250 Town Creek Rd, Aiken SC   803-649-9792   office@towncreekbaptist.com

Plan of Salvation

The most important question you must answer in your whole life is: Are you saved?  Your eternal future depends on the answer to this question. To be blunt, everyone will spend eternity either with God in joy (in Heaven and New earth) or separate from God in torment (in Hell). The place is not determined by how good or bad you are, or even if you go to church. The place is determined by your salvation or lack of it.

 Is salvation necessary?  God is Holy, righteous, perfect, without any fault, blemish, or flaw.  To be with him each of us must also be righteous, perfect, without any fault, blemish, or flaw.  There is no compromise, partial perfection, or shade of gray.  It is all or nothing.  There is no acceptable excuse of any type.  Any failure, no matter how small, to fully comply with God’s Holy standards is a sin.  The Bible says:

·        Romans 3:10: “There is no one righteous, not even one:”

·        Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

·        Isaiah 64:6: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

These verses make it clear that no one is perfect and that no amount of trying to do good things can make up for it.

So, what’s the result of sin?  The result of sin is separation from God.  This is death, and not just physical death of our temporary earthly body, but spiritual death (through separation from God) of our eternal soul.  The Bible says:

·        Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death,” (First part of the verse.)

·        Ezekiel 18:4: “The soul who sins is the one who will die.”

We can’t save ourselves!  There is no way we can make up for our sins.  The Bible says:

·        Titus 3:5: “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done,”

·        Romans 3:20: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

So, is there any hope?  Yes!  God, himself, provides the solution for saving us from our sins.  The bible says:

·        John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

·        Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

·        Romans 6:23: “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ our Lord.” (Second part of the verse.)

How do we get this hope?  God already paid the penalty for our sins through the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.  God offers each of us the gift of this payment.  We just have to acknowledge that we are sinners, believe (have faith) in Christ as God, and accept his gift.  The bible says:

·        Romans 10:9: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

·        Acts 16:31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved”.

Expressing your belief!  Your belief may be expressed in a simple prayer such as:  “Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am sinful and need your forgiveness.  I believe that you died to pay the penalty for my sins. I ask you to forgive me of my sins and to save my soul.   In Jesus’ name.  Amen”