Articles
Who Will be Saved?
Who Will Be Saved?
By Ron Boatwright
God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4). God doesn’t want anyone to be lost, but before one can be saved he must come to the knowledge of the truth of God’s word. Even though the Lord desires all men to be saved, Jesus says there will only b e few who choose the narrow way so they can be saved (Matthew 7:13-14).
But who will be saved? Only the Bible can be trusted with this question. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Only those who do the will of God as found in the Bible can be saved and go to Heaven. No one can obey the will of man and go to Heaven.
The Bible says that Jesus “became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9). We must obey Jesus if we expect to be saved. Jesus says, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). One has to have help to misunderstand this. Many people laugh and scoff at what Jesus says about baptism being necessary for one to be saved.
What does the Lord do with those who are baptized for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38) so they can be saved (Mark 16:16)? “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47)/ The Lord adds only those who are saved to His church (Matthew 16:18). There are no unsaved people in the Lord’s church. Jesus only has one church (Ephesians 4:4, 1:22-23). He didn’t establish any of the many denominations we see in the world today.
The saved are in the Lord’s one church where they must worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). We are not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25) for worship, if we want to continue to be saved. If we do forsake the assembling of ourselves for worship the next verse says, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26).
But who will be saved? Jesus says, “But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). We must faithfully endure to the end of our life here on the earth if we want to be saved. And Jesus says, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). Those who will be saved are those who “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Our number one priority in this life must be to obey God in all things and endure to the end, so we will be saved and go to Heaven.
- Saved.doc (26.62 kB)
