17 and 18 I think is also important to add onto this, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  John 3:17-18 (KJV).  I don’t think you have to have a theology degree to understand these verses, I have understood them since I was a child, but it seems to be misunderstood and under used in our current churches. At least the many I have attended in recent years.

I am trying to think the last time I heard a sermon on John 3:16, I cannot remember the last one, but it was a long time ago. How about the topic of the “Roman’s Road”, I have tracts and many things with this on it, including a handwritten paper in my main Bible that I wrote the Roman’s Road on right after I was saved as a child. I still carry it in my Bible.

I had not heard the term “Roman’s Road” in awhile until this last Sunday. In our Sunday School class we were giving testimonies and one person stated that someone on visitation to her house read through the Roman’s Road to salvation and she was saved.  When I went forward to get saved, I was a young child, but I remember it today like it was yesterday.  I know who met me at the front and knelt down with me and went through the Roman’s Road with me at the front of the church, but I don’t remember the words, I had heard them a million times by that time it seemed, but I remember the surrender of my heart to God and the feeling that only someone who has been truly saved knows.

I remember praying for God to forgive me of my sins, and praying that I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,  that He came to the earth to teach and be an example for us, and that He paid the ultimate sacrifice on the cross to redeem me from my sins, and rose from the grave to make intercession for me at the right hand of God.  To pay the debt that only He could pay.

Dictionary.com has the definition of redeemed as to “clear by payment”.  If you have been redeemed, your sin debt, which is to die and go to hell, a place of burning for all eternity, has been paid by the painful and agonizing death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  When He died on the cross He consumed every sin that you have done or will do, into Himself, and that sin died with Him,  as long as you believe in Him.

Thanks to this payment, you will spend eternity with God and our Lord and Saviour in Heaven.  If you have been saved, you know it.  Salvation is a life changing experience you will never forget.  There still seems to be some confusion, and then there is the question can you loose your salvation.  That is a whole separate topic I will address later, but I think scripture is pretty clear on once saved, always saved.  However, I believe there is a difference between being filled with the Holy Spirit and not being filled with the Holy Spirit,  but that is for another blog as well.

I wanted to write this because I don’t know who will read this blog, Christian or non-Christian. But I want to be able to provide the salvation message on this blog, so anyone reading it that does not know where they will spend eternity, will know they have a choice and know today that they will be with God for all eternity.

There is a page set up on this site, entitled “How To Be Saved” which discusses this topic of salvation with all the scriptural references. If you are not saved or question your salvation, please visit this page.  Of all the decisions you make in life, this one is the most important and time sensitive decision you will ever make.  None of us know when or where we will end this life, and the decision will be gone.

John 3: 18 describes above that we are born into sin and therefore we are condemned already unless we make the decision to believe in him.  The Roman’s Road verses further detail the verses in John, and I have listed the verses below:  “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” Romans 3:10 (KJV). “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 (KJV).  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12 (KJV).  “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (KJV).  “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”  Romans 5:6 (KJV).  “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”  Romans 5:8-9 (KJV).  “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  Romans 10:9-10 (KJV).  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Romans 10:13 (KJV).

I don’t think there is an easier way to explain how to know where you will spend eternity.  Of course being Baptist I also add the following verses to the Roman’s Road verses:  “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”  Romans 6:3-5 (KJV).

Baptism does not save a person, this is clear in the Bible, but Baptism is a symbol of our willingness to follow our Lord and Saviour, and that we are truly redeemed, by His death, burial and glorious resurrection.

Are you redeemed by the blood of the Lamb?  I am, and I thank the Lord Jesus Christ every chance I get in prayer for coming to this earth, going through the trials and temptations, the pain and agony of torture, and the painful death on the cross for my sins.  I was asked one time why Christians are always trying to do the right thing and be so righteous, I answered because I have already added more pain to my Lord and Saviour than I could ever imagine, and I don’t want to add any more sin to the debt he paid.

If your not redeemed, you can be today, ask God to forgive you of your sins, truly believe with all your heart, mind and soul in the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask the Holy Spirit to regenerate, indwell and seal you with the peace and understanding only He can.  In Christ.