This is the first post in our Q&A series You Have Questions, the Bible Has Answers. If you have questions about anything, post your question there and I’ll give you an answer from the Bible.
What does it mean to be unsaved?
Before we answer this question, we have to answer its opposite: what does it mean to be unsaved? The human race became unsaved in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here were the results:
- Death – “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17).
- Creation became cursed (Gen 3:14-15).
- Women will bear children painfully and have strained marital relationships (Gen. 3:16). This means that they will struggle to fulfill God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28).
- Men will work the land painfully (Gen. 3:17). This means that they will struggle to fulfill God’s command to “subdue [the earth] and have dominion over it” (Gen. 1:28).
- They were expelled from God’s presence (Gen. 3:24)
Death, the curse, and absence of God’s loving presence find their wretched, eternal existence in hell.
What does it mean to be saved?
If this is what it means to be unsaved then what does it mean to be saved? (I suggest you look up the Bible verses next to each of these!)
- Granted eternal life (Daniel 12:1-3; John 3:16; Romans 6:23; Revelation 21:4)
- Creation is renewed (Isaiah 66:22; Rom. 8:20-22; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Rev. 21:1)
- Relationships are renewed (Acts 2:44-45; Rom. 16:16, 18; Ephesians 4:25-32; Rev. 21:8, 27)
- The ability to carry out God’s commands is renewed (Rom. 6:1-2; Eph. 2:10; Rev. 22:3)
- God’s presence is restored (Matthew 28:20; 2 Cor. 6:16; Rev. 21:3; 22:4)
How does someone become saved?
The question of how someone is saved is just as important as what it means to be saved.
The problem we face is that we are under God’s anger and have no way of getting out from under it. We are drowning, and need someone to throw us a life preserver. We cannot save ourselves.
This is where Jesus comes in. He lived the life we couldn’t live, and died the death we deserve to die (1 Peter 3:18). He bore the penalty and punishment for our sins so that we can enjoy the riches of God’s grace in salvation. The way we are saved is through faith – faith that Jesus really did pay for your sins and rise from the dead. The way you live out being saved is by obeying God in the power of the Holy Spirit. What exactly do you do? Love God with all your heart (because he sent his Son to die and rise for you), and you love your neighbor as yourself (with the same sacrificial love modeled by Jesus).
