SALVATION IS NOT A FORMULA. IT IS JESUS.
You have reduced the greatest news in the universe to a checklist. Hear. Believe. Repent. Confess. Be baptized. As if the kingdom of God were a sequence to master instead of a Savior to receive. As if eternal life were a transaction to complete instead of a Person to know.
Yes, the Scriptures call us to hear the gospel, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Yes, we are commanded to repent, because unless we repent we will perish (Luke 13:3). Yes, we confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in the heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9). Yes, we are baptized into Christ, buried with Him and raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4). But none of these stand alone as a cold ritual. None of them save as isolated acts. They are not coins we insert into a machine to receive grace.
Salvation is not a sinner’s prayer whispered at an altar. Salvation is not water. Salvation is not perfect wording, flawless theology, or a moment we can circle on a calendar. Salvation is Jesus Christ Himself.
The angel did not say, “You shall call His name Method.” He said, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The apostles did not preach a system. They preached Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23). They did not offer a transaction. They proclaimed a Person in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7).
When the jailer in Philippi trembled and asked what he must do to be saved, the answer was not a formula recited in isolation. It was this: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). Believe on Him. Trust Him. Surrender to Him. Enter into Him. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). The power is not in the water. The power is not in the words. The power is in Christ.
We must stop speaking as if we are saved by performing steps correctly. We are saved by union with the Son of God. Faith is not a box to check. Repentance is not a work to boast in. Confession is not a slogan. Baptism is not a mere symbol detached from reality. Each is an expression of surrender to the living Lord. Each is a doorway into communion with Him.
God’s plan of salvation is not mechanical. It is relational. Eternal life is this: that we may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:3). Not merely know about Him. Know Him.
If we make it a transaction, we will always ask, Did I say it right? Did I do enough? Was I sincere enough? But when we see that salvation is Christ Himself, the question becomes, Am I in Him, and is He in me? For there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
Brother, the gospel is not a script. It is a Savior. It is not about mastering a method. It is about bowing before a King. It is about dying with Him and rising with Him. It is about being found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but that which is through faith in Christ (Philippians 3:9).
The plan is a Person. The way is a Man. The life is Jesus.
BDD
