What's Required for Salvation?

0:00Here's today's in-touch devotion. Today's scripture reading is Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 9. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formally lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. But God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

1:00so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Is it possible to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are saved? Yes, God wants us to have unquestionable assurance of our salvation, and three words anchor our assurance that our faith is genuine. One, knowledge. It's essential to know that we're sinners and our sins have alienated us from God. Since we're helpless to remedy this situation, he's our only hope for salvation. We must also know that Jesus is God, and He came to die in our place, thereby rescuing us. Two, conviction.

2:00One of the Holy Spirit's jobs is to convict us of sin, so we can see our need for a Savior. But that alone is not enough. God's Spirit also convinces us the message of salvation in Christ is true, and He invites us to respond. Trust. When we come to see our need and the sufficiency of Christ's provision for our forgiveness, the next step is trust, believing in and relying on Jesus as our Savior and Lord. The entire Trinity is involved in our salvation. The Son provided the perfect sacrifice for sin, the Father draws us to Christ, and the Holy Spirit convicts and convinces us to believe in Jesus. We are saved because of God's amazing grace and limitless love.