5. Do You Know the Steps to Salvation?

1. If you call someone, it is usually so that you may give information to that person. There comes a time to some when God in His grace extends a very special CALL or invitation to be His Son’s disciple. Before God issues this Heavenly calling to follow in His Son’s footsteps, these must have already come to Him through the only door and way of Salvation designated by God Himself. Jesus Christ is both the Door and the Way. “I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes unto the Father but by Me” (John 10:8; 14:6). There is no other way to salvation.

2. Early in His ministry, our Lord personally called His twelve Apostles (Matt. 4:18-21; 10:1-14) to follow Him, undoubtedly, after receiving instructions from His Father. These men immediately left all to follow Jesus. Today, it is the same, it is God Himself who does the calling. Our Lord made this clear in John 6:44 when He said, “No one can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him.”

3. We have reason to believe that YOU who are reading this lesson have been called by God. If you have not answered this call yet, you should be able to after carefully reviewing this Bible Study. What is God’s purpose in calling you? We hope the following explanation will help you to understand.

4. In His Plan of the Ages, God has set aside certain periods of time to carry out His pre-determined plans and purposes. We refer to these periods as Ages. One of these time periods, or ages, is called the Jewish Age. The Jewish Age was a period of time when God dealt exclusively with the nation of Israel (Amos 3:2). It began with Moses and the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai, and ended three and a half years after our Lord’s death with Peter’s vision and the acceptance of Cornelius, a Gentile (Acts 10:1-35).

5. This Gospel Age began at Pentecost, fifty days after our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection, and will last until Jesus Christ returns for His Bride; then the Gospel Age will end and the Millennial Age will begin. What has been God’s purpose for this Gospel Age which has been in progress for about two thousand years? It has been to gather a class of people from all races, nationalities and languages, who make up The Church. When the church was first established, in the Apostles time, there were thousands of Jewish converts (Acts 2:41; 4:4). However, most of the Jewish nation rejected the Gospel and the Heavenly calling, which was then extended to the Gentiles or non-Jews (Acts 13:46-49; 15:14; 10:1-48).

6. When the number of true believers - those who have been faithful to the end of their lives, and have had their faith fully tested - is complete, Jesus will return from heaven and gather them to Himself. He will first raise the dead members of His Body or the Church from the grave; then those who are still alive when he comes for His Bride will be changed and caught up together to be with Him and taken to the place He has prepared for them (1 Thes. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:42-57; John 14:1-3; Rev. 20:6).

7. This class of true Christians is mentioned in the Bible under various names, such as The Church of Christ, The Church of the Living God, The Church of the First-born, The New Creation, etc. This church is not restricted to any one denomination, particular century, certain city or nation, but has been in existence wherever the Gospel has been preached from Pentecost to this present day and until the Lord returns. Its members are known only to God and His Son. God deals with individuals, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and not groups.

8. Much will depend on your attitude toward this call. First of all, you must understand what this call is all about and what God requires of you so you may intelligently make a choice. Remember, this is an invitation -- God does not insist you accept His wonderful offer. The choice must be freely yours.

9. Before you can answer His call, God requires that you first understand His Salvation. You must acknowledge that you are a sinner. We are all sinners. The condition of sin and death comes upon us through our being born into the human family as members of Adam’s race. Since the wages of sin is death, we are all condemned to die (Rom. 6:23).

10. It has been God’s Plan from the foundation of the world to save all from the penalty of sin and eternal death through salvation and a resurrection. Almost two thousand years ago, God pro-vided us a Savior and Redeemer, in the person of His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, as a perfect man, died in Adam’s place. So the Scriptures tell us, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22)! Yes, through His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ purchased and redeemed us from sin, death and the grave. This is God’s free gift to us and all by His Grace!

11. Your part now is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, Redeemer and King and acknowledge your fallen state, repent- ing of your former sinful condition.

