Introduction
In contemporary Christianity it is very common to hear that someone “got saved” or to have someone tell you that they were “saved” at such and such a time. But beyond that, the concept of “salvation” remains dormant. I believe this stems from a misunderstanding of salvation, that is, salvation in its entirety.
Now, it is true that many believers can point back to a specific moment of turning from sin towards initial trust in Christ for salvation. In theology we call this moment conversion and it is also the moment we are regenerated (given spiritual birth and life) and justified (counted as righteous before God). In this sense, then, we can rightly say that we were saved upon our conversion. But the idea of “salvation” is Biblically and theologically much more comprehensive than just that one precise moment.
What does it take to follow Christ? What does Christ have to say about the Gospel? The answers to these questions are hard pills to swallow, but a reality we need to be confronted with and must not ignore. This is the second of four messages I spoke at Winterfest 2011 at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp, Pembine, WI. In this message we took a look at Luke 24:15-35, as well as several cross-references, and examined what it means to follow Christ.
What I would like to do with this article is present to you some popular Gospel clichés, as I like to call them, and provide some rather brief thoughts on each—-nothing exhaustive or too in depth, but just some thoughts to make you think about them, their use, what they seem to be saying, their accuracies and inaccuracies, etc.
This was a topical sermon I preached at Lake Drive Baptist Church, Milwaukee, WI in the spring of 2011 on the issue of what true saving faith is. Although more could certainly be said about the nature of true saving faith, in this sermon I addressed three vital characteristics of faith that saves: drastic, visible, and persevering.
Before I can present to you my eight cautions for teaching people to pray a prayer to be saved, we must first set the basis of how one is actually saved.
Kirk E. Miller 