How To Receive Jesus As Savior – Four Important Steps

In my previous post, I answered the question: Is salvation by faith or works? In this article, I will be talking about how to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. This is one of the primary steps that every non-believer must take to get born again. Previously also, we discussed about how God hates sin not the sinner because He is love and created mankind in His own image and likeness(Genesis 1:26).

Before we talk about how to receive Jesus, I’d like to point out the reason behind it, in other words why do we need to receive Jesus? Take for example if someone is literally drowning in a flooding river or in a pool of water. If you like, you can picture out a burning house with children or people trapped inside. In both scenarios, the person drowning or in a burning house cannot save himself, he needs an external help to get him out of calamity.

Salvation applies the same way, but first we must answer, what are we saved from? And the direct answer is: from SIN which rendered you (mankind) captives and pushed you (us) into spiritual imprisonment and bondage.

Why We/You Need Salvation

To answer the above question please read the points below: –

1. God Created Someone Like Him

In Genesis 1:26, God created man in His image, someone who looked like Him. When the bible talks about the image of God it talks about the spiritual dimension of man not physical. Man is three persons in one i.e, body, soul and spirit (1Thessalonian 5:23). The body is what we see and has the five senses (sight, earing, touch, smell, and taste).

The soul is the foundation of a man’s character and is comprised of emotions, will and mind. The soul of a man is directly fed by the body and spirit. At the same time, it’s the one that determines one’s behavior, habits and who a person is really is. The soul is what the bible refers as the heart (Proverbs 4:23; Jeremiah 17:9-10). This is where decision and a person’s character are manufactured from.

The third element of man is spirit, i.e. man is a spiritual being living in a physical body (1Corinthians 15:44-46). Paul says that if there is truly a natural/physical body then there is also a spiritual body. The spirit is the one that part of a person that connects to the Holy Spirit, it’s the connection point with the supernatural. This is what God created and knew even before the foundations of the world were set up (Ephesians 1:4; Jeremiah 1:5).

2. Satan Deceived Man
Satan who was once in heaven (Ezekiel 28:14-17; Revelation 12:7-9) envied the relationship that existed between man and God, so he decided to do something to bring it down. In Genesis 3, he deceived the woman one day as she was walking in the garden. He created doubt in the heart of the woman and eventually she ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to her husband (Genesis 3:1-6).

How To Receive Jesus

1. Acknowledge God’s love
2. Admit that you are sinner
3. Jesus died on the cross on your behalf
4. Confess with your mouth, believe with your heart.

Well, I’ve heard debates of people blaming the woman because she was the first to eat the fruit but Adam (who was first to receive this command), was with her in the garden, didn’t resist instead he just took the fruit and ate (Genesis 3:6). This so badly affected their relationship with God. Immediately after this incidence, they both realized that they were naked, and they hid themselves from God. This is one of the devastating faces of sin, it exposes our nakedness and leaves us helpless (Genesis 3:7-11).

What followed was pronunciation of a curses upon mankind among other deadly consequences. In Romans 5:12 we learn that due to one man’s sin, all men became sinners and death came to all because all sinned (Romans 3:23). The scripture also reveals that the wage of sin is death, and this punishment came to all men because all sinned (Romans 6:23; 5:12).

3. God Provided A Solution
God is so loving; His name is love (1John 4:7-8). He was not happy that man was lost and depraved so He came up with a plan which was foretold right immediately after the fall of man (Genesis 3:15), that the Seed of a woman will strike the serpent’s head. This was the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

Man in his effort however, tried to resolve the problem by himself but in vain. When Adam and Eve sinned at the garden of Eden, after they realized that they were naked, they sew for themselves a covering from fig leaves which could soon wither due the heat of the day.

This meant that they had to do the same (prepare another garment) every few minutes. God however in His love provided a permanent solution by sacrificing an animal and made a skin garment for them. This is the first time we see the aspect of a sacrifice for sin – done by God Himself (Genesis 3:21).

God being a promise keeper and a covenant maker saw that it was not good for man to be lost forever. Through one man – Abraham, He established a channel of blessings to all mankind (Genesis 12:1-3). He made a covenant with Abraham that through him all nations of the world will be blessed.

From Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God raised a generation and through the dynasty of David, Jesus – the Messiah was born to save mankind from the captivity of sin (Matthew 1:21). Jesus, though God, took the form of man so that He can finally die on the cross in order to pay for the penalty of sin (John 19:34) as well as destroying the works of Satan (1John 3:8).

