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sometimes I wonder if we realize what a

really big word salvation is what does

it mean to be saved what's the meaning

of salvation on the one hand it means

safe but it means healed also it means

forgiving it means adopted it means

having been made whole it's a big word

it means that we are restored in our

relationship with God and we've been

given life with God now and we've also

been given the gift of eternal life with

God in heaven forever so salvation is

big salvation is a gift of God it's not

something that we can earn even if

that's the way so many people feel about

it but no it's a gift of God it's

something we can't achieve it it's

something that has to be received we

need to have that straight from the very

beginning you know salvation can come

instantaneously as it was with Zacchaeus

when Jesus entered into his house and

you remember he said this day salvation

has come to this house it can come in a

moment of realization and faith but its

salvation is also something that has to

be lived into and lived out st. Paul

said that we have to work out our

salvation in fear and trembling so

there's a moment when we begin to

experience salvation but we spend the

rest of our lives living into what it

what it means and how it works itself

out in our life there's a story about an

old English bishop who was very proper

who was walking down the street in

london and a sidewalk evangelist said to

him sir have you been saved and his

answer is pretty significant the old man

was said to have stopped and thought and

then in a very gracious way said yes

I have been saved I am being saved and I

shall be saved what did he mean he meant

he could look back on a moment in time

when he put faith in Christ and turned

to him in faith and hope and he

experienced salvation but he also meant

you know salvation is something i'm

living in too and i'm experiencing and

learning more about and experiencing

more of every day but also salvation is

something i'm going to enter more fully

into when i go to be with the lord in

the next life salvation begins when God

opens our eyes to begin to grasp how

much we need Christ as long as we think

we can save ourselves the way is closed

off being saved is like being in the

midst of drowning and and realizing you

can't save yourself and someone has to

come along and rescue you and you just

have to relax and be rescued because

you're over your head and you can't swim

and you're going to drown otherwise the

only thing I can contribute to my

salvation is my own sinful nature it's

about coming to God with an awareness of

our humble need coming in faith

repenting of my sins and laying out

before God my sense that I need him

that's the beginning of salvation Paul

said in Romans 10 everyone who calls

upon the name of the Lord will be saved

now of course we live in a time when

many people reject the idea that faith

in Christ is necessary in order to

become a child of God and an inheritor

of eternal life and yet this is what

Jesus said who said I am the way and the

truth and the life no one comes to the

Father but by me he is our pathway to

salvation and of course this was the

message of the Apostles as Peter

preached in acts for there is no other

name

but which we may be saved salvation

comes through Jesus Christ