Paul says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." He goes on to say, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved."
The first thing you need to believe is the death of Jesus. He died for our sins, which means I must believe I am a sinner. (Romans 5:8) A person that doesn't believe he is a sinner can't be saved. If there is nothing to forgive, Jesus didn't do anything for me. If he didn't do anything for me, I'm not believing him for salvation. If I'm not believing him for salvation, I must not be saved. So you must believe you are a sinner. (Romans 3:23)
You must believe that there is a God who has created the possibility for sin. That is, sin by definition is the falling short of the expectations of your Creator. So there has to be a Creator God out there who has expectations of humans. God expects humans to trust him, love him and live for him. And we fail. (Romans 3:11)
Which leads us to the third thing we believe. Because we fail to trust, love and live for God we are under his holy judgement-his wrath. (Romans 6:23) You've got to believe that.
If you are a sinner and there is a holy God, and if you are defining sin as a falling short of that God, then in order to understand what he is doing to make things right you must understand that God cannot tolerate sin. He is a good and just judge.
So, what has he done to solve the problem of our alienation from him? He has sent his son into the world. You've got to believe in the deity of Jesus. (That Jesus is God) (John 3:16)
You must also acknowledge what Jesus did. He lived a perfect life. (1 Peter 2:22) You cannot believe that Jesus sinned and still be saved. Because then the sacrifice made for you was not what God required, and you aren't believing in what God did for you. So Jesus is the sinless, Son of God, and he gave himself up to die in my place.
Let's just say that what is required is the core of the gospel- that the remedy is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who never sinned got in my place and took the wrath of God for me. He died in my place. (Romans 4:25)
If he had stayed dead, we would still be in our sins. So you must believe he rose from the dead. (2 Corinthians 5:15)
We'd love to have a conversation with you about salvation!
Please email us at or stop by the Prayer and Care room on Sunday morning.