So, what does it mean to be saved?
I’m not sure if you’re new to Christianity or if you’re just coming back, but my answer is the same either way.
To put it simply:
Creation
- God created the universe you are currently living in.
- God then created mankind.
The Fall
- Man disobeyed and sin entered the world through man.
God’s Promise
- God created a covenant with man, which served as a promise of salvation.
Redemption
- God gave us Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.
- God allowed His Son to die on a cross.
- He died because of our sin.
- God raised His Son from the dead.
- This freed us from the penalty of our sin, which is spiritual death.
- Jesus became the new covenant promise.
- Jesus’ work on the cross was a gift to humanity we did not deserve.
- Anyone is free to accept that gift.
They only need to believe in Jesus and trust that He died and rose from the dead so they may not spiritually die but live eternally with God.
That’s the gospel. That’s the gift.
To be saved simply means you’ve humbly accepted God’s gracious gift.
Thank God for that! 🙌🏽
In short, this means:
- We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ
- Salvation cannot be earned
- It brings about forgiveness, new life, and a loving relationship with God
Before we get into it, note that this post covers 7 of the most common questions surrounding salvation. So, if it feels like too much right now, please take your time—there’s no rush to understand everything all at once.
Understanding What It Means to Be Saved
To be saved means you believe in your heart that Jesus is who He says He is and that He did what He said He did.
“If you declare with your mouth that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”– Romans 10:9 (NIV)
Note how it doesn’t say “just believe in your heart,” but also to declare that ‘Jesus is Lord.’
This is because salvation includes not only believing in your heart, but also trusting in who He is and willingly placing your life under His leadership.
For many people, that can be hard to fully understand or accept at first, and it often raises questions like:
“How can Jesus be God?”
“Why did Jesus have to die to save us?”
“How can someone come back to life?”
Thoughts I’m sure you may have had—I know I once did.
Faith doesn’t mean not having questions. It means trusting God based on what He has already revealed, even when you don’t have all the answers yet.
We know enough—God has given us all that we need to have faith in Him.
Our faith doesn’t even need to be that big. God says even faith the size of a mustard seed (one of the smallest seeds) can move mountains. (Matthew 17:20)
When Jesus died and rose again, He freed us from our debt.
Now when God looks at us, He sees us covered in the righteousness of His Son.
We are made clean and righteous only through Christ.
Why Do We Need to Be Saved?
That’s an important question, though the answer may be difficult to accept.
We need to be saved from our sins.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”– Romans 3:23 (NIV)
What is sin?
Sin is anything that contradicts God’s nature.
That may sound like an unfair standard at first.
But think of it this way: it isn’t unfair for a parent to hold their children accountable to good character and behavior.
God isn’t enforcing rules on us. He’s guiding us toward the right moral direction, like good parents do with their children.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they became corrupted by sin. Through them, humanity became inherently sinful. This means we naturally desire to sin and are inclined to give in to temptation.
Important note: being tempted is not a sin, but giving in to sin is.
God helps us resist sin by being the standard of what is moral and by giving believers His Holy Spirit.
How Does Jesus Save Us?
Jesus had to die because the penalty for sin is death. Either we would have to pay it or someone else.
But not just anyone else.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”– Romans 6:23 (NIV)
Left on our own, the penalty for our sin would be our own death—but that would not truly pay our debt or restore us to God.
Because God loves us, He wanted to rescue us from having to suffer that penalty for ourselves.
However, because of sin, paying that debt would ultimately require a life.
But God wanted to save us ALL.
The only person who could truly atone—not just for one person, but everyone—had to be someone who had no sin of His own to atone for.
Look at it like this: a poor person can’t pay off the debt of another poor person.
Jesus was the only One who wasn’t spiritually poor.
He was sinless and therefore able to take on our sin as a perfect atonement.
“For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin…”– 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
So His death was enough to pay the price, and His resurrection was enough to conquer death itself.
