Last week, we talked about some of the things in our lives that might keep us from being as close to God as possible and we discussed the idea of “selling” those things to remove them from our lives. That is a good foundation for our conversation today to help us prepare for Easter, which is three Sundays from now.
Today’s verse is from Romans 10:9 and it says “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
To those not familiar with the story of Jesus or the broader story of the Bible, it may sound too simple to obtain salvation simply by declaring Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Shouldn’t it take more work than that? Shouldn’t it be more involved or complicated? In fact, there was a lot more to it and the Bible tells us the story.
The entire Bible can actually be summarized in a single sentence – The Bible is the story of God pursuing us. It is all part of the same story and it all works together to complete God’s plan to bring us closer to Him.
God wants two things from us more than anything else: 1) He wants us to Love Him and love those around us while on earth and 2) He wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven. After trying many different approaches, God finally said something like this: “OK, let’s make this very simple. If you declare your love for Me and have faith in My Son Jesus (who is really Me in human form), I’ll do the rest. Then you will be saved and spend eternity with me in heaven.”
That’s a great plan but the price for our sin still had to be paid and the one who settled that debt had to experience the worst fate imaginable in order for that sin to be washed clean. That is why God had to come to earth in the human form of Jesus and die on the cross. Here is a post that explains the significance of Easter in more detail.
So, all of that is to say that Easter is the day we celebrate the final step in God’s long plan to defeat sin and death. Jesus’ death and resurrection permanently and completely broke the chains of sin and set us free to have eternal life. This reminds me of one of my favorite passages from 1 Corinthians 15:54-58:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Questions:
- How does it make you feel to know that all you have to do is declare Jesus as you Lord & Savior to receive eternal salvation?
- What does salvation mean to you and what is the value of salvation for you and your loved ones.
- Do you agree with the idea that the story of the Bible can be boiled down to the simple idea of God pursuing us? Why or why not?
- Many believe that Easter is the most important date on the Christian calendar. Do you agree?
- The Corinthians passage above says that because Jesus won the victory for us that we should “always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord”. When you think of giving yourself fully to the work of the Lord, what does that mean to you?
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