ETERNAL SALVATION

A lot of people think that salvation means being saved from yourself or the devil.
But that is not accurate.  All who have sinned against God are under the judgment
of God.  This judgment is known as damnation where God condemns to eternal hell
all those who have offended Him by breaking His Law.

This does not mean that God is unfair.  It shows that God is holy.  God must
punish the sinner.  But, He has provided a way of escape so that people will not
face His righteous judgment.  This means that God is both holy and loving.  He
must manifest each quality equally.  So, being saved from the wrath of God is
called salvation.

Salvation is found in Jesus, and only in Jesus, who is God in flesh (John 1:1,14),
and who died for our sins and rose from the dead.  1 Cor. 15:1-4 says...

"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also
you received, in which also you stand,  by which also you are saved, if you hold
fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.   For I
delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He was
raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,"
This is how salvation works:  All of us have sinned against God and deserve
judgment.  But Jesus never sinned (1 Pet. 2:22).  He lived the Law of God
perfectly.  In this He has a perfectly righteous standing before God.  When the
corrupt Jewish leaders forced Rome's hand into crucifying Jesus,
God used this crucifixion as the means to place the sins of the world
 upon Jesus (1 Pet. 2:24; 1John 2:2).
This is when Jesus became sin on our behalf.  2 Cor. 5:21 says,

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him." The crucifixion became the place where Jesus bore
our sins in His body and suffered in our place.  "But He was pierced through for our
transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being
fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed," (Isaiah 53:5). 
Remember, no sinner could please God perfectly and no sinner could offer a
perfect sacrifice to God.  Only God in flesh, Jesus, could do that.

So, since there is nothing we can do that is righteous before God
(Isaiah 64:6 says our righteous deeds are filthy rags), then we cannot please an infinitely
holy and righteous God by anything we do.  But, Jesus who is perfectly righteous
before God the Father, died in our place.  What we could not do, He did.

If you want to escape the righteous judgment of God, then you need to trust in the
sacrifice of God.  You need to be made right before God, by God.  This
righteousness of Christ is given to you if you accept him, trust in Him, and
believe in what Jesus did.  This is why the Bible says that we are saved by grace
through faith.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God," (Eph. 2:8).

When you trust in what Christ has done on the cross, and in no works of your own
(since they aren't good enough anyway), then the righteousness of Christ is given
to you -- even as your sins were "given" to Jesus.  It's like a trade.  He gets
your sin.  You get His righteousness.
 

I do not see any other interpretation as to what these verses are trying to tell
us other than Jesus Christ is the only way to God the Father and His dwelling place, heaven!
Bottom line - God's free gift of eternal salvation can only be received by
accepting His Son Jesus Christ and the blood that He has personally shed for each
and everyone of us on that day He died on the cross.
There is no other way into the kingdom of God! We either come
through the blood and the cross - or we don't come through at all!

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;  and I give
eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them
out of My hand," (John 10:27-28).