His death freed us from sin, but His resurrection freed us from death.
How Does Someone Become Saved?
By accepting God’s gift of salvation through sincere belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection for our sins and receiving Him as both Savior and Lord—choosing to trust Him and follow Him with your life.
This often begins with recognizing that you are in need of saving.
As C.S. Lewis, a famous Christian author, once said in his book “Mere Christianity”,
“A sick man can’t be cured until he knows he is sick.”
In the Bible, Jesus compares the spiritually lost to the sick and refers to Himself as “the Physician” who heals them. (Mark 2:17)
We must first learn the humility needed to admit we are “sick” so that we can then accept help from the only One who can heal us.
After this, you’ll probably find you’re inclined to feel sorry for your sinfulness, which is a good thing.
Remorse means you take the weight of your sin seriously.
You don’t have to worry if you don’t always “feel” sorry— that’s very human. As long as you remain concerned with being sorry, the feeling is almost irrelevant.
Even being concerned about whether or not you feel remorse for your sin is where repentance can begin.
Repentance is turning to God––admitting your sin, asking forgiveness, and choosing to turn away from it with His help.
You’re basically saying to God, “I’m sorry I hurt You. Please forgive me and help me to turn from my sin.” And He will. That’s the truly fantastic part!
God didn’t just free you from the penalty of sin. He forgave you and continues to help you turn away from it.
Salvation begins with humility, proceeds with faith, and calls for a willingness to turn toward God.
Can Salvation Be Earned or Lost?
No to both.
Salvation is given to us by God’s grace through faith in His Son as our Lord and Savior.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith… not by works, so that no one can boast.”– Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
Some people believe that works earn salvation and often quote James 2:17:
“Faith without works is dead” (paraphrased)
But all this verse means to say is “real faith produces works”
When you have genuine faith (you truly believe in Jesus Christ), then you begin to show the fruit—good traits—of God’s Spirit which will naturally produce good works.
See, it’s not that you need works to earn salvation, it’s that when you are truly saved, you will naturally and faithfully do works.
Then once you are saved, your salvation can’t be lost. God will not take your salvation away.
He can’t because God is truthful and salvation is a promise.
Once you enter into this promise with God, He cannot back out from it.
That would make Him a liar.
“God, who never lies.”– Titus 1:2 (ESV)
Being saved is like God picking you up out of the crowd of unbelievers and holding you in His hand.
Then He gives you His Spirit (the Holy Spirit), which ensures that you can’t “jump or fall”––or, as John 10:28–29 (NIV) says, be “snatched” out of His hand.
Salvation is not about being good enough or perfect. You please God by genuinely wanting to please Him and growing in faith.
God doesn’t ask for perfection because that only exists through Him. He wants your obedience.
Let’s be glad that salvation is a gift graciously given to us by God, a promise He faithfully keeps, and not a reward we have to earn.
How Do I Know If I’m Really Saved?
Many new believers are plagued with the anxiety of this question.
I myself remember struggling with it for a while, but that only goes to show you how normal it is to experience in the beginning of your Christian walk.
I can say with confidence that you will eventually get to a point where you feel secure in your salvation.
Many, myself included, develop this anxiety due to false notions about what our walk with God actually feels like.
The thing is, it often doesn’t “feel” like anything.
You don’t have more faith, know God better, or become more secure in your salvation because you “feel” God.
I’d say the biggest hindrance to me as a new believer was waiting to “feel” this special connection to God or experience His presence.
My advice: don’t wait for a feeling, just pray (talk to God), read your Bible, and stay in fellowship.
You will have seasons where you “feel” the Spirit and many seasons when you don’t.
If I’m being entirely honest, the “don’t seasons” are the majority. Not because God doesn’t want you to feel Him, but because He doesn’t want your dependence to be on a feeling—He wants your dependence to be on faith in Him.
If you’d like to know if you are saved, test your fruitfulness.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”– Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
What has changed in you since you accepted Christ into your heart?
