There are many things that you can learn from the Bible, but one piece rises above all others. How we attain “eternal life” may seem like a future concern for you if you are young. Please consider that any of us can die at any time. Also be aware that if you understand the Gospel clearly, then it deeply impacts the meaning of your life right now.
Since attaining eternal life is so critical, why is there any confusion about it? Two reasons. First, it is Satan’s primary goal to frustrate God’s plan to save people. The process required a human to satisfy God’s Law in all aspects. Jesus did that with His life and His death. The final part, and the vulnerable part, is connecting people to Jesus. Here is where Satan concentrates his efforts.
The second reason is that God’s plan is a bit counterintuitive. All through life we get what we work for. Here, since the value of what we hope to attain is so out of reach, we must receive it as a gift. That consistently throws people off.
Just to be clear, you must understand that all humans are eternal beings. While we die, we don’t just disappear. We exist somewhere. “Eternal life” is existing in the presence of God. “Eternal death” is being forgotten by God forever. There is only sorrow and hopelessness in it. Eternal life is joy, fun, awe, love, it is all good. It is a big deal.
How do you become connected to Jesus? Technically, you can’t do anything. It isn’t based on how “good” you are. It’s not even the direct result of trusting God. You are saved by God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) doing something to you.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
We are all “natural persons” until God reaches us somehow and changes us. So, the actual answer to how we are saved is “Jesus”. Jesus kept the Law. Jesus paid for sins. And Jesus in collaboration with the Father and the Spirit connects us to Him.
How? I can account for really only one way with a couple of possible scenarios. God connects us to Jesus through baptism. If a child or a mentally impaired person is brought to baptism by someone who believes and can teach them (as far as that is possible), then God will do the rest. That is one scenario.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
1 Peter 3:21 (ESV)
A person “qualifies” for baptism because of their connection to the believer. Another way to qualify is if you intellectually believe in the story and promise of Jesus. This would be true if God created faith in you through His Word. This isn’t necessarily quoted Scripture. Scripture is not a magical incantation. But rather someone explains the story and promise, even perhaps argues the corresponding proofs, and God breaks through the barriers to create “faith”. Is baptism still necessary? Whatever God does via baptism is necessary. So, I would never forego baptism by arguing that you already believe. We are not saved by what we think about Jesus. We are saved by being connected to Jesus.
A final scenario may exist in a cryptic passage of Scripture.
For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
1 Peter 4:6 (ESV)
In context, this passage is talking about Jesus’ “descent into Hell” https://afterdeathsite.com/2017/03/14/christs-descent-into-hell-part-1/ The passage is hard to understand, and there is nowhere else in Scripture to back this, but it seems to be suggesting that Christ evangelized people in Sheol who were killed in Noah’s flood. This is referred to in 1 Peter 3:18-19 just a few verses before this. Does Jesus save others posthumously? We don’t know.
We are saved by Christ, but how does one know if we are or remain connected? This is where you need to distinguish between cause and effect. The cause of salvation is Jesus. The effect of salvation is: trust in the story and promise of Jesus, a growing love for God, a growing love for other people, taking on the personality characteristics of God, the Holy Spirit telling our spirit that we are God’s children, making public confession of our faith, the potentially miraculous working of the Holy Spirit, and a whole list of other things.
These things are not absolute proofs in the sense that they all show up at once, or that they are full and complete immediately. These are emerging proofs. For instance, you are not damned if you occasionally doubt. You don’t have to speak in foreign tongues to be saved. The preponderance of these gifts is our proof.
Could someone be a false or merely cultural Christian? Yes. Jesus speaks of such people in this way:
25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
Luke 13:25-27 (ESV)
Knowing these things and seeing the proof of our connection to Jesus lets us know that we have life beyond our death with God. We also have a Father-child, Master-disciple, relationship with God now. This becomes the reason for our life right now. We live to do the work of a disciple of Jesus. Jesus isn’t just a religious figure that is tangential and irrelevant to daily living.
In Lutheran circles, we call the details described above, the distinction between Law and Gospel. Be sure you are in a church which gets this aspect right. The Gospel can become ineffective with even a modest change. https://givingchrist.com/2022/09/27/gospel-chokepoints/
Giving Christ 