STEPS TO SALVATION

            Many of us have grown up learning the steps to salvation:  hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.  In years gone by, some of our dear brethren laboring in the preaching of the gospel on the western reserve and elsewhere, employed “the five fingers of one hand" to remind young people of the importance of each one of these steps.  Of course we'd be wise to acknowledge a sixth step (press on to maturity / Heb.6:1) to this digital exercise.  Sadly, not a few have begun their journey with Christ (hearing, believing, repenting, confessing and being baptized) only to fall away later in life, failing to continue in growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2Pet.3:18). 

            These six steps on our part help us to come to stand in Christ Jesus.  These are not meritorious deeds.  No one can earn their salvation. The apostle Paul says so clearly in Rom.6:23-24 - - All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being JUSTIFIED AS A GIFT BY HIS GRACE, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.  In another passage (Eph.2:8) Paul reiterates:  For by grace you have been saved THROUGH FAITH.  While not meaning to either eradicate or marginalize God’s indispensable grace, these six steps nevertheless prove to be valuable expressions of our per-sonal faith.  Jesus once warned His followers, saying,  Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven (Mt.7:21).  These six steps are part and parcel of DOING THE WILL OF GOD.

            In a new sermon series now underway we will examine each one of these steps to salvation.  Some have heard the proclamation of the gos-

pel of Christ (perhaps you have heard hundreds of sermons) but have not taken the necessary steps to OBEY the call of the gospel.  As the book of

Acts clearly displays, this call of the gospel comes with an expected response.  When Saul of Tarsus met Jesus on the road the Damascus, he wasn't left to wonder what he ought to do.  He was told by Jesus, “rise and enter the city, and it shall be told to you WHAT YOU MUST DO” (Acts 9:6).  Saul was quick to believe, but that was just one step.  He was clearly penitent (he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank (Acts 9:9).  If, in the first-century, there was such a thing as a "sinner's prayer", Saul must have surely prayed it (Acts 9:11).  Yet when Ananias, a messenger from

God appeared to Saul/Paul, he pointedly said to him:  And now why do you delay?  Arise, and be baptized and wash away your sins (Acts 22:16).  If and when we hear others say, “There is nothing I need to do, Jesus did it all for me!”, let us be reminded that this is not the voice of Scripture.

                                                                                                                                            Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