by Greg Larson

Created on: December 13, 2008

If there is one thing the Bible is clear about, it is this: How a person obtains salvation. The answer? To place one's trust in Christ alone. The entirety of the scriptures either point forward to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, the Old Testament, or back toward that point, the New Testament. The bottom line is that trusting in Jesus is all that is necessary to become a Christian. Nowhere in the Bible is it necessary for some fantastical, euphoric "conversion experience" to happen for salvation to be granted, or as a sign that that salvation has occurred. There are those who one day were drug addicts, alcoholics, sex addicts, etc., when upon trusting Jesus Christ, had their whole lives completely turned around, the draw of their addictions removed in that single moment. There are also those who have trusted Christ that can recall from memory the exact date and time of their salvation. And then there are those who simply know in their hearts that at some point in their lives they trusted Christ. Any of these situations can stimulate great joy and overflowing emotions, but salvation is, and always has been, a no-frills plan - no "experience" required. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

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There are many wonderful reasons to rejoice upon conversion. We gain so many blessings. Take a look at what Ephesians chapter One says about all we gain after we trust Christ: God knew us and chose us before creation to be His sons or daughters, He has freely given us Jesus, redemption, forgiveness of sins, He allowed us to understand so we could trust Christ in the first place, we have been given the opportunity to live according to His will and the ability to live His plan, and through the Holy Spirit of God, we are sealed, never to lose the salvation we could not gain in our own efforts in the first place.

There are those who will take God's word and twist it to say one thing or another; and there are those who will extend the scriptures with their own philosophies derived from human thinking. Some will say that, yes, you need to trust Christ, but you must also do something else; some good deed or another. If some good deed must be added to the formula, then what Christ did on the cross was not sufficient and requires our help. This line of thought does not come from God's word. The Bible is clear time and time again, that salvation is granted through trusting Christ alone. The correct formula is One plus zero equals eternal life. No

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