“Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” — John 14:5-6 NASB
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” — Romans 5:8-10 NASB
What is the difference between being “saved from sin” and “saved from hell”? Are they different at all? Is one right and the other wrong?
Certainly, both are right and biblical. I would argue that they are two sides of the same coin. Many times throughout scripture, God uses the threat of eternal damnation and separation from God to wake people up and point them to His gift of love (Romans 3:23 and 6:23), but what is the reason for that damnation and separation from God?
What does God require for those who want to enter heaven? The only qualification that must be met in order to enter heaven is that you absolutely must live a perfect and completely sinless life. Humanly speaking, that’s impossible. We cannot do that in our own strength and power.
“You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved? For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.” — Isaiah 64:5-7 NASB
Every good thing that we think we can do is like handing God an oil and puke filled bandana so he can wipe the lunch off his face. There’s no good logic in that. The good deeds that we do are worthless, making anything less than good as less than worthless. By that, I mean they have a price, they come with a bill. And that bill must be paid. And that price is equal to your life. It’s a death sentence. You must die. A life must be taken in order for you to be free.
You can pay for your own sin, but you’ll be dead. Your price can be paid by someone else’s life, but only if that person doesn’t have his own sins to pay for by his death. Going on the fact that all human life is born in sin and has sinned in their lifetime, it would initially seem quite hopeless.
Look back at the second set of verses at the beginning. Romans 5:8 is the best explanation of God’s love for us. His demonstration of His love for our lives is that He came to earth, lived a perfect and sinless life for approximately 30 years (I can’t go 30 hours without some sort of sin, and neither can you), and He gave up His own life to pay the penalty for our sins, mine and yours. His payment of our bill, our penalty, ensures that we can live eternally with Him in heaven. That’s some pretty good news, isn’t it?
So how do I make this mine? What can I do to earn this? First off, you cannot earn it. There’s no good thing you can do to earn salvation and eternal life. It’s a gift. It’s free. But it comes with one requirement. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the same message given throughout the entirety of our Bibles.
REPENT!
Turn away from your sin. Understand that you are a worthless individual without God. Ecclesiastes talks all about that. All the good things you do are like filthy rags, filthy garments. We need to realize that we are wrong and we’ll always be wrong. Only when we understand that can God truly begin to change us. He changes our mindset about sin so we no longer see it as fun and attractive. As Christians, we see sin as an abomination against God. 1 John 1:9 tells us how to continually reconcile ourselves back to God and that right relationship with Him after we have become Christians.
So, we can see that we are saved from sin and life of sin, but we’re also saved from the penalty of sin, and that is hell. Only through Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection can we find this salvation. So I ask you today, do you know this to be true in your own life? Have you repented of your sin and placed your trust and faith in Jesus Christ and His gift of love? I pray that you have, but if you have not, I hope and pray that you will soon. If you have more questions on this, leave a comment with your email address. I will gladly reach out to you and do my best to explain from the Bible how you can be saved both from a life of sin and a death to hell.
This ministry is called “Conforming to Christ” based off Romans 12:1-2, but you cannot conform your life to Christ’s example if He has not already transformed your life. So please, reach out to me and let me know how I can help you and/or pray for you.
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