"Believing The Gospel Will Save You"

I Corinthians 15: 1-4

1. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2. By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

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ur overall subject continues to be personal and in the form of the question: “Are you saved?” No doubt, this has been so impressed upon us by the Lord because of the fact that it will be required of all to stand before Him. When that day arrives, the answer will come not so much from our lips, but from what our life preaches.

So much about our spiritual lives is dependent upon how we perceive and accept what the Lord attempts to teach us. Actually, all that the Lord sends, He intends to be a “message” to us concerning what we need to change. Now, when we receive our “messages” based upon our human understanding, we will miss God’s “point” every time. This is because all that the Lord deals with, He brings to minister to the spiritual, rather than physical Man. The Lord has no use for the physical beyond that which He needs done in the present. You see, the only aspect of Man with everlasting importance is the spiritual aspect, because only this survives the grave.

When we speak of “belief,” we are speaking of that which allows us to receive of God. Of necessity, this involves faith, for you see, we believe that in which we have faith. It is precisely our “belief system” which will either “make” or “break” us. By “belief system” we mean the “system” by which we choose to believe. For the child of God, this means that one will either believe according to his flesh—or, according to the Spirit.

We stay in the “same place”(that is, the same spiritual state) so to speak, because we never give ourselves a chance to develop as spiritual beings. Doing so would mean that we would have to deal with everything according to the Spirit. Unfortunately, our tendency is to relate to things according to our human understanding.

The problem with attempting to understand anything is that “understanding” is associated with the human animal and that which is of God is not understandable through the human psyche. To operate according to the Spirit, one must know that what God says is true not because one can understand it, but rather, because it is what God has said.

The reality of the life in Christ is that we are saved by faith through believing what the gospel has said. Scripture, itself, tells us to “search the scriptures” and it offers us this option because it is we who expect to find within the pages of the Bible eternal life. Once we begin searching for that life, we come to understand that the pages that we search speak of one person only—Jesus Christ.

Faith is essential in the life of the child of God because the “human being” is naturally pessimistic. Since he depends upon himself, he is limited in what he can accomplish—and those limitations color everything he says, does, thinks and believes. So, it is “faith” which separates the spiritual being from the fleshly being.

Every human creature who would be saved will be saved only through the “press.” Salvation involves a “press” for those of human origin. Why? Because what it takes to be saved is opposed to “human being—ness.” Therefore, only through believing in Someone or something outside of ourselves, will we be able to be saved.

Believing the gospel and the God behind the gospel will afford us the opportunity to gain rich, essential experiences in the Lord. You see, outside of “believing” we would never remain “still” long enough to discover any “truths” about the Lord—which would render us unable to help anyone else.

What exactly does it mean to “believe the gospel?” First of all, we must accept that Jesus died. It is not His death alone, however, that gives us power. What we enjoy, we enjoy because of the fact that after His death, He was buried and rose again! In the resurrection, we are given proof of another life. If we had no knowledge of there being something to which we are raised, how would we ever be prepared? It is through committing our lives to the Lord in this life that we are prepared for eternal life.

The Lord does not ask us to give our all to Him without rewarding us. Simply by serving Him, we are given access to all that belongs to Him. Unfortunately, too many times, we want the “access” without the “service.” But, you see, we are allowed “privileges” in the Lord only because of our position in Him—and that “position” is dependent upon our service.

“The truth about salvation” is that in order to be saved, one must be willing to submit himself. True salvation is enjoyed by very few because to be saved truly, one must be free of himself—and that is a difficult state for Man to achieve.

It is “believing the (truth of the) gospel that will save (us),” rather than just hearing it. Thank God He did not base His truth on how anything would “look,” “seem,” “appear” to us or be perceived by us. Rather, His truth is based on what He says—and He is ever a God of His word.