For me, I noticed more grace towards others, a stronger desire for repentance, and I hungered for more of God (I wound up reading the entire Bible in 30 days!)
Salvation can’t be proven by what you feel, but by Who you trust in and how your life changes through that trust in Him.
What Changes After Someone Is Saved?
What changes is that you now move from the path of death to life (John 5:24), and your desires will begin to align with God’s.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away… the new has come.”– 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
That’s a drastic change, but it can sometimes feel anti-climactic.
As I mentioned previously, don’t rely on how this makes you feel. Just move forward doing what God has already instructed.
Something I struggled with when I was first saved was not knowing what God wanted from me. Clarity came from staying in relationship with Him while continuing to live my life.
That’s actually what eventually led me to start this blog!
So, don’t overthink it. Scripture calls us to pray and read the Bible regularly so we stay in conversation with God.
Don’t fall into the trap of doing nothing. Focus on what God has already told you to do, not what you’re waiting to hear—the rest will follow.
As for reading the Bible, you don’t need to read several chapters daily (nor read the whole Bible in a month like I did, I tend to do a little much sometimes lol).
You can start by simply reading a few verses daily. Most Christian teachers suggest starting in the book of John but you can start wherever you’d like.
Just start somewhere and read through it slowly, daily, maybe 5-10mins a day or whenever you have time (I suggest making time to prioritize God but He understands that life can get complicated and busy).
Struggling With Sin
New Christians (often referred to as “baby” Christians) often wrestle with the reality that, despite being saved, they still struggle with sin—but that stems from another false notion about salvation.
Jesus saved us from the penalty of our sins, but He has not taken sin away from us—yet.
So we still have sin, it’s just that we won’t be punished for it when we die.
What He did do for us now was give us His Holy Spirit, who lives in us and makes it easier to deny our flesh (sin nature) and turn away from sin and towards Him.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin (makes us aware of it) and lends us God’s strength to resist sin.
However, we must cooperate with the Spirit in order for this relationship to work, and if we don’t, then we open ourselves up to temptation.
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”– Galatians 5:16 (NIV)
When we ignore or fight against the Holy Spirit, we essentially push away the strength we need in order to turn away from our temptations.
Remember, even though God lives in us we still have free will, He won’t force us not to sin because He wants it to be our choice.
Look at it this way: you wouldn’t want someone to make the right choice because they were forced to, but because they genuinely wanted to.
It’s ok to need some encouragement (strength) to make the right choice, but it does no good if you ignore it.
Reflection
Salvation cannot be earned but it can be accepted. If you are yet to be saved, I invite you to accept God’s grace today, if you are able.
If you are unsure how, you can start with this prayer:
“Lord, I humbly give You my life today and accept Jesus Christ, Your perfect Son, as my Lord and Savior––who died for me and rose from the dead so I may live forever under Your grace, Amen.”
Welcome to the family of God!
If you are already saved and came across this post looking for direction and guidance, I want to leave you with this assurance: God is the author and perfector of your faith.
“Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”–– Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)
If you struggle with any doubt, anxiety, or stress over your faith or assurance of salvation, rest easy knowing that God will never leave nor forsake you and your life is under His guidance. (Hebrews 13:5)
You can let go with confidence.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for saving us! Thank you for your loving sacrifice, accomplished through your perfect Son, Jesus Christ who suffered and died to rescue us from our own sin and despair.
I pray that You keep your hand in the lives of all those who come across this post and allow these words to be seeds planted in their hearts. I pray that You water and grow those seeds and enable them to take root in their lives so they may be inclined to Your grace and truth.
I pray that You open their spiritual eyes and ears so they can see You at work and hear Your voice. Help them to acknowledge You, seek You, and grow in their knowledge of You and their wisdom of Your Word.
Strengthen them not to be tempted toward the sins of their flesh but instead turn away and hunger and thirst for Your righteousness.
In Jesus’ mighty name I pray,
Amen.
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