Part 4 of 12 of the theme 'Answers to Questions' by Gijs van den Brink

The simple answer to this is what Paul says in Rom. 10:9 'If your mouth confesses that Jesus is Lord and your heart believes that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For Jesus bore our sins on the cross for us. He died in my place. If I believe that, I am saved. But what is faith? And what is meant by preservation, salvation? And when do you lose this salvation?

I will try to explain it briefly. God does not want to rule alone, but together with us humans. God makes a covenant with people several times. With Adam, with Noah, with Abraham and with the people of Israel.
And so also with us. In the NT we read about the new covenant that God makes with believers from all nations through the blood of Jesus. Jesus died as a sacrifice for the sins of men. What does it mean that we have a covenant with God?
A covenant is an agreement between two parties. In agreements between countries or between God and people, we speak of a covenant.
A covenant with God involves three things:

1. First, God takes the initiative to enter into an established relationship with us. It is, of course, an unequal relationship. God is all-powerful and we are weak and sinful. But it is a relationship nonetheless.
2. Second, the Covenant involves a promise made by God through which He, as our chief ally, guarantees our salvation. In the Covenant we have through Jesus, His promise is that He will forgive our sins and that in the person of the Holy Spirit He is always in us and with us. Through that promise we are saved because every person sins, no one is good, no one. So without a covenant with God, we are lost.
3. A third important point in the covenant is that God requires us to accept His offer and make an effort to do what He asks of us. That's what the Bible calls repentance. You do that not just once, but every day.

So you are saved if you have a relationship with God. That is already so here and now and it will be so until eternity. But that relationship ends when either party withdraws. Now God will never do this, because He is faithful. But people do.
If someone is going to say that God doesn't exist. Or if he says he wants nothing to do with Him. Or even worse, he says that if God exists that He is a Satan, as some Pharisees said of Jesus.
When a person consciously chooses himself to live without God, his relationship with God comes to an end. Then his preservation also comes to an end. The Bible calls this "sin unto death" (1Jn.5:16-17). It involves a conscious and consistent rejection of God's offer of salvation.
But God always remains faithful and His offer remains. If this person repents again, he will still be forgiven and saved!

Next time: Part 5 of the series  'Answers to questions' is entitled 'How does my relationship with God change when I sin? '

See also: Part 3 of 12 of the theme 'Answers to questions‘ 'If someone does not believe in Jesus but has lived well, where does he go after he dies?'

Author: Gijs van den Brink
From: Study Bible Magazine

This is part 4 of 12 from the theme "Answers to Questions' Some of which we will be posting online in the near future. We hope this will help you understand the Bible better!

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