What is a saved Christian?

To be saved, then, is to be brought consciously in the faith of the soul on to the ground of accomplished redemption through believing the glad tidings of the remission of sins. And this is accompanied by the Holy Ghost taking up His dwelling-place in the forgiven person.

But God has this peculiar work in the world, the blessings of grace; and makes sure of all this for the conversion of the jailor. He works as a man of the world at his post; but by this manifest intervention of God, he is awakened, convinced of sin, and given to feel his need of salvation. Now that all call themselves Christians, one asks if a man is a good Christian, truly converted; but then all were heathens or Jews, and became Christians. Now Christianity is salvation. The grace of God has brought salvation into the world in the Son of God; and by His work on the cross, it is announced by the Holy Ghost. The need makes itself felt when the conscience is moved by the Holy Ghost. What it seeks for is salvation, as here does the jailor. The answer is simple and clear: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

When the question, "What must I do to be saved?" rang from the agonised lips of the prison warder at Philippi, the inspired answer did not bid him pray, or strive, or make vows, or anything of that sort. He was told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Nothing that he could do could secure God's salvation. The doing had all been done by Christ. All that is left for the sinner is the appropriation of the results of His mighty work by simple faith.

Take the case of the very vilest sinner who, up to this moment, has been living a life of gross wickedness. Let that person receive into his heart the pure gospel of God; let him heartily believe "that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures;" and he there, then, and thus, becomes a child of God, a thoroughly saved, perfectly justified and divinely accepted person. In receiving into his heart the simple record concerning Christ, he has received new life. Christ is the truth and the life, and when we receive the truth we receive Christ; and, when we receive Christ, we receive life. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." (John 3:36) When does he get this life? The very moment he believes. "Believing ye might have life through his name." (John 20:31) The truth concerning Christ is the seed of eternal life, and when that truth is believed, life is communicated.

When a sinner, convicted of his guilt before God, trusts the Lord Jesus as His Saviour and Lord, he immediately becomes the possessor of eternal life, possessed alike by all God’s children, whether a new convert or the maturest of saints.

A. As a ruined sinner, receiving Christ as your entire salvation; believing in Him with all your heart; confessing Him with your mouth. If you have thus received Him, you are justified, you may be certain. God says it — it must be true; for God cannot lie.

Christ believed. "They believed on His name." Here was their beginning as God's children; this was their spiritual birthday. Thenceforth the life eternal was theirs. Once the children of wrath, even as others, believers on His name they became children of God. The children of God have the life of God. Let us reiterate that this is heart-belief. "If thou shalt believe in thine heart on the Lord Jesus Christ," says the scripture. Intellectualism, or education into a respectful adhesion to a creed, is not heart-belief. To believe on His name is to accept Himself. His name carries with it all that He is; accepting Him, He and all that He is, is ours. Believing on Him, we are saved from our sins, otherwise we are dead in sins.

"As many as received him, to them gave he power [authority] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" ( John 1:12). To become a Christian one must receive Christ by faith into one's heart as the sent one of God, as one's own personal Savior. Like Zacchaeus of old, one must "come down" and receive Him joyfully (Luke 19:6).

Have you known, dear reader, what it is to receive this great salvation? Have you entered in by the door? Do you know what it is to find yourself in God's presence, through the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ? A believer is one who has accepted Christ for his Saviour, who has entered in through the door. A person may know that Christ is the door, and yet have never entered in. This is the difference between knowledge and faith. Faith takes Christ simply at His word, and enters in. "By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." This is the testimony of Jesus. Is there any room for doubt or fear, when you know that you have entered in by Christ? Surely He delights to save. He casts out none that come to Him. Resting on His word, we have perfect peace; we find ourselves at rest in God's presence.

How, then, we may ask in conclusion, are we connected with Christ? It is by faith. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life" (John 3:36). Again, "He that believes on Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47). "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). God, in the Gospel, presents the Christ, of whom we have spoken, as the Saviour. It is therefore the Gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4), as well as of God's grace. Receiving His testimony, bowing before Him, in self-judgment, exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved, linked with Christ, and are brought to God in all the acceptance of Christ Himself. Every believer is thus associated with Christ before God, and is brought into the enjoyment of all that Christ is for us, as well as of all the blessings which He has secured for us through His meritorious death and resurrection. How unspeakably blessed, then, is it to be enabled by the Spirit of God to say, Christ our Saviour. Beloved reader, are you able to claim Him as such? If not, how unspeakably sorrowful is your position. But God, even now, in the tender yearnings of His grace, meets you, as He directs your gaze to Christ at His own right hand, and proclaims by His Word, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." If you are able to call Him your Saviour, then we have no words to express your blessedness; but we may remind you of the obligation under which you are thereby placed, to show, by word and life, that you are saved, and to testify to that grace which has called you out of darkness into God's marvellous light.