12. What does it mean to repent and be converted? If we read God’s written Word, the Bible, we find it to be a mirror which exposes our real selves: our ineptitude, faults, mistakes, boasting, greed, sham, lust, hidden desires, sins, selfishness and imperfection in all things. We stand naked before our Creator, stripped of all that camouflages our real sinful self, with nothing to hide behind. We are found guilty!

13. In the Bible God reveals to us our true nature, for He created us and knows us better than we know ourselves. This should make us realize how little we know Him, and how our personal vanity has prevented us from admitting how wrong we have been, and how ignorant we are of God and His ways (Psalm 139:23, 24; Isaiah 55:8, 9).

14. True conversion involves repentance and surrendering our lives to obey God and His laws. You are called to repent from your sins. But do you know what sin is? The Bible defines sin as “the transgression of the Law” (1 John 3:4). That means breaking God’s law. So to be truly converted you must repent of failing to keep God’s law. You must be genuinely sorry -- so sorry that you are willing to turn around and go the other way. You must be willing, therefore, to begin obeying God’s law and literally begin living by the Golden Rule. Repentance is the sister of conversion. One leads to the other. And now we ask you: Are you absolutely sure of your repentance and surrender to God? Do you realize that your natural spirit of lust, competition and vanity is not bringing you real peace, happiness, and eventually eternal life? Unconverted people do not know the way to peace, joy and righteousness (Rom 3:10-17). Do you?

15. Would you believe that the greatest road block that prevents most people from accepting God’s Truth and being converted is their own pride and vanity? Most have grown up being taught some religious creeds which they accepted as truth, and hate to admit that their cherished beliefs could be wrong. So instead of listening and learning, they argue, defending the errors and refusing to accept the truth. To their way of thinking, their beliefs are right. In the Bible we read a warning about this way of thinking. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death.” Human ways and reasoning are almost always wrong.

16. The human mind very seldom is willing to yield and live by God’s Word. It tries to reason around the Word, and thus cancels out its meaning. Through this faulty process of reasoning it refuses to believe what God says, or to worship Him as He desires, “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23, 24).

17. Be honest with yourself. Repentance always comes before conversion. Have you gone through a truly heart-rending repentance yet? Have you humbled yourself by pleading with God as David did in the 51st Psalm, with the following words: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (RSV). Again David said, “For I acknowledge my trans-gressions; and my sin is ever before me.”

18. Notice that David did not try to justify himself. He acknowledged his sin freely and asked forgiveness. He set a good example for all sinners in this world. God did not have to argue, brow-beat or reason with David. Have you sought forgiveness in this way?

19. Have you been led by God to see that your nature, thoughts, and reasoning are wrong? Do you sincerely want to be rid of your selfish nature? Are you ready to repent not only for what you have done, but also of what you are?

20. Before anyone is truly converted, he has to be humbled by God, or by himself, or through circumstances, and made to realize his own nothingness. He has to begin a life process of abhorring himself and his own reasoning by acknowledging his sins to God and repenting of them - turning around in his heart, mind and will, and determining to go the other way - God’s way.

21. When that time comes, a person will quit arguing with God, with the Bible, or with brethren doing His work. He will stop trying to reason around obedience to God’s commandments. He will seek correction from God and from His servants who have shown him the way.

1. After true repentance and conversion, we are ready to answer God’s special call to discipleship. This call has three steps to it, as told us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. If you can answer a hearty ‘yes’ to these questions, you then have answered in the affirmative the call of God. Here are the three conditions you must accept. They are found in Matt. 16:24 where Jesus says, “If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” These are the three steps:

DENY SELF - To deny self means to give up your right to yourself and your own will to do the will of God alone.

TAKE UP HIS CROSS - Be willing to bear whatever the Lord places upon your shoulders which He sees is necessary to prove you obedience, trust, and faithfulness unto death.

