Salvation is an act of God in Jesus Christ. We do nothing to earn salvation nor can we earn salvation. This  is not easy to grasp because we live in times where “do it yourself”  religious ideas prevail. We may appreciate a free gift after we learn that it is given. God acts first as the giver. Our appreciation takes form in our lives. Our grateful response is worshiping God and serving God. Serving God also means loving other people.

In the Bible we find the following verses

EPHESIANS 2:1-10                                                                                        New International Version

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The writer makes clear first that there is evil in the world and that humans are helplessly entangled. The letter is written to people who are conscious of spiritual forces and human evil during the middle of the First Century Christian Era. The second part emphasizes the greatness of what God has done in saving people. It is not a human accomplishment. Worthy human accomplishments, good works,  have their places but even there God’s preparations are first and foremost.

A few of very many Bible passages that bear on salvation are:

JOHN 3:16, 17

2 CORINTHIANS 5:19

HEBREWS 9:22

ROMANS 10:9,10

ROMANS 3:23.

ROMANS 5:1-11

1 CORINTHIANS 15:3,4

You can check these out by looking in a Bible or using the Bible search tool on the Main Page of this website.

If you like searching, check out the ways “believe” is used in “The Gospel of John” which is the fourth book of the second part of the Bible called the New Testament.

An assuring and comforting reading is the letter titled “First John” which is toward the back of the Bible.