Good News #311: When I Called on the Name of Jesus and Received Him as My Lord and Savior, I GOT SAVED!
Faith manifests outwardly through an action… actions include speaking forth or confessing.
For many of us, our rebirth…regeneration… being born again… happened when we prayed a prayer of salvation that someone led us to pray as an act of putting our faith in Jesus.
But did you know that the very first sinner saved by grace and entered heaven by the blood of Jesus did not say the same prayer of salvation that some of us christians think is the only way to confess faith in Jesus?
Here’s what he who is saved by grace said — “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
To which Jesus said — “ASSUREDLY, I say to you, TODAY you will be with Me in Paradise.”
(see Luke 23:42-43, emphasis mine)
The thief entered heaven on the day Jesus died on the cross… Jesus said “ASSUREDLY” and “TODAY”.
Let’s take note that this same thief was among those who were mocking Jesus (see Matthew 27:44) before he asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus enters His kingdom.
Jesus never complicated it… Jesus never even asked him to confess all his sins including the mockery he did just moments earlier… Jesus did not ask for a longer prayer of salvation with emphasis on specific words to be mentioned…
Jesus simply honored the faith of the thief which manifested on his calling on Jesus to remember him… and Jesus rewarded the thief with entry to paradise on that very day…
Much like how natural of an instinct it is for a child to call on a parent because the child trusts in the love of the parent… at the very moment, belief (faith) in Jesus drops in a person’s heart, the most basic human instinct of a sinner is to call on the name Jesus… and when we do, Jesus honors it and delivers, without complicating things.
The gospel is this — For us to freely receive the gift of salvation (from hell itself and from hellish circumstances in this fallen world), Jesus had to die… His gift of grace cost Him everything but it is free for us.
Jesus honors the most basic manifestation of the seed of faith — calling on Him — to deliver salvation.
Jesus does not complicate things like we do.
Jesus is the gospel.
✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨
And it shall come to pass
Joel 2:32
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the Lord has said,
Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
