Why would anyone want to be saved?

If you and I were standing outside a burning house, with people at windows, screaming for help, that question in the title would seem to be very stupid, and insensitive. If no-one helps them, those people are going to die - and not very easily. Likewise, if we were out on the ocean, and saw a ship that was sinking, we would not ask such a crass question about those on deck shouting for help.

We understand the necessity of help when we are in physical trouble. Most people, in life-threatening situations, wish to be saved. It is natural, and normal.

Salvation may be said to be at the centre of the Christian Gospel. That word "Gospel" means "Good News" - and if one is in a potentially fatal situation, than being saved is, surely, "Good News". Yet it is often the case that the Good News of the Gospel message is portrayed as "Come to Jesus, and all will be well!" "Come to Jesus, and your life will improve dramatically!" "Come to Jesus, and send a cash sum to this particular ministry, and watch your bank balance grow!"

In other words, this "version" of the Gospel message is all about "me"; what I can get out of it; how it may benefit me, in material terms, here and now"!

But what does the Bible teach? It teaches, first of all, that you and I are sinners. Because of that, we are separated from the One Who created us. That means that we are destined for eternal death - not just the physical death that is the lot of every mortal being, but an eternal separation from Him. Did you realise that you will live for eternity*? The only question concerns where you will spend that timeless existence!

The next point that must be made is that no-one is able to "earn" salvation by good works. Even if I could spend the rest of my natural life in a totally sinless condition, I could never make up for the sins that I have already committed. And even if I had only ever committed one sin (fat chance!), I still cannot make up for even that one! I am in a bad place!

However, the Good News is that Father God loves me, and you, so much that He has provided the means by which I may escape the punishment that is due to me. In the Persona* (not a typo!) of the Son, He came into this sinful world; lived a life in which He was tempted in the same ways that we are - yet without ever yielding to those temptations; grew up in a working-class family; became a peripatetic rabbi, teaching, and healing, and encouraging; was arrested by the religious leaders of His Jewish people (the ordinary folk, heard Him gladly!); underwent a number of mockeries of trials; and was crucified by the Roman authorities. He became, the perfect sacrifice for your sin and for mine. Paul writes: "For our sake He [the Father] made Him [the Son] to be sin, Who knew no sin, so that in Him [the Son] we might become the righteousness of God." (II Cor. 5:21). His sacrificial death was, and is, sufficient to deal with your sin, and with mine!

Of course, if I see a beggar sitting on the pavement, and I offer him some cash, that offer is of absolutely no use to him if he does not stretch out his own hand and take it! So the offer of salvation must be accepted if it is to become real in my life. But when I do accept it, by faith, then I am assured of my eternal salvation. There is a place in the new heaven, and the new earth - for me! Not because of anything that I have done, or can do, but all because of what He has already done.

That, I would suggest, is why anyone would wish to be saved. Because the wonder of that new, eternal, life is beyond anything that you or I can even begin to imagine! 

So the real question is not "Why would anyone want to be saved?", but "Why would anyone not want to be saved?" Father God does not force any of us into submission- He invites us to salvation. What is your response going to be? The writer of the letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus asks the unanswerable question: "... how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" (Heb. 2:3). There is no escape! The decision must be made - and made now!

*Each of these words is dealt with in my first book: "Great Words of the Faith". Links to it, and the other two currently available, are at the top of the page. Remember, I receive no financial benefit from sales. ALL royalties are sent directly to Release International, in support of the Persecuted Church.