What exactly is salvation?
You see, when you look at the Bible verses that are referred to most commonly used to lay the framework of the sinner's prayer, like John 3:16, and Romans 10:9, you have to dig deeper into scripture to see what is really being said.
Let's take a look at those verses starting with John 3:16 in this entry.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
"believeth" come from the Greek word- πιστεύω (pisteuó). This means to believe, entrust. It;s root is the Greek word πίστις, εως, ἡ (pistis), which is closer to "have faith in" than to believe.
"should not perish" comes from the Greek Word- ἀπόληται (apolētai). This means to destroy fully, literally or figuratively. In other words, complete and utter destruction; Or maybe a good way to think of it is as being lost to never be found, this would be the same as eternal damnaion, or going to hell.
This is the Cadillac of "salvation" Bible verses. It is the first verse memorized by most believers and the one that is most often referred to when witnessing to unbelievers, and the one that the sinner's prayer is based upon.
The first part of John 3, verses 1 through 22 tell of a meeting between the Pharisee, Nicodemus, and Jesus. It is important to know who Nicodemus was, and in order to do that, one must understand what being a pharisee actually means.
Pharisees were the religious zealots, the ultra-legalists of their day. They were the highest of the religious order in that part of the world, and the forefathers of Judaism. They are considered authorities on all things spiritual in their time.
To sum up, Pharisees were a lawful, pious bunch. Think haughty and perhaps even a bit uppity. They would not be caught in less reputable areas of he city, and lived a very strict life, according the Torah (the first five books of cannonized scripture). They were Bbiblical scholars, who according the information in the link above, lived by the letter of the law early on, but as social circumstances changed, they began to live by the spirit of the law. It might do well to think of them as the virtue signalers of the day.
In the first verse of the chapter, Nicodemus is described as a Pharisee, and a leader of the Jews. So not only was he part of this group of pious law abiding religious folks, but he was a leader of the jews.
Leader- ἄρχων, οντος, ὁ (archón) meaning ruler or chief.
He would be revered, even feared by the common folk of the day. If he was coming to dinner, you would clean up the house, and get out grandma's fine china and cutlery that you only used for the most important of events. You would sweep the floor twice, and make sure all the throw pillows were in exactly the right place. You warned your kids beforehand that they were to be on their best behavior and if they weren't they would be grounded for life, and you would slaughter the finest of lambs for the meal. You would not only want to impress Nicodemus, you would want to make sure he had no reason to think anything even slightly sideways about your family, as his word would be weighty enough to have you jailed or even worse.
This man came to Jesus "at night".
From the Greek νύξ, νυκτός, ἡ- (nux), meaning night, by night.
The significance here it is believed is that at night, it would be less likely that Nicodemus would be detected speaking with Jesus. He wanted to meet with Jesus away form the all the prying eyes of the "paparazzi" of the day. In fact it is generally thought that Nicodemus risked much by meeting with Jesus, but that we was so compelled to speak with the man that he put his professional reputation on the line to do so. The leaders of the Pahrisees had put an APB out on jesus and his followers for at this point, Jesus chad made claims in his preaching that he was the Son of God, which they considered blasphemus, a crime punishable by death n those times. I often thought that in part, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night in part to hide the meeting, but also to some to him just as Nicodemus, and not Nicodemus the Pharisee.
Nicodemus had either seen directly or heard of some of the miracles that Jesus had done, and he came to him and and said, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. (John 3:2)
So this leads me to believe that Nicodemus may have been questioning, at the very least, whether or not Jesus was the Messiah who was prophesized about.
Then in verse 3, Jesus didn't acknowledge what Nicodemus said directly and instead spits some fire right back at Nicodemus... Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Why would Jesus respond like this? Well, if Jesus was going to say one thing to Nicodemus, or you or to me... this is what he would want you to know. This is THE most important message of the entire Bible, bar none.
This is Salvation.
Nicodemus though, didn't understand, he was thinking in a worldly way, which we can tell by his response in verse 4: How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
In verses 5-8, Jesus exponds a bit on what being born again means: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Basically everyone is born in the body, this is the physical birth when we escape our mother's womb. But, in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one must also be born in the Spirit.
and John 3:16, often referred to as the "Gospel in a nutshell", is Jesus' explanation of why Nicodemus must be "born again" to enter the kingdom of Heaven. This has come to be known through the ages as "salvation". Millions and millions of people throughout history have been taught that following Jesus' advice in John 3:16 is all they need to do in order to be saved.
I am here to tell you that this is NOT what the Bible says. We will get into this much deeper in upcoming entries, but for now, the best thing you can do is to pray for discernment and ask God to reveal the truth of His Word to you, so that you might make it into His Kingdom.
Eternity is too long to be wrong.
In the next entry we will look a another "salvation" verse. We have to understand Salvation completely in order to understand what things there are that can hide the truth of it from the people, but also to understand what things there are that can flip those who have been genuinely saved back to being lost.
Yes, I said it. You CAN lose your salvation. It is very clear in Scpriture, and in Jesus "red" words, and parables he taught. We will get into that later on, after we have established a firm benchmark for understanding what salvation actually is.
Romans 10:9- That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Confess is the Greek word-
Beleive is the Greek word-
Saved is the Greek word-
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Acts 16:30-31 “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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