FOLLOW ME - The Lord has gone before us as a perfect example of what it means to do the Father’s will. His was a life of obedience that involved suffering. We are told, “He learned obedience by the things He suffered” (Heb. 5:8) and has “left us an example that we should follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21).

2. The Lord asks you to exchange your will for His will, and has promised to give you all the help, and supply all your needs in order for you to be faithful to Him. It is all by His grace and not of works (Gal. 3:3; Romans 8:32). Discipleship has a cost attached as you can see.

3. Once you accept this call to discipleship, there are numerous exhortations and promises that are yours. Here are just a few: “Walk worthy of God, who has called you unto His kingdom and glory” (1 Thes. 2:12). “We pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power” (1 Thes. 1:11). “God has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9). “The God of all grace has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus ... to make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Pet. 5:10). “… give diligence, brethren, to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things (verses 3 to 9), you shall never fall” (2 Peter 1:10). For we are “partakers of the heavenly call” (Heb. 3:1). This special call to you is coming from the very throne of God.

4. If you listen and obey faithfully, your reward will be a heavenly one. If you accept this call from God, you will have taken the first, most important step in your life. As a born-again, new creation, you have now also been chosen to be of the elect of God. See 1 Cor. 1:27; 2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Pet. 2:9.

1. We have reviewed what it means to be called and chosen. We would now like to look into what it means to be faithful. In 1 Cor. 4:2 the Apostle Paul declares: “It is required ... that a man be found faithful.” This is God’s requirement for each member of the church class, God’s new creation. Many true Christians in the past centuries, preferring to be faithful to God, faced persecution, exile, loss of home and family, prison, torture, the stake and martyrdom. Are you willing to face all of these things, if needed, to prove your loyalty and faithfulness to God and to Christ? Again, we remind you that this cannot be done in our fleshly weakness but only in the strength given us by God through His Holy spirit which is the “spirit of love, power and a sound mind” ( 2 Tim. 1:7).

2. The rewards promised by God to those who are faithful unto death makes all the suffering and trials of this life worth it a thousand fold! In Rev. 17:14 we read that those who will be with Jesus will be the called, chosen, and faithful. These have been promised to be made a kingdom of priests and to reign (rule or govern) over the billions of living and resurrected people on this earth for a thousand years with their glorious Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ (Rev. 20:6); then for all eternity in God’s universe (Dan 7:27).

3. It is impossible to describe adequately the honors and heavenly glory of those who are called, chosen, and faithful; it is beyond our understanding and imagination, and words would fail us and fall far short, but it will be supremely wonderful, glorious, and DIVINE! See Rev. 2:7, 10, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 6, 12, 21.

4. Dear student, if you have been called, are you ready to accept this blessed, never to be repeated call and take the most important step in your life; one leading to glory, honor and immortality (Rom. 2:7)? The decision is yours. Choose today (Heb. 3:7) and choose wisely. We stand ready to help you.

1. When you reach the point of desiring to follow in Jesus’ footsteps as His disciple, then you are ready for baptism as an outward sign of what has already taken place in your heart, namely, your willingness to be dead with Jesus Christ, dead to your old self, your old nature, your will - to literally give your life to God as your heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, Redeemer and King.

2. Notice the description and meaning of baptism in Romans 6:3, 4: “Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

3. Baptism symbolizes the death and burial of the old self - the old human nature which has been contrary to God and His laws. It symbolizes our faith in, and acceptance of, the death of Jesus on our behalf. It symbolizes our acceptance of and faith in His resurrection - which is pictured by our coming up out of the watery grave to thereafter walk in newness of life. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:15). Also, baptism is an outward acknowledgment that our old selfish, vain and sinful nature must die in order that we might rise again to live by the spirit of God’s law and commandments. “Knowing this, that our old man (our old self) was crucified with Him (with Christ) that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6).

4. We pray that you will desire to become one of the Lord’s precious disciples and to symbolize this devotedness in baptism. If this is your sincere desire, please write and let us know of your decision. We would like to welcome you into the Family of God!