It's often been said in order to be saved, in order to enter into heaven, all you have to do is proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and place your faith in him. While it is true that we are saved by His grace through our faith, in order to truly understand how we are to enter into heaven, you have to read the ENTIRE New Testament... not just one or two verses.
There is more to it than just placing our faith with him....
The most important part is to proclaim him with your mouth as Lord and Savior; to believe on his life, death and resurrection. And if you truly mean it, if it is with pure sincerity and honesty, he WILL begin working within you, changing you into a "new creature" in Christ... a spiritual rebirth. This is what it means to be "born again"...
Just as we did not participate in our physical birth, we are not responsible for our spiritual rebirth either, for being born again...
It is simply an act of God.
We do not perform works, rituals, sacrifices... we do not do anything. Besides placing our faith in Christ with all honesty. And if it is true sincerity, if our hearts are pure... He WILL change you.
John 6:44
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
And if he has drawn you in, if he has begun working within you, there WILL be a change from your former self. A change of morality, a change of character... a change of being.
You cannot live as a habitual, continual, UNREMORSEFUL sinner, if he has begun working within you. You cannot live as the rest of the world, if you have been born again.
For anyone who has been born again with the holy spirit, is of God. And he who has not been born again, he who does NOT confess that Jesus is the Christ.. has the spirit of Antichrist.
John 4:2-3
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Being born again with the spirit of God, we, being the righteous, are told to seperate ourselves from the unrighteous....from the rest of the world.
2 Corinthians 6:14
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
And if we are told to seperate ourselves from the unrighteous, how does one expect to be counted as righteous, if he acts just as the rest of the world??
I've often heard that once you proclaim him as savior, you're free to act however you want... you can continue sinning on a daily basis, and act just as the rest of the world ..however ungodly and unrighteous you desire. But since you proclaimed Jesus as savior, you are saved... you are automatically reserved a spot in heaven.
1 Corinthians 6:9
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
God bless.
🙏
