Lie: You Don't Deserve to Be Saved

If my parents decided to set up a bank account for me with millions & millions of dollars in it, would I have earned it? No. Would I deserve it? Yes, because it was given to me. I am entitled to that bank account because of their giving. If someone found a way to steal from my account they wouldn't deserve it because it is my account, it was set up for & given to me. I don't have to ever access that account but that doesn't mean the money isn't there. I could grow poor & die if I refuse to access that account but that doesn't mean the money isn't there. A father can deem his children worthy of gifts either because of works they do or simply because he loves them.

To be deserving is to be worthy, which means to have enough worth, to have enough value. Love gives value. Mankind has always been loved & valued by God. Like an infant you don't have to work to be valued, you just have to be loved. Sin devalued mankind, it earned us death (in physical and spiritual). But sin never devalued God's love for mankind. Who do you want to judge what you deserve, you, someone else, sin, or God? Which eyes do you want to look at mankind through, they eyes of sin, which demands death, or the eyes of God, who offers life?

Christ wiped out our old sin accounts and opened new grace accounts for us. Did I earn grace? No. Do I deserve grace? Yes because He has put my name on it. My name is in the book of life. Scripture is clear that everyone's name starts off in the book of life. It says names have to be blotted out, not that names have to be written in. Every person on earth has a grace account that God has provided for them. Grace accounts only close on judgment day for those who still refuse them. Everyone deserves to be saved, everyone deserves grace because the Giver has deemed it so.

God has already taken away the sins of the world. Everyone on earth is entitled to salvation. God already has your name on the title you just need to sign yours. An atheist once said to me, “Well if I have to take the gift it is not free.” The Father doesn't force people to take a gift they don't want. In His love He does not demand His own way. It is a fully paid for gift being offered to all but He doesn't grab your arms and force you to unwrap it. He leaves the gift there hoping you'll experience the joy of what He has given you by unwrapping it!

“The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Death has been earned but life has been given. If I started a huge fire, would my father abandon me saying, “You started the fire so you deserve to die.” Or would he try to save me? Would he do whatever it took to get me out of the flames regardless of who started it? In my father's eyes did I deserve to die? In God's eyes, my Father's eyes, do I deserve to die because of my sins? If your answer is “Yes,” what kind of father do you think God is?

The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” God is our savior, not our slaughterer. Once the lamb had been slain I've been entitled to everything He offers me. The lamb was slain long before anyone alive today was born. On top of that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. God's eyes are the perfect eyes to look through & you've never deserved death in God's eyes for a moment of your life because the gift has always been given. Your name has always been in His book of life, a book that says, “He deserves life. She deserves life."

Saul (Paul) killed many of God's children. Did He deserve death in God's eyes? No, God saved Him. Paul was called “the chief of sinners,” the worst man that ever lived. God is love & love keeps no record of wrongs. God is love & love does not demand its own way therefore God gives everyone a choice. God says, “I have set before you life and death. Therefore choose life, that you may live!” Jesus is life.

Typical Christian teachings see it like this, “You are scum soaked because you've sinned. God hates scum so He will either make you clean yourself up or He will burn you up so He doesn't have to look at scum anymore. Either way all that matters to Him is not having to look at scum.”

God sees it like this, “You are sick because of sin and are going to die. God wants you to trust Him and take the cure for your sickness. You being sick doesn't make Him love you any less, it only makes Him try harder to get you to agree to taking the cure.”

The reason why this doesn't seem like God's viewpoint is because gospel isn't presented as good news. Christians are hypochondriacs, constantly medicating and talking about the sickness of sin as if it were still there when Christ has in fact cured them. Thus non-Christians have no good reason to believe Jesus is the cure.

You can look at God one of these two ways. God is either a murderer who demands that you die because He has CHOSEN to be offended at you, or He is a savior & a lover who knows love doesn't work in forcefulness, love only works in freedom. If you think God demands death you are looking through the eyes of sin.

Jesus said, “I came to the earth in the flesh so you may have life, not just a little life that barely gets you by but overflowing, abundant life that lasts forever.”


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Saved: Cured of Sin & Made Whole

It has come to my attention that the Greek word for "saved" (as in "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved") can have other meanings. It is translated as "make well," "heal," or "make whole" in many places. In Mark 6:56 it is translated as cured.

To save means to:
    heal, cure, make well, restore to health
    make whole
    preserve, keep safe and sound
    rescue from danger or destruction, deliver

I went through all the scriptures where this Greek word appears and found the places where the synonyms of "save" make sense to see how impactful they can be. I have also paired some up with other scriptures so we can see how these wordings agree with truth found in other places.

• God did not send the Son into the world to find fault with the world but to make the world well through Him (John 3:17).
  • Jesus said, "I did not come to find fault with the world but to make the world well" (John 12:47).
  • God in Christ made relationship with Himself available to all by no longer counting people's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19).
• The Son of Man has come to look for and to cure those who are dying (Luke 19:10).
  • The Son of Man has come to look for and to make whole those who are damaged (Luke 19:10).
• This is a statement that can be trusted and deserves complete acceptance: "Christ Jesus came into the world to cure sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15).
• God our Savior desires all men to be cured, to be made whole, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
• Jesus is able to save and cure and make whole forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to act for their benefit (Hebrews 7:25).
• Jesus took God's wrath for sin on our behalf so now, through trust, we are made right with God by the blood of Jesus and cured of sin. We are made whole by His life (Romans 5:9-10).
• Jesus will cure His people, removing them from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
  • He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
     
• Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be made whole (Romans 10:13).
• By the gospel you are made whole (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).
• We trust that we are cured through the favor of the Lord Jesus. God purified our hearts by trust (Acts 15:9,11).
• By God's loving kindness you have been made whole through trust (Ephesians 2:8).
   
• When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He made us whole, not because of righteous things we had done, but according to His mercy. He made us whole through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been made right with God by his favor, we might become heirs having the hope of knowing God forever (Titus 3:4-7).