Salvation [How Can We Have It?] – Pastor Ted Wilson
25 Mar 2022
Only through Christ can we experience salvation. There is nothing we can do. We have to accept His grace. His love. His salvation. He gives it freely and wants nothing more than for us to experience it.
This week, President of the Seventh-day Adventist World Church, Ted N.C. Wilson talks about Fundamental Belief number 10: The Experience of Salvation
The experience of salvation that reaches deep into the souls comes from God alone. "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, 5).
Only through Jesus Christ can we experience salvation. "There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
Our tenth fundamental belief states: "In infinite love and mercy God made Christ, Who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God. Led by the Holy Spirit, we sense our need, acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions, and exercise faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, Substitute and Example. This saving faith comes through the divine power of the Word and is the gift of God's grace. Through Christ, we are justified, adopted as God's sons and daughters, and delivered from the lordship of sin. Through the Spirit, we are born again and sanctified; the Spirit renews our minds, writes God's law of love in our hearts, and we are given the power to live a holy life. Abiding in Him, we become partakers of the divine nature and have the assurance of salvation now and in the judgment."
Jesus freely offers us the gift of salvation from sin. All we have to do is accept it. "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation" (Romans 10, 9-10).
Once we accept this gift, He forgives our past sins and looks at us as if we've never sinned. He then helps us overcome sin. As said in Jude 24 and 25, "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."
After accepting Jesus, He calls us to "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). He wants us to have a better, happier way to live. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:26).
Jesus meets us where we are and delights in saving us from our lost condition. There is no sinfulness His grace and forgiveness cannot redeem.
In response to His great love, we follow God's law and teachings. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).
But if we make mistakes, God is still there to rescue us. Before He was crucified, He warned His disciples, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:38).
Though we've chosen Jesus, we will still be tempted to sin. But He promises in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Finally, Steps to Christ p. 70 explains what it truly means to experience salvation in Christ: "A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. Your hope is not in yourself; it is in Christ. Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might. So you are not to look to yourself, not to let the mind dwell upon self, but look to Christ. Let the mind dwell upon His love, upon the beauty, the perfection, of His character. Christ in His self-denial, Christ in His humiliation, Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love—this is the subject for the soul's contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness."
As an appeal, Pastor Ted invites you to come to God now and experience this gift of salvation today!