4. You Have A Responsibility
As we seek to know how to receive Jesus as Savior, I will bring to you four important steps: –

STEP 1: Acknowledge GOD’S LOVE
One undebatable communicable God’s character is love. The bible says that “God is love” (1John 4:7-8), that’s why we should love one another – because we are created in the image and likeness of God. It’s amazing how God takes care of everyone regardless of their faith, background, race, nationality, status, etc. in God there is no favoritism (Romans 2:11).

You must therefore accept the existence of God’s love in your life despite what you are going through or who, what you are. You must admit that God loves you unconditionally and that’s why you are alive today.

Just think about it, how many people wished to see this day but haven’t? How many people are in hospital beds today? Since you are not among any of them, how much have you paid the Lord? It’s just by grace and it’s all about LOVE.

STEP 2 Admit/Acknowledge That YOU are A SINNER
You may be wondering, how and when did you become a sinner and may be you are not a bad person? You may be coming from a Christian background, and you found yourself in church since your childhood and now wonder, how is this statement true with you? I’ve already explained this above but let me try to explain it a little bit below.

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, our first parents sinned against God by disobedience. Paul said in Romans 5:12 that death came to all men from one man because all sinned. Also he adds to say that all people have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23)

You still wonder why Adam’s sin makes you a sinner? The answer is because you come from their blood line – human race. A simpler way to explain this is by looking at family traits, whereby you find a certain family has a certain inherited disease like diabetes, epilepsy, etc.

Admitting your sinfulness is very important because it’s the one that makes you see the need to seek help from God. However, Satan has blinds the people’s mind so that they can’t see their sinfulness and the light of the Gospel (2Corinthians 4:4). So, in case you are not living right with God and you find it normal you need to allow the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sinfulness (John 16:8).

STEP 3 GOD provided SACRIFICE – Once For ALL
We’ve seen that men tried by their own means to solve the problem of sin but impossible. In Genesis 3, after fall, men realized that they were naked and made for themselves a covering from fig leaves which could not stand the heat of the day. God however solved that problem by providing skin garments which involved sacrifice of an animal and were durable.

In the same way, when men were banished from Eden, they tried countless times to make sacrifices in order to reach out to God but impossible. They had to keep on sacrificing so long as they sinned. The law of Moses was already a condemnation of humanity because nobody could keep the law.

God however provided a way our by sending His only Son – Jesus Christ to die on the cross on our behalf (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). This was truly an amazing gesture by God the Creator, while we were still sinners and without hope, Christ died for us. I don’t think there is any bigger gift God could give to humanity beyond this!

STEP 4 You Must Make A DECISION – To ACCEPT Jesus As Savior
Even though Jesus died on cross for all mankind, it doesn’t help to know that alone. You must take an initiative to receive Jesus! It doesn’t help to know that there are flights to Amsterdam, London or Dubai. Knowledge is good, but you need to act upon what you know.

In our example of flights, you must book a flight, go to the airport on the material day and check in for your flight. After you check in you must go to the plane and take your seat to fly. Failure to do any of the above will render your knowledge null and void.

In the same way, you must take an initiative and accept Jesus, make Him your Lord and Savior as stipulated in Romans 10:9, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.

To attain salvation therefore two important aspects must be there (Romans 10:9): –
1. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

This involves declaring your faith with your mouth. Remember that we are created in the image and likeness of God. So just like our Maker, we create and make things happen by saying and speaking out. Here we declare the Lordship and Deity of Jesus.

2. Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead

Declaration with mouth is not enough if it’s not founded on our believe. You need faith to declare and believe that Jesus is Lord. In other words, you must believe what you declare. Declaring and believing must be followed by surrendering your life to Jesus who takes over the leadership of your life.

Conclusion

As we discussed earlier, God hates sin not sinner and that salvation is by faith not works, in our discussion, I have shown you how to receive Jesus as Savior. One of the major aspects that has been clearly discussed here is the why you and I need/require salvation. Sin being a separator between God and man pushed mankind to look for their temporary solutions – which didn’t work.

God in His Omniscience came up with a permanent solution. He gave His only Son for our sake – the death of Christ on the cross, once for all gave us an avenue to reach God once more. Hebrews 9:11-12, Jesus by His own blood entered the Holy of Holies (not man made) once and for all, hence obtaining eternal redemption for us.

By so doing we all have a responsibility to receive salvation by confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and by believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. After we do that the process of growth in the Lord begins and on my next article, I will be talking about what next after one gives their lives to Jesus Christ.

TO RECEIVE JESUS, PRAY THIS PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you for your love upon me. I admit that I am a sinner and cannot save myself. I acknowledge that you died and rose again for my sake. I give my life and surrender to you. I welcome you, to be my Lord and Savior. I pray that you write my name in the book of life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit, help me to read your word and grow to be like you. I commit my life to you now in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.