God doesn't want anyone to die apart from him. For this reason He sent
His Son to seek and save the lost. We have been told that salvation is
a gift that is offered to all: and with this we wholeheartedly agree!
However, there are conditions established for receiving the gift, and those
conditions are very simple. After one has heard the good news of Jesus
Christ, we must believe that it is true. Once you believe in Christ, whom God sent, and
realize that you have sinned against this same God, you must change your
ways, or repent. We must also let others know that we believe in Jesus as the Son of God by
confessing Him before others. Now, here is where the
church of Christ differs from many other religious groups. We do
believe that we must have faith, that is we must believe, and confess to be saved. We do not
deny that. But since we believe that the entire Bible is the inspired
word of God and that everything in it is true, we must also believe what he
says about being baptized, or immersed in water. Jesus told us that if
we believe and if we are baptized we will be saved. Peter, one
of the first Christians, told the people when he preached that they needed
to change their ways and be baptized in order to be saved. We
are baptized because we believe, and that baptism saves us.
Once we are in Christ, we must live daily a life of faithful dedicated
service to God. However, we must
always be aware of the dangers of temptation and be careful not to fall back
into sin.
